Rick James Performances Archived on DVD

Next Tuesday, Hip-O/Motown/UMe will release I'm Rick James! The Definitive DVD, collecting 26 of his performances from between 1978 and 1995. Included are all eight of his promotional videos, including three from 1982 that were never released (Throwdown, She Blew My Mind (69 Times), Hard To Get), performances from numerous TV appearances and parts of interviews from throughout his career.

From the press release:

The earliest performances spun off from his Motown debut, 1978's Come Get It. James laid down the album's R&B #1 You And I and notorious Mary Jane on the short-lived New York City dance show Soul Alive, and Sexy Lady, Hollywood and Mary Jane again on Don Kirshner's Rock Concert. He returned to the latter the following year with Fool On The Street from Bustin' Out Of L Seven.

With the release later in 1979 of Fire It Up, there were unlikely performances of Love Gun and Love In The Night on the daytime talk show Dinah!, and of the title track on Don Kirshner's Rock Concert. Kirshner welcomed him back in 1980 for Come Into My Life as well as songs from his new LP, Garden Of Love: Mary-Go-Round, Big Time and Summer Love.

The classic Super Freak and R&B #1 Give It To Me, Baby, from 1981's landmark Street Songs are heard and seen both in promo videos and on TV in 1982--Super Freak on Dick Clark's New Year's Rockin' Eve and Give It To Me, Baby on the German show Rockpalast. For that European program, James also performed You And I and Standing On The Top, his hit with The Temptations, who appear with him in the song's promo video. Cold Blooded, from 1983, prompted a video for another collaboration, Ebony Eyes with Smokey Robinson, and a performance of the R&B #1 title track for 1984's New Year's Rockin' Eve. The most recent clip is the video for the title track from 1985's Glow.