Two To Make It Right

Album: Nothing Matters Without Love (1989)
Charted: 2
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Songfacts®:

  • "Two To Make It Right" was the biggest hit for the short-lived girl group Seduction, a dance-pop trio active at a time when there was lots of room on the charts for songs with catchy beats and nameless female vocalists. In this world before grunge and gangsta rap, Top 40 radio filled the gaps in their playlists between Mariah Carey and George Michael with acts like The Cover Girls, Exposé, and Seduction. These groups had little impact on MTV and were rarely marketed as personalities, which made them replaceable and somewhat interchangeable. The stars of these acts were the producers who came up with their songs, which in this case was the team of Robert Clivilles and David Cole, who later became the C+C in C+C Music Factory. Cole wrote the song.
  • This song is highly derivative of the 1988 hit "It Takes Two" by Rob Base & D.J. E-Z Rock. Both songs incorporate the same sample: "Think (About It)" by Lyn Collins, whose song tells us "It takes two to make a thing go right" and provides those distinctive bass notes. Sampling was still in the wild, so producers were cobbling together pieces of old songs to make their hits, and no one was bothering to clear the rights. If a hit song was based on an obscure sample, it was a good bet that someone else would find that sample and try to replicate the feat.
  • Besides the Lyn Collins sample, this also uses part of "Kiss" by The Art of Noise.
  • Seduction had four Top 40 hits in the 1989-1990 window, but "Two To Make It Right" was their only Top 10. Their first hit was "(You're My One and Only) True Love," which features Martha Wash on lead vocals; she later became the female voice of C+C Music Factory and Black Box. Seduction's other hits were "Heartbeat" and "Could This Be Love," all of which came from the Nothing Matters Without Love album.
  • Paula Abdul and her cartoon cat kept this song off the top spot on the Hot 100. "Opposites Attract", whose video with MC Skat Kat was practically playing in a loop on MTV at this time, held the top spot on the chart.
  • Seduction were the New Yorkers April Harris, Michelle Visage, and Idalis DeLeon. When DeLeon split, Sinoa Loren came in to replace her, but the group had only a few more minor hits before quitting. They formed in 1989 and had broken up by 1991. All four ladies went on to singing and acting careers of some kind. Idalis DeLeon became both an MTV VJ and Hollywood reporter, and then an actress of the bit-part/supporting role variety, with a smattering of films and extensive TV appearances including the series The Wayans Bros., Beverly Hills, 90210, and Six Feet Under. Visage teamed with RuPaul and became a judge on RuPaul's Drag Race.

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