![]() ![]() It was so good, there was no need to take it out." Release and chart performance Roger recalled her being in the studio one day while he was recording his vocals: "There was a spot in the song where there was a hole and I asked her to do something. Larry Troutman recommended Nicole Cottom, a friend of his daughter, to help sing background vocals. After he finished layering tracks, if he didn't like the result he had to scrap everything and start over. To layer six-part harmonies, he spoke the lyric while playing a melody line then rewound the tape and repeated the process for the harmonizing part while playing together with the previously recorded one. According to Roger, he had never mixed his "human" voice with the talk box before, and recording the vocals was tedious because he could only play one note at a time on the vocoder. "I Want to Be Your Man" is a ballad featuring Roger's vocals filtered through a vocoder. ![]() I talked to him about what I was trying to say and one thing led to another. We sat in the hotel room one day and wrote the song. "Women want us to admit that we don't want to commit." Troutman took the idea and began working on a track similar in style to " Computer Love," a 1986 hit for his band Zapp. "Guys have trouble committing and women want us to commit," he explained to authors Adam White and Fred Bronson. Roger Troutman developed "I Want to Be Your Man" around the theme of romantic commitment. "I Want to Be Your Man" was covered by Charlie Wilson and Fantasia in 2010. The 2002 single " Down 4 U" by Irv Gotti featuring Ja Rule, Ashanti, Vita, and Charli Baltimore contains interpolations of the song. It has featured in films such as 2000's Love & Basketball and has been sampled by numerous R&B and hip hop artists. Internationally, the song reached number nine in the Netherlands, number 15 in Germany, number 18 in New Zealand, and number 27 in Canada. The song topped the Billboard Hot R&B Singles chart and peaked at number three on the Billboard Hot 100. "I Want to Be Your Man" features Roger singing in both his natural tenor and his trademark talk box. ![]() The song was co-written by Roger's brother, Larry Troutman, and produced by Roger, who conceived of the song as a statement on romantic commitment. It was released as the lead single from the album in September 1987 by Reprise Records. " I Want to Be Your Man" is a song by American funk singer-songwriter Roger Troutman, from his third studio album Unlimited!. By that date, a new generation of artists, including many of hip-hop's leaders, had come to realize the foundational work of Zapp, and the bridge it provided from 70s funk to 90s rap.Ī version of the group, including some original members and some new members, continues to tour to this day.Troutman Recording Studios, Dayton, Ohio, 1986 The evidence indicated that brother Larry Troutman had shot him following an argument and then committed suicide. Tragically, after an argument in 1999, Roger Troutman was murdered outside a recording studio in Dayton. He also focused on community development in some of the poorest sections of Dayton. Roger turned more to producing, working with such artists as Eric Benet and Dr. But both rebounded with big hits, as Zapp scored in 1985 with "Computer Love," the group's biggest crossover hit to date, and Roger hit even higher with "I Want to Be Your Man."īy the time the 90s arrived, Zapp had lost much of its momentum, though a couple greatest hits collections kept the group charting. Even better was the follow-up single, "Do Wah Ditty," a funked up dance song that was perhaps the group's most accessible track to date.īoth Zapp and Roger continued to chart with their next albums, but some of the initial enthusiasm around the act had waned. Troutman was back in the fold in 1982 for the hit "Dance Floor" and the group's sophomore album, Zapp II. Roger Troutman - simply labeled as "Roger" - released his solo debut, The Many Facets of Roger, the following year and topped the singles chart with a twisted cover of Marvin Gaye's "Heard it Through The Grapevine." It became a Zapp trademark sound, and was the vocal basis for a string of danceable hits that took the 70s Parliament/Bootsy sound to an even more aloof, futuristic level. Another of the great groups that arguably made Ohio the funk capital of the US in the 80s, Zapp was one of the most popular bands of the 80s and also launched a notable solo career for its leader, Roger Troutman.įormed in the late 70s in Dayton by brothers Roger, Lester, Larry and Tony Troutman, Zapp exploded out of the box with their 1980 self-titled debut album, which featured the #1 hit "More Bounce to the Ounce." Produced by funk legend Bootsy Collins, the song featured Roger Troutman's lead channeled through a "talk box," which twisted the vocals into a mechanized, computerized sound. ![]()
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