Real Men... Wear Black

Professional ratings

Review scores
Source	Rating
Allmusic	[3]
Los Angeles Times	[4]
Chicago Tribune	[5]
New York Times	(favourable)[6]
USA Today	(favourable)[7]
Rolling Stone	[8]
People	(favourable)[9]

Jon Pareles of the New York Times stated that "Larry Blackmon's cracked nasal voice keeps the band funny and unpretentious, especially when kicking up its well honed midtempo funk".[6] Allmusic gave the album a three out of five star rating.[3] Chris Heim of the Chicago Tribune noted that Real Men is another solid example of Cameo`s approach to the sound" of "black rock."[5] Don Waller of the Los Angeles Times also proclaimed "using a krazee-quilt combination of synthetic/organic keyboards ‘n’ hipshot! percussion, greazy basslines and goofbawl vocals, (heavy on the minor sevenths), Cameo rolls back the rug for a wall-to-off-the-wall dance party".[4]

I Want It Now reached No. 5 on the Billboard Hot R&B Songs chart.[10] Close Quarters also reached No. 38 on the Billboard Hot R&B Songs chart.[11]

[1]

• Backing Vocals – Charlie Singleton, Larry Blackmon, Nathan Leftenant, Tomi Jenkins, Willie Morris
• Bass – Aaron Mills
• Design – Reiner Design Consultants, Inc.
• Drums, Percussion – Larry Blackmon
• Engineer [Assistant] – Milton Chan, Paul Speck
• Engineer [Mixing] – Barney Perkins
• Engineer [Recording] – Barney Perkins, Christopher Rutherford
• Guitar – Charlie Singleton
• Keyboards – Charlie Singleton, Kevin Kendricks, Robert Smith, Billy Allen
• Lead Vocals – Larry Blackmon, Tomi Jenkins, Willie Morris

Photography By – David Vance

• Producer – Larry Blackmon
• Programmed By – Kevin Kendricks, Robert Smith, Billy Allen
• Saxophone – Melvin Wells
• Scratches – Smoove & Konduko
• Trombone – Jeryl Bright
• Trumpet – Nathan Leftenant[1]