Alex Henderson



Phyllis Hyman 
You Know How to Love Me

Phyllis Hyman’s solo career took a major step forward when Arista Records released her fourth solo album, You Know How to Love Me. The late Pittsburgh native/New York City resident had been making a name for herself in the R&B world since 1976, when Philadelphia-born jazz drummer turned R&B producer Norman Connors featured her on parts of his popular You Are My Starship album—and she continued to forge ahead with her self-titled debut solo album in 1977 and the two albums that followed it: 1978’s Sing a Song and her third solo album, Somewhere in My Lifetime (an early 1979 release). But You Know How to Love Me turned out to be her biggest album of the 1970s, reaching #10 on Billboard’s R&B albums chart in the United States.

The song that did the most to make You Know How to Love Me a commercial success was its smooth title track, a James Mtume/Reggie Lucas gem that, in the U.S., climbed to #12 on Billboard’s R&B singles chart and #6 on its dance chart. Yet despite its exposure in dance clubs, the title song is not a get-up-and-boogie anthem like Chic’s “Le Freak” or GQ’s “Boogie Nights” but rather, a rhythmic yet laid-back mid-tempo groove with a romantic outlook. Hyman’s work with Connors and her three previous solo albums earned her a reputation for being a romantic soul singer: she was highly regarded in the quiet storm market, and this album didn’t change that. Indeed, the quiet storm market was quite receptive to romantic ballads and slow jams that included “Some Way,” “This Feeling Must Be Love,” “Give a Little More,” “Hold On” and the jazz-tinged “Complete Me.”

The exuberant, uptempo “Heavenly” is straight-up disco-soul, but more often than not, You Know How to Love Me is quite faithful to the quiet storm audience. And quiet storm programs ate up the single “Under Your Spell,” which wasn’t as big a hit as the title song but made it to #37 on Billboard’s R&B singles chart in the U.S. The single version of “Under Your Spell” is among this reissue’s eight bonus tracks, which also include two single versions of the title track, the rarity “You’re the One” and two versions of Hyman’s 1983 hit “Riding the Tiger.”

No discussion of You Know How to Love Me would be complete without mentioning the contributions of the prolific James Mtume/Reggie Lucas team, who produced the album and wrote four of the songs—not only the hit title track, but also, “Under Your Spell,” “Some Way” and “Heavenly.” Indeed, 1979 was a great year for Mtume & Lucas: it was also in 1979 that they produced Stephanie Mills’ hit What Cha’ Gonna Do with My Lovin’ album.

“Hold On” was written by singer Tawatha Agee (who was part of the group Mtume and sang lead on the 1983 smash “Juicy Fruit”) and pianist/keyboardist Hubert Eaves III. Although Eaves is best known for being half of the 1980s funk/dance duo D-Train (whose hits included “You’re the One for Me,” “Something’s on Your Mind” and “Keep On”), he was building his reputation in the music world long before that—and prior to playing keyboards on this album in 1979, Eaves had played with Hyman on Connors’ You Are My Starship album and her self-titled debut album of 1977.

Interviewed in January 2015, Eaves remembered that back in 1979, Hyman felt quite comfortable working with Mtume & Lucas on this album—which is saying a lot because she much preferred the stage to the studio. Eaves recalls: “Phyllis did not like the studio approach so much. She was really a live singer. To really hear Phyllis, you had to catch her live. She just did not have the patience for the mechanics of the studio. Phyllis would sit there with the headphones on, and if there was a mechanical problem or whatever, she didn’t really have a feel for that. She really didn’t have a feel for the technology of the studio—she loved to perform live. But on the ‘You Know How to Love Me’ single, James Mtume & Reggie Lucas really got a great studio performance out of her. And it was hard to get that out of her because Phyllis just did not like the studio.”

Eaves added that when he played his keyboards on the title song, multiple takes were not necessary. “I remember the day I walked into the studio to record the keyboards on ‘You Know How to Love Me,’” Eaves explains. “Back in those days, you didn’t have Pro Tools and the all the different digital technology we have for making music today. Back then, you either had to play it right or play it over and over. And I remember that on that particular song, I was done probably within 45 minutes. For me, that was kind of rare.”

The jazz overtones one hears on “Complete Me” are no coincidence: although R&B-oriented, Hyman appreciated jazz—and Eaves hoped to hear her record a straight-ahead jazz vocal album or an album of Great American Songbook standards. “Phyllis loved singers like Nancy Wilson and Sarah Vaughan, and I would have loved to hear her do that type of album,” Eaves notes. “I think she wanted to.”

Although “You Know How to Love Me” (which both dance diva Robin S. and British neo-soul star Lisa Stansfield covered in the 1990s) was Hyman’s most famous single of the 1970s, it wasn’t her biggest hit ever. That honor goes to the 1991 single “Don’t Wanna Change the World,” which soared to #1 on Billboard’s R&B singles chart in the U.S. 

Sadly, Hyman (who suffered from severe depression) was only 45 when she committed suicide by overdosing on pills on June 30, 1995. It was a death that, like Nirvana frontman Kurt Cobain’s suicide only a year earlier, shocked and saddened the music world. But Hyman left behind a rich catalogue, and that includes You Know How to Love Me.

“Phyllis was a true artist, a unique artist.” Eaves asserts. “And you can tell that whenever you hear her voice on the radio today.”

—Alex Henderson, February 2015

Alex Henderson’s work has appeared in Billboard, Spin, Salon.com, Creem, The L.A. Weekly, AlterNet, JazzTimes, Jazziz, Cash Box, HITS, CD Review, Skin Two, Black Beat, The Pasadena Weekly, Black Radio Exclusive (BRE), Music Connection, The New York City Jazz Record, Jazz Inside Magazine and many other well-known publications. Henderson (alexvhenderson.com) also contributed several thousand CD reviews to the popular Allmusic.com website and The All Music Guide’s series of music reference books.