In
the early '80s, singer Mic Murphy and keyboardist David Frank met
in New York. Collecting on studio time that he had earned in exchange
for playing on sessions, Frank asked Murphy to join him in the studio
to work on some ideas. After their overnight session, Murphy took
the master tape to an engineer friend that transferred the tape into
a 12" record. The duo took the record to Atlantic's Mirage Records
and were signed right away. Their 1982 single, You are in my system,
quickly became the rage on urban-formatted radio, leading to the
release of Sweat on Mirage/Atlantic. Other tracks from the album
got dancefloor attention, such as I can't let go. Their next album,
X-periment, included I wanna make you feel good and the passionate
I can't take losing you. In 1986, the duo performed the title album
track/hit single The pleasure seekers on Miami Vice. The LP also
contained This is for you, which was the second single. 1987 was
a great year for the System, giving them their biggest hit. The title
track of their album Don't disturb this groove went to No.1. Their
fresh approach put the System in high demand as producers, songwriters,
and musicians. They can be heard on Chaka Khan's I feel for you and Mtume's
Juicy Fruit. The list goes on with Angela Bofill's Can't slow down,
Pauli Carmen's Dial my number and Jeff
Lorber's Step by step. They contributed to the movie soundtracks
for two Eddie Murphy blockbusters, Beverly Hills Cop and Coming
to America. Even though it seemed that everyone wanted to work
with the System, the pair decided not to spread themselves too
thin and turned down a lot of offers. They opened their own recording
studio which was called Science Lab Music. 1989's Rhythm and romance
was the duo's last album. During early 1991, Mic Murphy released
a solo album on East West called Touch which had a lot of System'
sounds. Frank did production work for Omar, Dionne Farris and Rebbie
Jackson.
