You can’t possibly think back to the mid-eighties without a Cherrelle song playing somewhere in the background. The Los Angeles native, whose collaborations with producers Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis led to such bonafide jams as “I Didn’t Mean to Turn You On,” and the Cherrelle/Alexander O’Neal classics "Saturday Love" and "Never Knew Love Like This," will resurface this year with a new album, and a new artist signed to her new company Peach Town Entertainment.

“You know peach, like Atlanta’s Peachtree St.,” says the songbird, whom we caught up with at a recent Earth Wind and Fire concert in Los Angeles. I’m out here working with my first artist Brit. Well, her name is Britney, but we call her Brit. [Her style] is in between Cherrelle and Pebbles, but with a bite.”

Brit must sound like family, since Pebbles is Cherrelle’s cousin. Born Cheryl Week Norton in 1958, the budding singer met bassist/singer Michael Henderson when her family moved to Detroit. He invited young Cheryl to the studio, where she would spent time in the evenings after punching out of work at a bank. Imitating the way her boss would angrily yell “Cherrrr-rellle” when she was late for work, she decided to keep the pronunciation – as Cherrelle.

After moving on to tour with Henderson, and later, Luther Vandross, she recorded a demo that ended up on the desk of Tabu Records owner Clarence Avant. Cherrelle’s father – a lawyer – negotiated the recording contract with Avant's label that was distributed by A&M Records, and she was teamed with producers/songwriters Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis, who had already scored hits for Tabu recording act S.O.S. Band. You know what happened next.

“Fragile,” Cherrelle’s first album in 1984, spawned "I Didn't Mean to Turn You On." Her second LP, 1986’s “High Priority,” housed the number two R&B hit "Saturday Love," a duet with labelmate Alexander O' Neal. The collaboration went so well that Jam and Lewis thought of an idea for her third album, “Affair.” The songs, duets with O’Neal, would be based around a romantic relationship that turned sour. The first single, “Never Knew Love Like This,” peaked at number two on the R&B chart in early 1988. The next single, “Everything I Miss at Home,” reached No. 1 in late 1988, followed by the title track, which climbed to No. 4 in early 1989.

For Cherrelle’s 2005 album, she will once again work with Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis on some songs, as well as other producers.

“It is off the chain, and that’s all I’m gonna say,” affirms the singer excitedly. “I’m working with different producers including my brothas – you know I gotta do something with my brothas Jimmy and Terry.”

Cherrelle’s last album, 1999’s “The Right Time,” hit record shelves quietly without support from radio, something that frustrates the singer to no end.

“A lot of people say, ‘[Old school artists] have an oldies station – 70s and 80s music’ – and we hear it all day long,” she says. “But when we do something new, we don’t hear it. Why? Because [the songs] don’t sound like the old [songs], you see what I mean?”

For those of us who aren’t ready to let the old Cherrelle go quite yet, she promises that her new album will have the classic Cherrelle sound that turned us all on (without meaning to) back in the day. Its release will be followed by the R&B/pop debut album from Brit, a Jacksonville, North Carolina native who met her mentor in an Atlanta recording studio where the young singer was laying down vocals.

“I knew who Cherrelle was,” Brit says. “‘I Didn’t Mean to Turn You On’ is one of my favorite songs. ‘Everything I miss at home’ [“Home”] – big fan of that. Big fan of Cherrelle period. This is all a blessing. I’m very glad she came my way.”