Man, this song was the jam back in 1986! It was one of THE songs that could fill a dancefloor, and I remember adding it to many party tapes and dancing to it at many fraternity parties in college. It was very popular.
Cameo started out as a 23-piece band called New York City Players in 1974. It was formed by Larry Blackmon a Julliard graduate and avid NYC clubgoever. The band soon changed their name to Cameo so that they would not be confused with funk bank The Ohio Players. They put out 6 albums and gained some notice before become a five-member band in 1982 when they released their album Alligator. One more member quit, and they were now a quartet: Larry Blackmon, Tomi Jenkins, Nathan Leftenant, and Charles Singleton.
Blackmon moved away from NYC to Atlanta and started his own record label, Atlanta Artists (a division of Polygram). Many new wave bands were incorporating synthesizers into their music at this time. Blackmon decided to include synthesizers in Cameo's funked-up songs too.
Cameo released 3 albums on the Atlanta Artists label before their mid-1986 album Word Up! and hit song of the same name were released. The album also spawned a couple more hits "Candy" and "Back and Forth".
Two years later their next album, Machismo, was not as popular with the general listening audience (although it did well on the R&B charts and garnered critical praise). The band left Polygram in 1990 and joined up with a new label, Reprise. In 2000 Cameo released their last album, Sweet Sexy Thing and toured in support of it.
Since then Blackmon became an A&R man for Reprise. Jenkins and Singleton have released solo albums. Some of the earliest of Cameo's 23-member lineup, Aaron Mills, Jeryl Bright, and Kevin Kendrick went on to play with OutKast, and former vocalist John Kellogg became an entertainment lawyer who represented The O'Jays, Gerald Levert, and LSG, and became the Assistant Chair of the Music/Business Management department at Boston's Berklee College of Music.
Lyrics:
Yo pretty ladies around the world
Got a weird thing to show you
So tell all the boys and girls
Tell your brother, your sister and your mamma too
We're about to go down
And you know just what to do
Wave your hands in the air like you don't care
Glide by the people as they start to look and stare
Do your dance, do your dance, do your dance quick mamma
Come on baby tell me what's the word
Word up everybody says
When you hear the call you've got to get it underway
Word up it's the code word
No matter where you say it you know that you'll be heard
Now all you sucker DJ's who think you're fly
There's got to be a reason and we know the reason why
Why you put on those airs and you act real cool
Got to realize that you're acting like fools
If there's music we can use it
You're free to dance
We don't have the time for psychological romance
No romance, no romance, no romance for me mamma
Come on baby tell me what's the word
Word up everybody says
When you hear the call you've got to get it underway
Dial L for love, Dial L for love, Dial L for love
W.O.R.D. UP, W.O.R.D. UP, W.O.R.D. UP, W.O.R.D. UP
Yeah you sucker DJ's who think you're fly
There's got to be a reason and we know the reason why
Why you put on those on airs and you act real cool
Got to realize that you're acting like fools
No romance, no romance, no romance for me mama
Come on baby tell me what's the word
Word up everybody says
When you hear the call you've got to get it underway
Word up it's the code word
No matter where you say it you know that you'll be heard
Word up everybody says
When you hear the call you've got to get it underway
Word up it's the code word
No matter where you say it you know that you'll be heard
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