Producer/arranger/songwriter
Patrick Adams' career spans more than 30 years. His plentiful resume includes work with
Sister Sledge (their 1974 debut LP on Atco/Atlantic
Circle of Love),
Loleatta Holloway,
Coolio,
Herbie Mann ("Superman," number 26 pop, early 1979, from the 1978 Atlantic LP Super Mann),
Bumblebee Unlimited (the 1979 RCA LP Sting Like a Bee),
Universal Robot Band (Dance and Shake Your Tambourine),
Narada Michael Walden (I Don't Want Nobody Else, Love Me Only, and the radio-aired LP track "Give Your Love a Chance" from his 1979 Atlantic LP
Awakening), and Musique ("In the Bush," number 29 R&B, fall 1978), among many others. Born Patrick Peter Owen Adams on March 17, 1950, in New York City,
Adams' childhood was spent singing in choirs and attending concerts at the legendary Apollo Theater. When he was a preteen,
Adams' father bought him a trumpet. In his teens,
Adams began playing guitar and writing songs. He honed his arranging skills by dissecting the song structure and arrangement patterns of the records he heard on the radio. To build his audio engineering skills, he'd go to recording studios and observe how recordings were created. At 16, he was asked to join
the Sparks, who he appeared with in the 1967 Warner Bros. movie Up the Down Staircase starring
Sandy Dennis. Soon afterwards they were signed to Curb/MGM and the single "Cool It" b/w "Woe, Woe" was released. They began playing shows with
Jerry Butler,
the Rascals, and
the Commodores. In 1970,
Adams was hired as the vice president of A&R for NY-based Perception/Today Records, discovering and signing the teenage vocal trio
Black Ivory. The group's lineup was lead singer
Leroy Burgess,
Stuart Bascombe, and
Russell Patterson. Their first single,
Adams' ballad "Don't Turn Around," went to number 38 on Billboard's R&B chart in late 1971. Their first three singles and a
Burgess song, the hopeful "If I Could Be a Mirror," were included on the Don't Turn Around LP, issued February 1972. They had two more charting singles on Today: "Time Is Love" b/w a credible cover of
Michael Jackson's "Got to Be There" from the Don't Turn Around LP (number 35 R&B, early 1973) and "Spinning Around" b/w "Find the One Who Loves You" (number 45 R&B, summer 1973). In 1974,
Adams left Perception/Today Records and started his own production company, PAPMUS (Patrick Adams Productions Music). One of
Adams' best known recordings is
Inner Life's "I'm Caught Up (In a One Night Love Affair)." First released as a 12" single by
Greg Carmichael on TCT Records, it was picked up by Prelude Records and went to number 22 R&B, late 1979.
Adams and
Carmichael produced many dance classics over their eight-year collaboration, including sides by
Donna McGhee,
Universal Robot Band,
Bumblebee Unlimited, and
Fonda Rae's original version of "Touch Me (All Night Long)."
Cathy Dennis' remake of the
Adams/
Carmichael song held the number two pop spot for two weeks in spring 1991.
Adams has won the ASCAP Songwriter of the Year Award three times, including a 1992 award for "Touch Me (All Night Long)." Other
Adams-related releases are
Eddie Kendricks's Arista LP Vintage '78 (reissued in 1997 by Razor & Tie),
Kendricks' 1979 Arista LP
Something More, the 1997 two-CD set Salsoul Essentials from U.K. label Charly Records, the CD reissue of Candi Staton's 1976 Young Hearts Run Free,
Debbie Taylor's 1997 Sequel CD Still Comin' Down on Ya, the Unidisc CD reissue of Musique's 1979 LP Keep on Jumpin', the Unidisc reissue of the Kay Gees' 1979 LP Burn Me Up, Rainbow Brown's 'Til You Surrender with
Fonda Rae on Vanguard Records,
Shannon's 1986 Atlantic LP
Love Goes All The Way,
the Main Ingredient featuring
Cuba Gooding's 1981 RCA LP I Only Have Eyes for You, and sides by
Gladys Knight,
Ace Spectrum,
Rick James,
Jeanie Tracy, and
Bruni Pagan. His engineering credits include
Make It Last Forever by
Keith Sweat,
Follow the Leader &
Let the Rhythm Hit 'Em by
Eric B & Rakim,
Rakim's The 18th Letter/Book of Life,
Salt-N-Pepa's
Hot, Cool & Vicious, and
James Moody's Heritage Hum/The Teacher on Collectables.
–
Ed Hogan, Rovi