Teena Marie, Square Biz | Throwback Vibez 🕶️🎶

In the 83^rd edition of Throwback Vibez (2023), we recollect and reflect on “Square Biz” by the late, great R&B singer/songwriter, Teena Marie. 

The vibes, the vibes, those Throwback Vibez 🕶️🎶! Throwback Vibez 🕶️🎶 is a column that celebrates awesome songs from the past.  The records that grace this column are older, but that doesn’t necessarily mean that they’re ancient – no fossils 🦴! All genres of music are welcome. In the 83^rd edition of Throwback Vibez 🕶️🎶 (2023), we recollect and reflect on 🎵 “Square Biz”, performed by the late, great R&B singer/songwriter, 🎙 Teena Marie. 

“I’m gonna hip you to the Tee / (The Tee?) The Tee / (What’s the Tee?) And you know that’s me!” Woo! That white girl can sang! Okay, okay… there are lots of white girls that can sang to be fair 😃, but the late, great 🎙 Teena Marie (Mary Brockert nicknamed Lady T) DID NOT SOUND WHITE! Marie possessed a robust, soulful voice often mistaken for a black female vocalist. Listen to her duet with her former boyfriend, 🎙 Rick James on 🎵 “Fire And Desire” and you’re like, DA-YUM, she can S-A-N-G! Marie is equally potent vocally on her solo work, including one of her most beloved songs, 🎵 “Square Biz”. Chocked-full of personality, and running more than six minutes in duration, “Square Biz” is a surefire vibe.  It deserved much better than its paltry no. 50 peak on the Billboard Hot 100 in 1981 😏.

“Flashback, who’s that dancing to the latest?

Suave de bone, the greatest, ooh, he sure is moving me

That’s what I said, though you didn’t know yet

All of it was kismet, soon to be made history.”

“Square Biz” appears as the fifth track off Marie’s 1981 LP, 💿 It Must Be Magic. Penned by Marie alongside 🎼 ✍ Allen McGrier, the energy is lit from the get-go, as Lady T asserts, “Everybody get up!” WOO!  Melodically, “Square Biz” is infectious and tuneful – the verses, pre-chorus, chorus – ALL OF IT.  Furthermore, in addition to being tuneful, some of the melodies are rhythmic, specifically the pre-chorus (“So don’t you have  no doubt, I’m gonna spell it out / I’ll hip you to the Tee that is”).  Speaking of rhythm, what about Lady T’s rapping skills in the fourth verse? “I’m less than five-foot-one, a hundred pounds of fun / I like sophisticated funk / I live on Dom Perignon, caviar, and filet mignon.” Day-umm Lady T! Besides the high-flying rapped and sung vocals and the energetic, fun lyrics, the production is exceptional too, courtesy of – you guessed it – Teena Marie! Picturesque, the backdrop features standard rhythm section, as well as exuberant horns that up the ante.  There is nothing the least bit square about the awesome Lady T or 🎵 “Square Biz”!

🎙 Teena Marie • 💿 It Must Be Magic • 🏷 Motown • 🗓 1981

Teena Marie, “Square Biz”: Throwback Vibez 🕶️🎶 No. 83 (2023) [📷: Brent Faulkner / The Musical Hype; Motown; John Alan Sperry, PIRO via  Pixabay]