Sugar Free

Juicy recorded “Sugar Free” for the 1985 album It Takes Two, with Jerry Barnes and Katreese Barnes credited as the duo and Eumir Deodato producing the session. The track was issued in 1985 as the album’s standout single and an answer record to Mtume’s “Juicy Fruit.” The single became Juicy’s best-known release and turned the duo into a one-hit presence on the R&B circuit, reaching No. 13 on Billboard’s R&B chart and No. 45 in the UK. Its call-and-response link to “Juicy Fruit” gave it immediate scene recognition in mid-1980s soul and dance circles. “Sugar Free” became a durable sampling source, most notably for AZ’s “Sugar Hill,” and has been used in numerous later tracks. Its glossy Eumir Deodato production kept it circulating as a reference point for 1990s and later hip-hop and R&B producers.