Gregory Abbott hit us with one hot single, “Shake You Down,” and then exited the music game.
Remember when everybody was singing “You read my mind, girl I want to shake you down, I can give you all the loving you need…”? That was the JAM back in the day! It turns out that whole one-hit thing was a part of his bigger plan to stack up some major money.
A little known fact about Abbott is that he was a professor of English at Berkeley University before the world knew him as a singer. Word on the Old School curb is that it was during his time as a professor that he came up with his master plan to make a big come up that will have him financially set for many, many years to come.
He always had a passion for music and was even a music minor in college. So he combined his musical passion with a get-rich plan by attempting to…
create only one for-sure-shot R&B hit to get paid for a long time off of his music royalties…he allegedly never intended on staying in the music industry. He did research on music publishing and knew that two things had to take place:
(1) He must maintain ALL rights to that hit.
(2) It MUST become a hit.
It sounds like a shot in the dark, but Gregory figured it was worth a shot. Now of course this was when artists were actually able to make a lot of money off of record sales, back when people bought albums, tapes, and CDs…can’t say this plan to “sell” records would work in today’s music climate.
Anyways, he wrote “Shake You Down,” in 1985, he recorded it in 1986. It was an instant smash hit and broke a record for becoming the most played song ever in 1986; it was played over 1 million times throughout the world on various radio stations that year.
So Abbott was saying “cha-ching” each time his song was played. After the success of the single, Abbott’s record label pressured him to record a second album, but it didn’t sell like the first one. Abbott didn’t care though, he had recorded a classic with “Shake You Down.”
The song is still played on old school radio stations across the country and for many years after it’s release, Abbott allegedly received between $1.5-$2 million per year in publishing and songwriting royalties from the song. His plan worked.
Needless to say he took a long hiatus from the music industry, but his passion for music never died, so he has been back on the music scene for a few years now, touring with several old school artists like Cece Peniston, Atlantic Starr, and others.
Gregory has a son with the Old School sex symbol singer, Freda Payne, best known for her 1970 hit, “Band Of Gold.” She and Abbott were married prior to him becoming a college professor, or professional singer. Their son’s name is Gregory Abbott Jr.
According to Gregory Abbott’s website, “he majored in psychology and minored in music and dramatic arts. He holds a Masters degree and is working towards his Ph. D and was awarded a Wallace Stegner Fellowship to Stanford University’s Creative writing Masters program.” So it sounds like he’s a constant student of his craft.
Like we said, Gregory Abbott hasn’t lost his musical passion. Check out one of his more recent music videos below and tell us what you think about it.
[Source: PR]
