Friends is the sixth album by American R&B group Shalamar, released in 1982 on the SOLAR label. The album, which features the 'classic' Shalamar line-up (Jeffrey Daniel, Howard Hewett and Jody Watley), topped the R&B chart and peaked at No. 35 on the Billboard chart. It has been certified Gold in the United States for sales over 500,000. It would eventually go Platinum. In the United Kingdom Friends gained impetus from a demonstration of body-popping by Daniel during a performance of "A Night to Remember" on the BBC programme Top of the Pops. It reached No. 6 on the UK Albums Chart and produced four top 20 singles.
In 2002, Friends was re-released by Sanctuary Records in the United Kingdom in a double-CD package with Shalamar's previous album Go for It.
In The Boston Phoenix, Mike Freedberg wrote that the album "presents [Howard] Hewitt again and again overmatched by roseate fugues, overmatching lyrics so glib they vanish. He doesn't know whether to drive ahead or scat back--but neither would a Shalamar fan. Hewitt's stabs at sincerity fit into the I-can't-manage atmosphere that has all but replaced the buoyant bravado of soul, funk, and disco from today's black-teen music."