In My House by Mary Jane Girls

Album: Only Four You (1985)

Charted: 7

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Mary Jane Girls were a group assembled by Rick James, who wrote and produced this song. James released a song in 1978 called "Mary Jane" which is about his love for marijuana, so the group name is rather obvious (although one of the four members, JoJo McDuffie, claimed it could be a term for femininity, or possibly the shoes little girls wore).

The song finds the girls inviting a guy over for some good loving anytime he feels the need. It's an inviting offer, as they promise to satisfy his every need. McDuffie claimed it was an answer to all the songs where guys lure women to their houses. "How many women have dreamt of doing the same thing?," she said.
This song got the attention of the Parents Music Resource Center (PMRC), which put it on their list of 15 songs they found patently offensive, in this case, for sexual content. The group formed in May 1985, shortly after this song peaked on the charts. Founded by four wives of prominent politicians (including Tipper Gore, wife of then-Senator Al Gore), they succeeded in getting warning stickers placed on albums with objectionable content.

"I remember being really, really irritated, because there was nothing in the song that would suggest anything inappropriate," JoJo McDuffie told Newsweek. "Was the song about sex? Of course it was. But lyrically, it was very tastefully done."
MTV aired the video, something they didn't do for Rick James clips, and a big reason his other projects (including Eddie Murphy's "Party All the Time") charted higher than his solo material.

The "In My House" video was directed by Mark Rezyka, who was one of the most prolific directors of the era. It shows the girls doing some light dancing in a very nice house.
This song climbed to #3 on the R&B chart and made #1 on the Dance chart.
The Mary Jane Girls released their debut album in 1983, which contained four songs that bubbled under on the Hot 100 (charting between #101 and #106), which must me some kind of record. Only Four You was their second and final album; the follow-up single to "In My House" was "Wild and Crazy Love," which reached #42. In 1986, their cover of the Four Seasons song "Walk Like a Man" was used in the Ted Danson movie A Fine Mess and reached #41. The group split up soon after.

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Comments: 1

Barry from Sauquoit, NyOn June 1st 1985, the Mary Jane Girls performed "In My House" on the Dick Clark ABC-TV network Saturday-afternoon program 'American Bandstand'...
At the time the song was at #9 on Billboard's Hot Top 100 chart; the following week it would peak at #7 {for 3 weeks} and it spent 22 weeks on the Top 100...
And on March 31st, 1985 the song peaked at #1 {for 2 weeks} on Billboard's Hot Dance Club Play chart, it reached #3 on Billboard's Hot R&B Singles chart...
Between 1983 and 1986 the Mary Jane Girls had eight records on the Hot R&B Singles chart; two* made the Top 10, their other Top 10 record was "Wild and Crazy Love" at #10 in 1985...
* They just missed having a third Top 10 record when "All Night Long" peaked at #11 in 1983.

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