R&B Bridgez: Celebrating Surface 35th Anniversary of ‘2nd Wave’

Today marks the 35th Anniversary of the classic R&B album “2nd Wave” by R&B trio Surface.

“2nd Wave” is the groups most successful album, passing platinum status. The album featured the hit “Shower Me With Your Love,” the gold-certified single reached #1 on Billboards R&B and AC charts.

The other hits on the album include “Closer Than Friends,” “Can We Spend Some Time” & the Regina Bell assisted classic “You Are My Everything.”

In 1983 the original group consisted of David Conley and Karen Copeland. David Townsend collaborated by writing and producing. In that same year Surface released their debut single, “Falling in Love.” Surface recorded two more singles with Karen; “When Your Ex Wants You Back” and “Stop Holding Back.”

After Karen Copeland left the group in 1984, Bernard Jackson and David Townsend replaced her.

As a songwriting production team, the trio Bernard Jackson, David Conley and David Townsend, became staff writers for EMI Music. Their songs were covered by New Edition (“Let’s Be Friends”) and Sister Sledge (“You’re So Fine”). Surface then focused on establishing itself as a performing unit in its own right.

In March of that previous year in 1987, Surface debuted with the mellow, mid-tempo tune “Happy.” The single hit big, and reached #2 on the Billboard R&B chart.

“It just has a down-home feeling to it,” stated lead singer Bernard Jackson at the time to Billboard. “People could relate to the lyrics, and a lot of rap songs have the same tempo, so it wasn’t like the song was all that slow.”

“We’re lucky because Bernard’s got a voice that everybody likes and can recognize immediately.” – David Conley

The song “Happy” had been a charm for Surface. The team originally cut the track for High Tension, a British group, which had a minor hit with it in 1985.

The song enjoyed even more success when it was rereleased in Europe a year later. Columbia released Surface‘s version of “Happy” in London before it was released in the U.S. Thanks to its domestic sales, Surface‘s version was reissued in Europe.

The sophomore album “2nd Wave,” was released 35 years ago today on October 11th, 1988. Featuring “I Missed” (#3 R&B), “Closer Than Friends” (#1 R&B for two weeks), the wedding standard “Shower Me With Your Love,” which was another #1 R&B single and Top 5 Pop hit also went gold.

“You Are My Everything,” also reached #1 on the Billboard R&B charts for two weeks. The final single from the “Can We Spend Some Time,” hit the top 5 R&B chart.

In 1990 the group released their third album “3 Deep.” Bernard explained to Billboard how the group approached the album, the group “divided the record pretty evenly between dance-oriented music and ballads. We definitely did some interesting fast tunes on this album.”

“The First Time” was the first single and went gold reaching #1 R&B and the song was their first pop #1 for two weeks.

The hits continued with “All I Want Is You” featuring Regina Belle which hit top 10 R&B and “Never Gonna Let You Down.” “You’re the One” billed as Surface featuring Bernard Jackson made it to #24 R&B in the summer 1991.

The group released “The Best of Surface…A Nice Time for Loving” in 1991 and featured the new single “A Nice Time for Lovin‘”, which would be the groups last charting single.

The final Surface album was released in 1998, entitled “Love Zone.” The album was a reunion album that featured all three original members.

David Townsend passed away in 2005 of unknown causes, at the age of 50.

Take A Trip Down Memory Lane with Surface!