What Cha’ Gonna Do For Me

With her third studio album, Chaka Khan attracts multiple audiences with her tracklist on this 1981 example of R&B and funk. The opening cover of the Beatles hit song immediately reminds us of her long time producer Arif Mardin’s ability to extract her full potential and craft a cover into her own. In addition, the title track topped the R&B chart for 2 weeks and reached #53 on the Billboard Hot 100. The masterpiece that is “And the Melody still Lingers On” glorifies the jazz standard “A Night in Tunisia” with contributions by Khan on lyrics and Dizzy Gillespie himself. The instrumental to Khan’s dance hit “Fate” has been sampled frequently, and shows Khan’s familiarity among dance audiences to this day.