----- Original Message ----- 
From: "William Rabeneck" <largro13@yahoo.com>
> Hi Chuck,
>
>  You're right that Roxanne self-titled album was great!  I remember 
> liking most, if not all, of the songs.  I think they were troubled 
> by a few things:  1.) Wasn't there a pop band at the same time 
> called something like the Real-Roxanne, or Roxette (both bands may 
> even have existed at roughly the same time, making it three 
> similarly named bands)?

Roxette came later, around '89/'90: actually, some of their singles 
were quite good as mainstream pop of the era went.

And you're thinking of the great Roxanne Debate that engulfed hip-hop 
in the mid-'80s.  UTFO did a single called "Roxanne, Roxanne" that was 
absolutely massive, and a flood of answer records hit almost 
immediately.  One female rapper started calling herself Roxanne Shante 
and did an answer record called "Roxanne's Revenge," to which
UTFO responded by making another record with the girl from the video, 
who they dubbed The Real Roxanne.  I think both of them ended up 
having relatively long careers as far as '80s hip-hop (where it was a 
shock if someone actually made a second album) goes.

S