Jimmy Jam & Terry Lewis

Bullseye with Jesse Thorn

NPR

Society & Culture

4.7 • 2.7K Ratings

🗓️ 19 May 2026

⏱️ 64 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis have been working together for 40 years, producing some of the biggest R&B records of all time. When they spoke to Bullseye in 2021, they had just released their first ever album as recording artists: Jam & Lewis, Volume 1. They talked about the album, the hits they contributed vocals to, and the jaw-dropping synthesizer work they do on the Janet Jackson single “Love Will Never Do.”

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Bullseye with Jesse'm Jesse Thorne.
0:29.9	Before we get into my interview with Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis, I want to start things off with a song.
0:35.8	Chewy, if you would.
0:48.0	Music I want to start things off with a song. Chewy, if you would. That's called Dream Street by Janet Jackson, a single from her 1984 album of the same name.
0:54.6	A nice 80s, dancing, new wavy song,
0:58.1	but if you aren't familiar with it,
1:00.2	look, I understand.
1:01.7	Janet Jackson is a wholly unique artist,
1:04.3	and Dream Street doesn't really sound like a
1:06.7	Janet Jackson song, you know?
1:09.6	It just sounds like a song.
1:13.0	Compare that, though, to her next single.
1:15.8	What Have You Done for Me Lately?
1:30.3	What Have You Done for Me Lately? or yeah or the one after that's done for me lately or yeah
1:43.7	or the one after that nasty
1:43.7	Give me a beat! Now those are Janet Jackson songs, right?
2:12.4	Both of those are from Control, 1986.
2:16.3	Control was a departure for Janet.
2:18.9	She stopped working with her father,
2:20.8	and she brought on two guys from Minneapolis
2:22.7	as producers and songwriters,
2:24.8	Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis.
	...

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