Wow, even growing up in rural Nowhereville TX, I heard this song. It was on the radio quite a bit (a different mix perhaps?). Never heard the rumors about someone being killed though. I don’t consider this song RnB at all, just straight up disco funk. By this time, it seems RnB had long peaked in mainstream popularity.
...I got NYC's radio stations (living in Westchester County, up north). Mebbe the Players weren't as popular in the Big Apple? ="Grant, post: 19289933, member: 91"]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.[/QUOTE]
Um...OK, "Love Rollercoaster" was a #1 single a whole year later in 1976 that had the rumor of some variation of a woman getting killed. This is why I dislike jumping ahead. Someone coming into the thread may think that this is the currently discussed #1 song, not "Fire". Nope! Keep watching this thread.
I don't recall hearing "Fire" back then either, but I was 10 1/2 and listening to AM stations out of Salt Lake and Boise. They probably did play it, it just didn't stick. We're talking 43 years ago, after all. I definitely heard their upcoming amusement park of a #1 and my hormones definitely noticed those album covers, but hearing their stuff wasn't part of my experience growing up. No, I didn't become an Ohio Players fanatic until the mid-80s, when I finally could afford to start seriously amassing music and started an R&B crash course that continues to this day. Picked up a cassette of Ohio Players Gold and was promptly blown away. Eventually acquired most of the catalog and I'll tell ya ... Their two pop #1s are just the tip of the iceberg, folks.
I was 12 years old. I remember it like yesterday. Maybe the song wasn't popular in SLC or Boise because of the lyrical content or their album covers, but in most other places, it was.
"Fire" is a classic and the fact that it knocked "Laughter In The Rain" out of the Number 1 spot illustrates how diverse the top 40 was back then.
Someone in a previous post related the rumor to “Fire.” That’s why I mentioned it, although it appears the rumor was actually about “Love Rollercoaster.”
The rumor applies to "Love Rollercoaster", not "Fire", so that other poster is wrong. The two songs aren't even on the same album!
Or it was and I don't remember it. We're all going on what our memories tell us here. We've all heard a lot of music over the years - some sticks like glue, some slides off. But yeah, radio wasn't as homogenized as it was now, so records that were hot in one place were tepid in another. Every jukebox had whatever the owner decided to put on it, and our record collections and those of our friends and family varied wildly. Musical experiences are like thumbprints, man. No two are the same.
Pop audiences weren't quite as crazy about the more chill side of the Players - the follow-up to "Fi-yah" only got to #44 (and #6 R&B). Here it is in the album version. One of the great joys of my journey with these guys is when I finally heard the full version of each of their singles ...
I can't stand that kind of oldies radio. Oldies is oldies.If you ignore certain ones you're not a real oldies station.You're a poseur station.Yeah this was some serious funk.
Yeah, we are all going off our own unique experiences. But, for me, I made it a daily ritual to listen to music every single day starting in 1974. Not a day went by that I didn't listen to music. That I had a different experience with. Everyone I knew had and liked the same music, family and friends. That didn't start to change until the late 70s. It was the early 80s when I met people who didn't even have a clue about the music I grew up with.
The so-called R&B oldies stations aren't much better. They don't even play songs that real soul audiences like. They target the same audience as the "good times, great oldies" stations do by playing "Forget Me Nots" by Patrice Rushen, "Rock Steady" by The Whispers, and Last Dance" by Donna Summer every hour. If they were serious, they'd throw some Bobby "Blue" Bland, Johnny Taylor, and Slave in the mix. But, those stations are run by the same clueless conglomerates who hire the same BS consulting firms.
That’s another label I always really liked since buying Jigsaw’s Sky High. Was bummed I bought a promo version of the album that song was on a few years later and the label was black and white! Bob Crewe and Kenny Nolan...again. They still must be getting nice royalty checks. The music scene would have been a bit different without them, though some here would likely say it would have been for the better!
Yup, sorry about that! I thought it was Fire and then Love Rollercoaster came up by another poster, which of course was correct. Probably should have said “it was on another huge hit by them” as we would have known it was LR.
The 80’s....I don’t think there was ever such a drastic change in music from one decade to the next. Will be quite interesting to read posts starting around 80-81.
Me neither, but I certainly became aware of it later after hearing “Love Rollercoaster.” I’m surprised it went number one, pop.
I remember Fire only because I listened to AT40 every week. I don't recall the radio station playing it on their own playlist. It was probably too funky for our town.
I sure remember Fire! I would assume because they played it at a lot of our dances in junior high, and my sisters and I would listen to American Top 40 often in this timeframe.
Well, I was 6. I didn't control the radio - my uncle did. So if he didn't like a particular act (or a particular song from an act he otherwise liked), I didn't hear it. It's also possible I didn't like the song and "tuned it out" mentally. I'm only lukewarm on it now, so...
