Madam Butterfly (album)


Madam Butterfly is the seventh album by American soul/R&B group Tavares, produced by Bobby Martin and released in 1979 on the Capitol label.

Commercial performance

By this stage in the group's career, they had become known as a disco act due to successful singles such as "Heaven Must Be Missing an Angel", "Whodunit" and "More Than a Woman." However, Madam Butterfly is noted for its lack of anything approaching disco material, and, as such, is considered to be more akin in style to the group's 1973-'75 albums than to their '76-'78 Freddie Perren-produced output.
"Never Had a Love Like This Before", one of several slow jams on the album, became a top 5 R&B hit and has subsequently become a quiet storm radio classic, while tracks such as "I'm Back for More" are more funk-based than listeners had come to expect from Tavares. The title track Madam Butterfly received considerable airplay on R&B radio stations, and became a hit, but was not released as a single by Capitol. The album performed respectably on the R&B chart, peaking at #13, but failed to achieve substantial sales in the crossover market. Its reputation has grown over the years and it is now considered among the group's best.

Track listing

  1. "Straight From Your Heart" - 4:23
  2. "Games, Games" - 4:30
  3. "Madam Butterfly" - 4:29
  4. "Let Me Heal the Bruises" - 4:24
  5. "Never Had a Love Like This Before" - 4:32
  6. "One Telephone Call Away" - 4:22
  7. "My Love Calls" - 5:05
  8. "Positive Forces" - 2:56
  9. "I'm Back for More" - 2:58

    Singles