The ’80s, it was no doubt a different time when it came to music.
And when it came to pop music, I don’t think any group has had much of an impact on me when I was younger than at-the-time, Minneapolis based pop group, The Jets.
The Jets consisted of the Wolfgramm family and when I was younger, reading their story was inspiring. How this family with two parents working hard, yet struggling to provide for their children (there are 17 children in the family, 15 by birth and two who were adopted) and it happens to be that these children were either vocally or musically talented or both and they eventually were discovered by then-manager, Don Powell.
While much has been discussed about the Jets, what happened to the Jets and so forth, I’m not going to go there. People can look that information up online.
But I will discuss in this blog post of what The Jets meant to me growing up.
The group which consisted of brothers and sisters LeRoy, Eddie, Eugene, Haini, Rudy, Kathi, Elizabeth and Moana Wolfgramm had amazing success from 1985-1990, performed three world tours and produced eight top-10 hits.
For me, it began with their debut song “Curiosity”.
The song was funky, catchy but for me it was more than that. What I saw was a group, the first thing I thought in my head, “Wow…are they Asian? They have brown-skin like me! What the heck!?”.
I eventually learned through interviews they were Polynesian, to be more specific, the family was from Tonga. And I was inspired by that.
Then they released “Crush on You” and the music and dancing, I was totally into the choreography:
Absolutely loved their debut album, purchased their vinyl 45’s to get the unreleased tracks from their B-sides and I was head over heels with this group (and I have to admit, I had a crush on Kathi Wolfgramm).
And then there was “You’ve Got it All”, the mega ballad and I can remember me and my friend listening to this song all the time and so much more that related to my teens and the girls I liked.
I would watch the interviews, get the VHS to record anything related to the Jets, clip any articles I can find from magazines because this was my favorite group! Bought the cassette and vinyl version of the album, that’s how much I was into this group!
And I was so into that ’80s fashion, wore the Converse Chucks, wore the checkered pants in bright colors (bold move) and even got the perm.
By the time their next single “Private Number” was released, I can remember Nickelodeon advertising the phone number to call the Jets and the number I believe was featured in the beginning of the music video. But my memories aside from just loving the song, I recall a big phone bill, which my parents were not so happy with.
And a song I really liked was their B-side song “Look, No Strings” written by Boy George.
And if there was a song on the album that I loved listening to a lot was “La La Means I Love You”:
Then their song “Cross My Broken Heart” was featured on “Beverly Hills Cop 2” and I remember anticipating when the song will be played during the movie, more so than the movie itself.
And then the group released their Christmas album “Christmas with the Jets” and I don’t know how many times I listened to their songs “Christmas in My Heart”, “On Christmas Night”, “Somewhere Out There”, over and over.
And then the group released their third album “Magic” and it was like a new beginning as Eugene Wolfgramm would leave to form the music duo known as Boys Club.
But the album would lead to wonderful songs such as “The Only Dance”, “Make It Real”, “Sendin’ All My Love”, “Rocket 2 U”, “Anytime” and also “Cross My Broken Heart” was featured on this album as well.
I remember when “Rocket 2 U” came out and it was something that no one was expecting, as Elizabeth and Moana Wolfgramm were the primary vocalists, but here was a new song with Haini singing the vocals:
When the group released their fourth MCA album “Believe” in 1989, they had cool tracks such as “You Better Dance”, “The Same Love”, “Somebody to Love Me” and “Under Any Moon”.
The group would then release their final MCA Records album in 1990 titled “The Best of the Jets” and featured new songs “Special Kind of Love”, “Sendin’ Out a Message”, “Forever in My Life” and “Another You” and a few (not all) of their hit songs.
But by then the music scene was changing.
It wasn’t just the Jets, but we saw groups and artists that many followed such as New Edition, Debbie Gibson, Keith Sweat, DeBarge, New Kids on the Block… The interest started to shift. Some who were able to keep their music strong into the ’90s, others who weren’t able to.
Transitioning is not easy, staying musically relevant is not easy. Aside from Michael Jackson, Janet Jackson, Madonna, Prince, Whitney Houston and George Michael, that is a tremendous challenge.
The ’90s was a different era musically. And for the Jets, it was a challenge. Elizabeth Wolfgramm was diagnosed with breast cancer in 1994 and would focus on her health and when she left, other members slowly started to leave to raise their own families and pursue their own careers.
The members continued to do music.
Elizabeth, Kathi, Moana and sisters Jennifer and Hinalei released a gospel-themed album titled “My Sisters”.
And in the 2000s, by then, I was an entertainment writer/interviewer, I was asked to check out JETT17 (featuring the younger siblings and dubbed “the next generation of The Jets”) and possibly interview the group.
The group released the album “Reunited” (minus Eugene) featuring new songs and re-recordings of four past hits. A recent documentary showed what is happening with the Jets and one can hope things work out for the Wolfgramm family.
Check out this 2019 interview with Moana, Kathi Eddy and Natalia (younger sister) talking about the past and present:
But if anything, I am grateful to the Wolfgramm’s (the Jets) for their music but also for the inspiration.
At the time, as a young kid, although I’m not from Tonga, seeing a group who were brown-skin, who looked like people from my family, that really provided a major boost growing up. I found that inspiring.
During the time of listening to the Jets,when I moved to Los Angeles as a teenager, one of the things I will remember is how awesome the friends I made in the Polynesian community, who took me this Filipino-American kid from a small town and befriended me.
And because of the Jets, being one of the sources of inspiration growing up, it allowed me to have the perspective as an Editor-in-Chief for the Asian publication at college to promote bands, music artists and entertainers a chance when publications wouldn’t give a spotlight to them, when radio stations never gave them airplay, etc.
So, I’m grateful to the Wolfgramms. Their music has touched a lot of people’s hearts but also their music and presence in the music industry also inspired many others, including myself.
