Songfacts®:

• Prince wasn't the only one finding new frontiers in funk in the early '80s. "Just Be Good To Me" by The S.O.S. Band gets a serious groove going with layers of keyboards over beats from an 808 drum machine that really pops. It's the creation of Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis, who were members of The Time, a group created by Prince and fronted by Morris Day. Prince wrote the songs and did most of the production, so Jam and Lewis had to take their talents elsewhere. They wrote a song called "High Hopes" that The S.O.S. Band recorded for their 1982 album III. This earned them an invitation to work on the group's next album, On The Rise, in 1983. The three songs they contributed were all released as singles: "Just Be Good To Me," "Tell Me If You Still Care" and "For Your Love." Jam and Lewis returned to work on the next S.O.S. Band album, Just The Way You Like It in 1984, then worked with Cherrelle, Alexander O'Neal and The Human League before teaming with Janet Jackson for her groundbreaking Control album.
• The lyric plays out a story we've all heard before: A guy mistreats his girl but she won't leave him, insisting he's really nice to her when they're alone - you don't know what he's really like. S.O.S. Band frontwoman Mary Davis sings directly to the guy, letting him know she's OK with his cheating as long as he's good to her when they're together. Her friends would love to slap some sense into her, but this dude has some kind of power over her.
• You gotta let this one breathe. The album version clocks in at 9:03 with the single cut to 5:37. A good chunk of this time is devoted to the bass solo - something you don't hear in many hit songs.
• The S.O.S. Band had a formidable horn section, but they got pushed aside on this song and other tracks Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis wrote for the band. This was a tough time for horn sections - Chicago's was also being marginalized.