Stephanie Mills’s “(You’re Puttin’) A Rush On Me” is on her 11th studio album, If I Were Your Woman. Paul Laurence added Mills to his list of singers he wrote hits for in the ’80s when he co-wrote it with Timmy Allen. Melba Moore, Lillo Thomas, Freddie Jackson, and Meli’sa Morgan had some of the biggest songs thanks to Laurence’s pen. He also produced the single about a too-fast romance, which became Mills’ third number-one hit on the Hot Black Singles Chart. The album was her second with MCA Records and was a bit of a comeback. Her eponymous 10th album was not as successful, despite her cover of Angela Winbush’s “I’ve Learned To Respect The Power Of Love” hitting number one on the R&B charts. The beat and Laurence’s synthesizer work were trademarks of ’80s R&B and gave “(You’re Puttin’) A Rush On Me” a serious vibe to match Mills’ lyrics about waiting for intimacy.
If I Were Your Woman went platinum, making 1987 a really good year for her career, and that included an appearance on the TV special Motown: Merry Christmas. Stephanie Mills released her most recent studio album, Born for This!, in 2004. In 2024, she returned to Broadway as the character Missus Hermes in the musical Hadestown. Mills will join Chaka Khan, Patti LaBelle, and Gladys Knight for the Queens tour scheduled to begin in May 2025.
