Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis celebrate 10 years of writing-producing hits for top music makers - Cover Story

Jet, May 24, 1993

Hit songwriting producing team Jim |Jam' Harris and Terry Lewis are celebrating a decade of turning out top hits for today's hottest recording artists, including the just-released album by superstar Janet Jackson which goes on sale this week.

The mention of this dynamic duo, who met while they were still in junior high, is synonymous with chart-topping music. Their most recent project, Janet, comes after their success with producing the singer's debut LP, Control, and writing such hit tunes as Nasty, The Pleasure Principle, What Have You Done For Me Lately and the title tune. Their follow-up triumph was Rhythm Nation 1814, which they produced and penned Miss You Much, Escapade, Black Cat and Love Will Never Do among other cuts.

Their latest labor of love is Jackson's 13-song dise, a sensuous mix of hard-driving funk from Lewis and melodic ballads from Harris, which lets fans know the little girl is all grown up.

The album is "suggestive, but not explicit," allowed Harris. He told Jet from their state-of-the art Flyte Tyme studio and production company on the outskirts of Minneapolis, ?he new album is a more mature album musically." He said she was definitely in control of the latest project, playing an active role in song titles, lyrics, concepts and the final edits or composites.

Their work with Jackson is a classic example of how they craft a product to the artist's sound and image. Harris explained, "We like to think of ourselves as tailors. We look at each artist individually and try to make him or her a suit that's made especially for that artist."

That formula has earned them a Grammy as Producer of the Year in 1986, ASCAP's Writer of the Year honors for four years straight along with enough platinum and gold records to cover the walls at their company. From 1982 with Meeting in the Ladies Room by Klymaxx to present day, they have been on the music industry's cutting edge with more than 40 hit singles and albums. The list of tunes they've written and albums they've produced include the single Slow and Sexy by Shabba Ranks, Karyn White's album Ritual of Love and the single Romantic; Alexander O'Neal's album All True Man and the single of the same name, the My Gift To You LP as well as the singles If You Were Here Tonight, Fake and Never Knew Love Like This.

The accomplished what industry insiders had said was impossible with The Evolution of Gospel LP by the Sounds of Blackness. The album, which was released on the Harris-Lewis record label Perspective, featured the single Optimistic and won the 40-voice group a Grammy. Johnny Gill's self-tilted album and the single Rub You The Right Way, Cherelle's I Didn't Mean to Turn You On, Patti LaBelle's single Just The Facts, Patti Austin's Getting Away With Murder LP, which contained The Heat of Heat, and Gladys Knight's Vision album give a cross-section of the artistry of this talented twosome.

Looking back, Lewis told JET. "It's been 10 wonderful years. It's work if you look at it as a job, but music has always been a hobby with us." He concluded, "We were doing it before we got paid and we'd probably still be doing it if we weren't getting paid."