These posts are about the songs that can accurately claim to crossed the key line of chart success, becoming Top 40 hits on Billboard, but just barely. Every song featured in this series peaked at number 40.

Jomanda was a trio that hailed from New Jersey. Members Cheri Williams and Joanne Thomas knew each other in their younger years, eventually reuniting after losing touch during high school. They were joined by Renee Washington, who’d developed her singing skills in church choirs, and began recording under the name Jomanda in 1987, quickly scoring hits on the Dance charts. Mixing the driving redundancy of house music with the yearning soulfulness of R&B, the group may have had fairly significant success in the clubs, but crossing over was tougher. That happened with a 1991 single culled from their full-length debut, Someone to Love Me, released a year earlier.

Credited to five songwriters (including Williams), “Got a Love for You” was easily Jomanda’s biggest success to date. It was their first song to top the Billboard Dance chart, and managed to make a solid run on the same publication’s Hot 100 chart, slipping into the Top 40. Of course, #40 was the highest it would climb. Though the group was credited with one more track that made it to the #1 position on the Dance charts when British DJ Felix sampled their earlier hit “Don’t You Want My Love” for his 1992 debut single, “Don’t You Want Me”, Jomanda made no further appearances on the Hot 100 chart.

A sophomore album, Nubia Soul, arrived in 1993, and, depending on the source, there are singles credited to Jomanda as late as 2002, though it seems the group was effectively done as an recording or performing entity as of 1994. Thomas passed away in the fall of 2003, at the end of an extended battle against colon cancer.

Previously…
—“Just Like Heaven” by The Cure.
—“I’m in Love” by Evelyn King
—“Buy Me a Rose” by Kenny Rogers
—“Who’s Your Baby” by The Archies
—“Me and Bobby McGee” by Jerry Lee Lewis
—“Angel in Blue” by J. Geils Band
—“Crazy Downtown” by Allan Sherman
—“I’ve Seen All Good People” and “Rhythm of Love” by Yes
—“Naturally Stoned” by the Avant-Garde
—“Come See” by Major Lance
—“Your Old Standby” by Mary Wells
—“See the Lights” by Simple Minds
—“Watch Out For Lucy” by Eric Clapton
—“The Alvin Twist” by Alvin and the Chipmunks
—“Love Me Tender” by Percy Sledge
—“Jennifer Eccles” by the Hollies
—“Video Killed the Radio Star” by the Olympics
—“The Bounce” by the Olympics
—“Your One and Only Love” by Jackie Wilson
—“Tell Her She’s Lovely” by El Chicano
—“The Last Time I Made Love” by Joyce Kennedy and Jeffrey Osborne
—“Limbo Rock” by The Champs
—“Crazy Eyes For You” by Bobby Hamilton
—“Violet Hill” and “Lost+” by Coldplay
—“Freight Train” by the Chas. McDevitt Skiffle Group
—“Sweet William” by Little Millie Small
—“Live My Life” by Boy George
—“Lessons Learned” by Tracy Lawrence
—“So Close” by Diana Ross
—“Six Feet Deep” by the Geto Boys
—“You Thrill Me” by Exile
—“What Now” by Gene Chandler
—“Put It in a Magazine” by Sonny Charles