#1: Super Freak by Rick James

City: Montreal, PQ
Radio Station: CKGM
Peak Month: December 1981
Peak Position in Montreal ~ #1
Peak position in Vancouver ~ did not chart
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ #16
Peak Position on Belgian Singles chart ~ #2
Peak Position on Netherlands Singles chart ~ #2
Peak Position on New Zealand Singles chart ~ #4
YouTube: “Super Freak”
Lyrics: “Super Freak”

James Ambrose Johnson Jr. was born in 1948 in Buffalo (NY). His dad left the family in 1958, and his mother who was a dancer got additional work as a numbers runner with the Buffalo crime family to make ends meet. This gave a James the chance to see acts like John Coltrane, Etta James and Miles Davis. But it also introduced him to the underbelly of society as an older child. In his autobiography, Glow, it is stated that he lost his virginity to a girl of 14 when he was “9 or 10.” James joined the Navy at age 14 or 15, lying about his age to avoid the draft for the Vietnam war. The singer had already picked up a penchant for narcotics and theft by this time in his life, and there was hope the Navy could go some way to straighten him out. However, that was soon dashed as he failed to turn up to his fortnightly reserve session aboard USS Enterprise. It also gained him a ticket to Vietnam.

In 1964, James fled Buffalo and moved to Toronto. After his arrival, three drunk men tried to attack him outside a club. Three other men came to his aid. One of them was musician Levon Helm, a member of Ronnie Hawkins‘ backing band. Helm invited James to their show later that night and he ended up performing onstage with the band. To evade US military authorities, James went under the assumed name “Ricky James Matthews”. That same year, James formed a soul, folk and rock band called The Mynah Birds. It included Nick St. Nicholas (later of Steppenwolf), Bruce Palmer (later of Buffalo Springfield), and Neil Young (later of Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young).

The Mynah Birds travelled to Detroit to record. It was while he was in Detroit that James met Marvin Gaye and Stevie Wonder. After meeting Wonder and telling him his name, Wonder felt the name “Ricky James Matthews” was “too long.” Wonder told James to shorten it to “Ricky James”. Motown learned of Ricky James evasion of the United States Navy and wanted him to sort out his legal issues. In short order, James surrendered himself to the FBI. In May 1966, he was sentenced by the Navy to five months’ hard labor for unauthorized absence. He was not yet 19 years old. After only six weeks confinement, Rick James escaped from the Brooklyn Naval Brig. Following another six months as a fugitive, he surrendered himself to the U.S. Navy a second time.

In the late 60s and early 70s he various produced and wrote songs for The Spinners, Bobby Taylor & the Vancouvers, Bruce Palmer, The Artistics, David Ruffin and others. He was in a number of bands, including the Toronto blues band McKenna Mendelson Mainline. In 1974, he signed with A&M Records and released a non-album single titled “My Mama” which became a club hit in Europe. In 1978, he released the album Come Get It! by Rick James and the Stone City Band. The debut single from the album was a number-one Billboard Hot Soul Singles smash titled “You And I”. It also reached #13 on the Billboard Hot 100, #6 in Kitchener (ON), and #9 in Windsor (ON). A followup single, “Mary Jane” made the Top Ten on the Hot Soul Singles chart but didn’t crack the Top 40 on the Billboard pop chart.

Three more studio albums followed. But it was the release of his fourth album, Street Songs, that made Rick James a household name. For the album he received a Grammy Award nomination for Best R&B Vocal Performance – Male. His debut single from the album, “Give It To Me Baby”, featured backing vocals by The Temptations. It peaked at #5 in Sherbrooke (PQ), and charted in the Top 50 in on UK and US national pop charts. A followup release from the album was “Super Freak”.

“Freak” is a slang term for the sexually adventurous, as described in the song’s lyrics, “She’s a very kinky girl, the kind you don’t take home to mother.” “Super Freak” is about someone who’s in a sexual relationship with “the kind of girl you read about in New Wave magazines.” Someone who’s “never hard to please.” She’s also sexually involved with “the boys in the band.” But the singer confides “that I’m her all-time favorite.”

Rolling Stone magazine ranked “Super Freak” at #481 on its 2021 list of the 500 Greatest Songs of All Time. The song earned James a Grammy Award nomination for Best Male Rock Vocal Performance. The winner that year was Rick Springfield for “Jessie’s Girl”. From July 25 to August 8, 1981, “Give It To Me Baby”, “Super Freak” and a third track from Street Songs titled “Ghetto Life”, shared the number-one spot on the Billboard Hot Dance Club Play chart.

“Super Freak” peaked at #1 in Montreal, Los Angeles, Houston, Corpus Christi (TX), Roanoke (VA), Baltimore, Philadelphia, and Washington DC, #2 in San Bernardino (CA), Fort Lauderdale (FL), San Diego, Boston, Clearwater (FL), Atlanta, and Milwaukee (WI), #3 in Racine (WI), #4 in San Francisco, #5 in Burbank (CA), #6 in Tampa (FL), #8 in Miami, #9 in Providence (RI), #10 in Santa Barbara (CA), and #12 in Sherbrooke (PQ).

Internationally, “Super Freak” climbed to #2 in Belgium and the Netherlands, #4 in New Zealand, #16 in the USA and #26 in Australia. Since its release, “Super Freak” has been sampled in MC Hammer’s 1990 hit “U Can’t Touch This”. MC Hammer, James and “Super Freak” co-writer Alonzo Miller, shared a Grammy Award for Best R&B Song in 1991. “Super Freak” was subsequently sampled on hits by the Black Eyed Peas, Nicki Minaj, and Jay-Z.

In 1982, Rick James had more Top Ten hits on the Billboard Hot Soul Singles chart. Both “Standing on the Top” and “Dance wit’ Me” kept him on the radar on the R&B radio market. While in 1983, a title track from his Cold Blooded album reached number-one on the Hot Soul Singles chart. A duet with Smokey Robinson titled “Ebony Eyes” became a #5 hit in Brazil in 1984.

In 1985, James wrote and produced the #2 hit on the Billboard Hot 100 by Eddie Murphy titled “Party All the Time”. The song reached #3 in New Zealand, #4 on the RPM Top 100 Singles chart in Canada, and #9 in West Germany. As well, James wrote and produced “In My House” for the Mary Jane Girls. The single topped the Billboard Hot Dance/Disco Club Play chart for two weeks in April 1985. It was also a Top Ten hit on the pop charts in Belgium, Canada, the Netherlands, New Zealand and the USA. While the Mary Jane Girls “Wild and Crazy Love”, also written and produced by James, reached #3 on the Hot Dance/Disco Club Play chart in the USA. James also enjoyed his second and final number-one charting single on the Hot Dance/Disco Club Play chart with “Glow”.

In 1988, Rick James had a number-one hit on the Hot Soul Singles chart titled “Loosey’s Rap”. By the late ’80s, Rick James drug use had expanded from marijuana in his teens to heroin and cocaine. He was freebasing cocaine in his Beverly Hills mansion. By the 1990s, James’s drug abuse was public knowledge. He was heavily addicted to cocaine and later admitted to spending about $7,000 per week on drugs for five years straight. On August 2, 1991, James and his girlfriend Tanya Hijazi were arrested on charges of holding 24-year-old Frances Alley hostage for up to six days, tying her up, forcing her to perform sexual acts, and burning her legs and abdomen with the hot end of a crack cocaine pipe during a week-long cocaine binge. James faced a maximum sentence of life in prison if convicted on all charges, which included assault with a deadly weapon, aggravated mayhem, torture, forcible oral copulation, false imprisonment and kidnapping.

On November 3, 1992, while out on bail for that incident, James, under the influence of cocaine, assaulted music executive Mary Sauger at the St. James Club and Hotel in West Hollywood. Sauger said she met James and Hijazi for a business meeting, but that the two then kidnapped and beat her over a 20-hour period. James was found guilty on several charges, but was cleared of a torture charge that could have put him in prison for the rest of his life. While serving his five-year sentence at Folsom Prison, he lost a civil suit to Sauger who was awarded $1.8 million in 1994. Rick James was released from prison in 1996.

In 1998, James suffered a stroke in the midst of performing a concert at the Mile High Stadium in Denver.

In 2004, James’s career returned to mainstream pop culture after he appeared in an episode of Chappelle’s Show. The segment involved a Charlie Murphy True Hollywood Stories-style sketch that satirized James’s wild lifestyle in the 1980s. It saw Dave Chappelle take on the role of Rick James as he enacted Murphy’s stories, providing the now landmark line: “I’m Rick James bitch!” It saw James take up a role too, providing narration to the stories, usually punctuating them with the phrase “cocaine is a hell of a drug.” It was a humorous end to a career continually blighted by his character’s depravity.This resulted in renewed interest in his music, and that year he returned to perform on the road.

In 2007, James thirteenth and final album, Deeper Still, was posthumously released three years after he died. At age 56 he died in 2004 due to cardiac arrest and pulmonary failure. He had numerous health complications leading up to his death. These included being on a pacemaker, having diabetes, and having had a stroke and a heart attack. Over 6,000 family, friends and fans attended the August 4, 2004, memorial service, viewing and cremation following the service.

Far Out Magazine (UK) wrote “The singer died in 2004 and left behind a legacy permanently tarnished by out of control behaviour, swirling drug addictions and the abhorrent kidnapping of two women. What could have been a career littered with the exuberance, enthusiasm and enigmatic dynamism that James emitted, will forever be remembered as some of the most shocking uses of power on record.”

A posthumous autobiography, Glow, was published in 2014. In 2024 it was announced that a musical about Rick James titled Super Freak: The Rick James Story was in production. A tour of the musical launched in March 2024 began in Houston with other dates in the tour to include runs in Washington DC, Los Angeles, and Atlanta.

August 1, 2025
Ray McGinnis

References:
Rheanna Todd, “Rick James/James Ambrose Johnson (1948-2004),” October 24, 2018.
Daisy Nguyen, “‘Super Freak’ Rick James dies in Los Angeles,” Salt Lake Tribune, Salt Lake City (UT), August 7, 2004.
Nick Warburton, “Rick James’ Early Years,” nickwarburtocn.com, January 18, 2013.
“MC Hammer Says He Will Pay Rick James For ‘Borrowed’ Song,” Jet, August 20, 1990.
Gene Seymour, “Autobiography ‘Glow’ is bright with Rick James’ legacy,” USA Today, July 7, 2014.
Sha Be Alla, “Stokley Of R&B Group Mint Condition Cast As Rick James In ‘Superfreak: The Rick James Story’,” The Source, February 29, 2024.
Aaron Curtiss and Jack Cheevers, “Pop Singer Arrested on Torture, Drug Charges : Violence: Grammy-winner Rick James and a girlfriend are accused of imprisoning a woman at his Mulholland Drive home,” Los Angeles Times, August 3, 1991.
“Singer Rick James’ victim wins $1.8M,” UPI, December 9, 1994.
Jack Whatley, “The troubling life of funk pioneer Rick James,” Far Out Magazine, UK, February 1, 2021.

CKGM 980-AM Montreal Top Ten | December 17, 1981