Do You Know Where The Term “Slow Jam” Originated? You Sure About That?

Slow Jams™. The soundtrack to heartbreak, seduction, regret, and everything in between. For over 30 years, we’ve been spinning them for the world, a testament to the power of a perfectly placed chord and a whispered lyric. The term Slow Jam™ itself? That’s ours—legally, at least. A registered trademark of our scrappy, independent outfit, Fusion Radio Networks™, helmed by the maestro himself, R Dub!

But who actually coined the phrase Slow Jam™? For years, the accepted gospel pointed to Midnight Star, the legendary R&B group whose 1983 hit, Slow Jam™, became the unofficial anthem of Sunday Night Slow Jams™. A reasonable assumption. A good story. But like any good story, it deserved a little more digging.

So we dug. And what we found knocked us flat.

Turns out Slow Jam™ predates Midnight Star by more than two decades. The earliest known use? July 1, 1961. Buried in the pages of The Chicago Defender, a newspaper that chronicled the heartbeat of Black America, there it was—plain as day. A music column reviewing the latest tracks from Ike & Tina Turner, Mary Wells, and a few other names lost to time. Even a nod to the legendary radio DJ Herb Kent.

Big shoutout to the sleuths at The Chicago Public Library for helping us piece it all together. They’re the real MVPs.

So now you know. Midnight Star may have made Slow Jam™ a household name, but the term itself was already out in the wild, floating through the smoky clubs and dimly lit radio stations of the early ‘60s. A relic from a time when music was raw, real, and unpolished.

And isn’t that just how we like it?

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