Although Housecall was a certified hit and the video was getting repeat rotation on the major U.S. music channels, the impact of the song took some time to sink home for Mikey Bennett.

"I never appreciated the magnitude of it at the time. Probably it was a good thing. This is what we were doing every day, going into the studio and writing songs," he said.

But if he did not realise it at one point, he got a wake-up call to the impact of Housecall soon enough.

"My greatest thrill is going to a football match in New Orleans and hearing the band playing Housecall and Mr. Loverman," Bennett said.

other artistes' style

Then there was the moment he realised the kind of sex appeal Shabba Ranks had. "I was at a party in Los Angeles. This guy came and said him will pay me to hear what Shabba said because the way him girlfriend go on when she hears it. I said my God, we don't know what we have. I witnessed it. When they put on the song, she go on bad," Bennett said.

It spread to the stars, as there was an incident when Roberta Flack was among a group of women, one of whom said that Shabba Ranks was very sexy. Flack agreed enthusiastically.

Bennett said that Housecall "really change me life. The phone start to ring after that". It was not only local calls, as among the callers were Cyndi Lauper and Roberta Flack. There were also a lot of projects that did not com to fruition. "Americans hedge their bets," he said, noting that many persons did a reggae song just in case. "Everybody doing a new album check you."

With the unreleased projects, Bennett says "you earn some, money but no what you could have earned". One project with LL Cool J was like that. Bennett also points out that he had a good lawyer in Denise Brown and at the time there were also a number of women in A&R positions at record labels.

Bennett pointed out that in Jamaica "what we do not know how to do is capitalise on a hit. You have to be there. You have to make up your mind to spend some time in America, You would be surprised to know how many people want to contact you and don't know how to work it".

"If I knew then what I know now," Bennett said.