This is their first #1... the Ohio Players had been around for a few years, their first entry in the top 20 being back in 1973:
No memory of this one from the time, and not one of my favorite oldies from the period. Should be right up my alley, but isn't. I kinda find it dull. Surprised this made it all the way to #1 on the pop charts.
I love the irony of having Helen Reddy introduce these guys on the Midnight Special. She sounds like a female Edward G. Robinson in her introduction. How do I count the MANY, MANY things I love about this performance?...the Acoustic Amps (although I loved it when they had Orange Amps behind them), the matching denim outfits, the Mosrite Doubleneck guitar, Sugar freakin' Foot, the riffs, the groove, the afros, the dancing and dancers, the "flame" graphics on the screen...
Never heard it before, or even heard of it. It's basically an Abba clone, and IMHO suffers from those great failings of '70s pop hits: too fast, and not enough reverb. That said, I don't dislike it or like it; it's just too blah for either.
Are they quoting the theme from The Musters in that intro?? Yeah, I never heard this on oldies radio growing up in Phoenix. Way too funky!
It’s funny, as much as I like her hits I’m not crazy about her voice. But, it always starts with the song. If it’s good and well produced, much can be overlooked.
Boy you guys are brutal sometimes, but it is an unusual sound. Some poundcake in the studio would have made for more fun!
Wow...lots of you hadn’t heard it. I remember it well, along with an old wives tale story that some were stupid enough to think it possible. And I was one of them. There is a scream about half way in. The rumor? A woman was actually killed during the recording. I was in Jr High. And I sort of thought it could be true. I can’t believe I’m confessing that. However, if I heard it the rumor was pretty well circulated. If memory serves, Casey even talked about it on an AT40 show (I have all of them I purchased from someone on a harddrive...from show one until well after Casey left...how geeky is that)! I’m sure he firmly debunked it but I don’t recall exactly what he said. Anyway, it’s quite a scream and probably what someone would sound like if that happened. How that rumor could have become so well known without the internet is quite baffling, especially considering how absurd it was in hindsite. But to a kid, sounded real enough! It is way far back in the mix, and I didn’t know anything about the recording process so what the heck, maybe it was accidentally left in the recording! Ha, the things we could believe at that age! Anyway, I have tried to get into the Ohio Players and even bought a couple albums on vinyl, but I guess I can’t get into hard core funk. But that song was always an okay listen for me. I did, and do, like Kool & The Gang a lot more, but there music is a bit more accessible imo.
I remember the whole scream/murder rumor, but it was supposedly on "Love Rollercoaster," not this song.
I think the most important thing to remember is that before the internet we didn't know there would BE an internet. We just spread our nutty theories in person and it worked fine. I'm thinking you are close to my age (49) so this is NOT a put down, as I think you're in that wheelhouse, but people TALKED back then. Worked wonders
Let's take a look at the song that bracketed the Top 10 the week Fire was #1. Sir Monty Rock III was the alias of Joseph Mantanez who does lead vocal duties on the disco/pop confection Get Dancin'. When I say lead vocals I mean that in the loosest sense since he basically serves as a crazed, 70s version of a RuPaul's drag race contestant exhorting everyone to well, Get Dancin'!, all while alternating moans, groans and faux Spanish sounding gibberish And this guy was all over the various talk shows of the time, even scoring a part in Saturday Night Fever. It's a fun, well done novelty that signaled the hedonistic culture that Disco would eventually embrace and celebrate. My chiffon is wet dahling My wig is wet!
Dangerous funk invading the Top 40. I liked R & B at the time but this was serious soul music for a bratty little suburban white kid. And it's true-you will not hear this song on heritage oldies stations. I also loved "Love Rollercoaster".
Their roots go all the way back to 1959 as the Ohio Untouchables, and they backed The Falcons on their classic "I Found a Love" (which also features not-yet-famous Wilson Pickett on lead vocals): I've heard of "Fire", but I'm not sure I've ever actually heard it before listening to it just now on Youtube.
...I'm not sure that I heard ” Fire ", as a Top 40 kid, at the time, neither. I did hear " Love Rollercoaster ” and " Skin Tight " then.
In early 1975, they were 100% playing it on Phoenix radio in full rotation. In 1975, I routinely listened to top 40 stations in both Phoenix and Tucson, as well as my home town in the region. 1975 was the year top 40 radio had fully integrated soul/funk/disco into their playlists, and the Billboard hot 100 chart reflects that. It's a shame that oldies radio since the 80s have failed to play all that was popular beyond poppy, melodic fluffy tunes.
You know that one of the Ohio Players' first singles after joining Mercury was "Jive Turkey," don'tcha? Meanwhile, the "Fire" label for people in my neck o' the woods, was this CBS Pitman layout (and that is what I got): To me, the 45 edit does more for me than the long LP version.
Even back in 1975, contrary to what Oatsdad says, we teens understood that there was a gay culture out there. Anyway, before Oatie and I wind up in another stupid debate on it, have you guys heard the album "Get Dancin'"? It's a monstrosity! It's crazy! If that studio wasn't totally hedonistic party filled with mountains of booze, cocaine and crazy sex, the producers did a fantastic job of creating the image, while still maintaining coherent song structures. "Shirley Wood", indeed! A transvestite?
Again, I am totally shocked! This was a huge hit single up to that point. All I can wonder is how you guys didn't hear it.
"Get Dancin' " was one of the very last singles pressed by CBS Pitman to bear hot-metal Linotype (and some Intertype) fonts on their label copy before they committed fully to those in Linotype's VIP phototypesetting library which had been first introduced to the Pitman print shop that June. I've long had this variant in my collection: Caveat emptor, though: Two mastering houses on "the Coast" cut lacquers for this, Artisan Sound Recorders and Kendun Recorders. Kendun copies' fadeout on Part 1 was rather abrupt and premature, and likewise the fade-in on Part 2 was rather short. Artisan's fadeout on Part 1 was long and gradual, as was Part 2's fade-in. For that reason, I gravitate towards CBS Pitman pressings with Artisan lacquers. I seem to remember hearing this as early as late November-early December 1974, and it may have been among the last "new" records played on WNBC-FM's "RockPile" before they changed course and turned into the easy-listening "Love of New York" format that only lasted a half year before they became the short-lived all-news WNWS News 97 from July 1975 to December 31, 1976. The duo that wrote this would also pen a future #1 here (other than that hint, no peeking now ).
