Songfacts®:

• Alisha is overheating in this dance jam, as a spark of love has turned into a roaring flame.
  
  Born Alisha Ann Itkin, the mononymous singer got airplay in clubs with her first single, "All Night Passion," which was followed by "Too Turned On," a #6 hit on the Dance chart. Her next single, "Baby Talk," went to #1 on that chart.
  
  Alisha released a few more albums but fell off the charts as the genre shifted to trios (Seduction, Exposé) and more video-friendly singers who could also dance (Madonna, Paula Abdul).
• "Too Turned On" was written by Alex Forbes, who went on to write "Don't Rush Me" by Taylor Dayne and became a top songwriting coach. She told the story behind the song on the Songfacts Podcast.
  
  "Up until that point, I had been writing a lot of folk-rock songs, which is really where I came from," said Forbes. "I came from a Beatles, Joni Mitchell, Allman Brothers place in my writing. Jimi Hendrix, Neil Young, those were my idols growing up. When I decided I wanted to make a living doing this, I could not get arrested. My voice was not that great.
  
  I started listening to things like Madonna and Chaka Khan. I bought the single of 'Ain't Nobody' by Chaka Khan and I just went crazy for that song. I love that song so much and I used to watch it spinning on the turntable and just go, 'Why can't I write a song like that?' So those club songs started to infuse my writing.
  
  One day this idea came to me walking down the street on 19th Street and 5th Avenue. I was a graphic artist assistant at that point, and this idea came to me. I called it into my own phone machine on the corner of 19th and 5th. I was obsessed with this idea. I was going, "Too turned on, I can turn back..." and it just came to me.
  
  I went home that night and showed the lyric to my friend Shelly Peiken and I said, 'This is the first line. It goes, 'Love is a cliff and I'm pushing you over it,'' and she was like, 'That's a little violent.'
  
  But I loved it and I stuck to it. I went home and I demoed it that night. I couldn't sleep - something was different about that song compared to all my little folk-rock-type songs. I stayed up all night and demoed it, and when I brought it into my songwriting workshop, everybody in the whole room said, 'That one's a hit.' Nobody picked on it.
  
  I felt it in my heart, but the demo wasn't quite right so I demoed it again. I spent two months' rent on that demo and I sang it myself. The second producer I showed it to recorded it and it became a hit. I was able to quit my graphic art job and do this full time. I haven't looked back."
• With loads of synth horns and clapping percussion, this song is a shining example of the East Coast freestyle sound of the '80s. It was produced by Mark Berry, who worked for Alisha's label, Vanguard Records.
• The song's writer, Alex Forbes, was hoping Madonna would release this song, but Madonna's label wanted her to mail in the demo.
  
  "I was like, 'Mail, it? Screw you,'" Forbes said. "I didn't mail it, and maybe I'd be a millionaire right now if I did. But Alisha's producer was more open to meeting with me and Alisha's parents were working with her at that point and they were great folks. I'm still in touch with her on Facebook."
• The album version runs 6:18. The radio edit cuts the song down to 3:40.