First Hit #1: January 17, 1987
Shake You Down is designed to be a sexy hookup song, and while it’s very gentle, it’s actually well built. Abbott’s falsetto and the harmonica solo play off each other well, Abbott’s voice in general is pretty good for smooth R&B, and it even has a spoken word section, something that has fallen out of vogue but is still kind of sexy in a way. For the most part, Abbott has made a nice, if a touch unremarkable, sexy sex song.
Except, Shake You Down, that’s not very sexy. It’s more violent, and considering a shakedown is commonly associated with extortion, perhaps less than ideal for a sexy song. He may just want to check if his lady is seaworthy, of course, but that’s also probably less than ideal for the purposes of the song as well. It’s one of those lines that the songwriter probably thought was appealing when he penned it, never realizing that it’s actually kind of rough and not really appropriate behavior for the bedroom.
We Are Number Ones 
The harmonica sounds synth. OK, after hearing the chorus I do remember this song after all. But I could never have told you this was by Gregory Abbott. This is definitely an R&B song with a spoken bridge, but that’s about all I can say about it. Just goes to show that good songs are harder to come by than good singers.