Wow, sounds very dated ('72? '73?). Her vocal is nice, but there's too much diddling around with the melody. Dusty cut a more straightforward version of this circa '70, off A Brand New Me. It's a mixed bag as well, but at least you don't have to pick out the melody...
Yup, I never heard this one until I clicked on it just now. Funny how the artists on this label didn't quite seem able to weather the Disco years, at least on the Pop charts considering they were there during it's birthing.
Also . . . I think it was at or not long after this time that Philadelphia International (and Gamble-Huff) were ensnared in investigations into payola, for which I seem to recall Kenny Gamble had been convicted. I do know in its wake, though the label would continue to chart hits into the early '80's, they never again reached #1 on the "pops." Even more amazing, it was just earlier in this year that Harold Melvin And The Blue Notes had scored with "Bad Luck."
For the purposes of the Pop charts, he only scored one top 40 hit and 10 more Hot 100 placings. Not bad but considering who he was and the quality of the songs, I'm sad his efforts weren't better rewarded. Love TKO, for example, deserved better than #44. A lot better.
One of those that "just missed" the Top 40, did make the Top 10 of WABC Musicradio 77's weekly surveys.
Next #1: Dream Merchant - New Birth Week ending August 16, 1975, 1 wk. To take a line from @sunspot42: I would have thought this song was older, maybe from around 1971 or 1972. It kind of sounds out of place here, but, we have has a few other #1s in 1975 that sound out of place as well. I heard it in 1975, but really don't remember it much. It's a good song. The New Birth was a bit of an unusual band. They just happened to be on the same record label, RCA, that Mothers Finest started on. I guess RCA was trying to be progressive with Black music and rock in the 70s despite their stodgy image. New Birth released several interesting albums on the label that ranged from rock to soul, to something that sounded a lot like Parliament/Funkadelic. They had a sense of humor too. But, as with Mothers Finest, who had by this point, moved to Epic Records, tempered their sound to the typical R&B sounds of the day. New Birth was typical of 70s R&B bands in that they consisted of around eleven members, and maybe featured one female vocalist. Other 70s bands that more or less had this profile were Earth, Wind & Fire, L.T.D., Atlantic Starr, Kool & The Gang, Mandrill, B.T. Express, K.C. & The Sunshine Band, Bar-Kays, Con Funk Shun, and Cameo. That's a lot of paychecks to spread around among members. It's no wonder many of them slimmed down in the 80s.
No clue about this one. They're one of those groups I heard of but most likely never heard. Looking at their placements on the Pop charts, they had 3 songs all in the #30 -40 range but the only one I'm familiar with is K-Jee when they went by The Nite-Liters. Of course, that song got it's fame extended in the latter part of the decade through SNF despite being dissed by Tony Manero!
Although when The New Birth recorded their version of "Dream Merchant" (which had been originally recorded in 1967 by Jerry Butler on the eve of his Gamble-Huff - driven comeback), they were on Buddah. I first heard their rendition at, of all places, a branch of what was then Kinko's (now FedEx Office) sometime in the 1990's. Ironically, the Buddah catalogue is now with Sony which also owns RCA Records where The New Birth were before moving to Buddah. I.I.N.M., New Birth was descended from The Nite-Liters whose "K-Jee" would be covered by MFSB around this time in an album they put out entitled Universal Love - and figured just a few short years later in a gazillion-selling movie soundtrack of which more details when we get there.
Yeah, two really retro-sounding cuts in a row. Ironic, since it was R&B that was driving much of the innovation in pop in the '70s.
Also, bizarre - Dusty Springfield had already cut last week's #1 and this one several years before. Her recording of the prior week's #1 dates to around 1970 - this one goes all the way back to '68. I prefer both of her recordings to these, although they're admittedly more than a bit bouffant, lace bedroom, pink princess phone affairs, with one foot solidly in the cocktail lounge.
And here's the proof in the puddin' . . . To think this was once the premier bubblegum label. But by the time of this, they had made a massive turn in which music they were putting out, spearheaded - and symbolized - by Gladys Knight & The Pips.
I never said you were wrong. I had just completely forgot about Buddah, and, I do think I have it on the Buddah boxed set. Yeah, the label seemed to just go with the flow. It started out as basically a vehicle for The Lovin' Spoonful, then capitalized on bubblegum, for which the label is most famous for. Then they went to R&B in the early 70s mostly by distribution deals with Curtis Mayfield (Curtom), The Isley Brothers (T-Neck), Clarence Avant (Sussex), and Holland-Dozier-Holland (Hot Wax). They also kept their foot into pop, then they went disco in the mid-late 70s, and delved into rap right before the label folded.
I seem to recall a future R&B (and pop) #1 which we'll get to when we get to it, that was on that Buddah box set and shouldn't have, because the label that released this future topper had gone to a different distributor by that point.
Since there doesn't seem to be much love of, or knowledge for the New Birth on this forum, here's the next #1, and, boy, did I time this well! (BTW, I thought these Billboard threads were also for discovering music you may not be familiar with.) Get Down Tonight - K.C. & The Sunshine Band August 23, 1975, 1 wk
That guitar intro really explodes out of the single mix. Doesn't have the wall of reverb on it either. It's punchier but I think ultimately not as much fun - the spacier atmosphere on the album mix is almost a bit Steve Miller...if Steve Miller got a sudden attack of the funk. How many white singers have topped the R&B charts? KC has to be one of the few.
I have always considered these recently mentioned songs by Harold Melvin & The Blue Notes and New Birth as solid album tracks. I do not see them as the stand-out songs on the respective albums or in the artists' body of work. Get Down Tonight is a different story. Definitely one of the best tracks in KC & The Sunshine Band discography.
Interesting question. For the 70s decade, that number is at exactly two, with Harry Wayne Casey (K.C.) being one of them. We will get to the other one next year. No. The point of these Billboard threads is to go in sequence.
The lead guitar sounded to me like it was sped up considerably, as if one of the Chipmunks were in the band. That, as I see it, was as much a part of its success as the rest of the song. No way would the notes plucked in rapid-fire sequence be heard on the uppermost part of the guitar fret - unless it was Eddie Van Halen, I suppose . . .
