Gregory Abbott – I’ll Prove It to You (1988)
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Hello, ladies. Are you ready to be shaken down?

Don’t get excited — this album does not contain Gregory’s superfine hit, “Shake You Down.” Nope, this is the follow-up, released two years later, a span of time you’d think would have been brief enough to leave Abbott’s freshly shaken audience mostly intact. Nope! In a fascinating example of the way pop’s fickle winds can quickly turn from summer breeze to bitter wintry chill, the defensively titled I’ll Prove It to You crapped out at #132 on the Billboard Top 200 in the summer of ‘88 — and Abbott wouldn’t release another album for six more years, when he returned on what I can only assume was his own label with One World! (containing! A live version! Of “Shake You Down”!)

Wait, did someone say “Shake You Down”? (more…)