Just Once

On January 29th, 2019, James Ingram, one of my favorite singers, passed away from brain cancer. I’m a little late in paying tribute to him, but I wanted to do so because his work, as with so many musicians who were active in the 1980s, helped get me through some of the darkest times of my life. I’ve decided to choose five songs that James Ingram performed. Some of them were solos and others were duets or collaborations, but all in all, these songs inspired me and my writing. The first song I would like to mention is “Just Once”, one of his collaborations with Quincy Jones on Jones’ album The Dude. Famous for its’ usage in The Last American Virgin, the song is one of the most emotionally charged ballads of the 80s. We’ve all had relationships, whether romantic or platonic, that have gone off the rails and ended badly, and we’ve hoped against hope that we could redeem ourselves and make peace. Those are the emotions I get