In the early years of the "Lite FM" format on 106.7 FM in New York, this number was played frequently. Not so much anymore, alas. But I do know it. Part of its backing did seem to say "Chicago soul" all over it. This seemed to be Jackson and Yancy's attempt to craft an equivalent for her of her dad's "Unforgettable." I won't jump too ahead here, but that aspect alone would carry a bit of irony way down the road.
Tyrone Davis is the Colt 45 Malt Liquor of R&B, smooth, dependable, Works Every Time!!!! Never met a Tyrone Davis record I didn't like.
Bad analogy. At that point, the Black "community" was very upset that this liquor was deliberately being marketed to Black people. The stuff is cheap, full of sugar, has a high alcohol content, and is bad for your liver. Malt liquor is one of the worst things you can put in your body.
Never heard this one until maybe a decade ago. It's OK. A bit generic. She's certainly in fine voice.
No further comments on Natalie Cole's song? Can't blame you. Nice, but kind of forgettable. So, with that, i'll give you a big hit single that resonates today: Sweet Thing - Rufus Featuring Chaka Khan Week ending February 21, 1976 2 wks Hot off their newly released self-titled fourth album. It was a treat when this song came on the radio, and top 40 radio played it like crazy. This was also the first album the band produced on their own. Anyway, I bought the album in April of that year. The album produced three hit singles, but I won't discuss them all up front. I'll mention them as they were on the charts. As I gradually became an audiophile at this point, I noticed that the sound quality was very mellow, dull, if you will, and that goes for the entire album. It was recorded at Kundun Studios. Most CDs you find today with the song on them have the treble jacked up. After many personnel changes, the band had settled in with a good lineup. Having a turbulent history, the band got along well at this point, but the seeds of trouble had already started, as lead vocalist and instrumentalist Chaka Khan started to overshadow the rest of the band. Chaka had also developed a reputation as a wild child, and got married for the second time that year.
This one, they still play on the radio every so often. I think I know what you mean about one of the other two, as it was at one point in the collection of the summer camp in upstate New York where I spent many a summer in the late '70's. As for that "wild child" rep of Ms. Khan's, let me guess: The 'D' word, in terms of driving all that? Also, in a sense I don't blame ya' on moving on at this point, as I notice there are 29 #1's on the Hot Soul Singles chart in '76 - and we've looked (with "Sweet Thing") at six of 'em. Seem to be synchronizing with the pop and country threads at this point.
Maybe a bit of a lot of stuff like achieving fast fame at such a young age, having immense talent, and being the only female in the band. That's the plan. I don't care if there is crossover. If the same song gets posted on both charts, so be it. And, since I know there are a lot of people on the forum who had no exposure to, who have little knowledge of or interest in, of don't understand R&B, I know there will be songs that will be ignored. In those cases, i'll move it right along. Also, by 1976, there are members who went more for the album experience, and those who went to rock radio for whatever their reason. As I got older and had more money, I also started buying more albums, but I still bought lots of singles, and listened to the radio.
Singles were always important to me, particularly if I didn't want to spring for an album without knowing if anything else on the durn thing was worth hearing. It was a real pisser when cds supplanted vinyl and the cd singles became more expensive or non-existent. Sweet Thing was a change of pace for Rufus but still a marvelous, sexy R&B ballad.
I'm sure those didn't help either. But I was going by what I'd read from her autobiography - and sounds like all of the above were contributory factors.
Here is what happened:Chaka Accused Rufus Band Member (Natalie Cole's Ex) Of Beating Her & Husband In Heated Altercation
Mellow cut for Chaka. I've heard of it but don't recall hearing it. Kinda generic, apart from Chaka, but it does sound pretty advanced for '76 - the instrumental track wouldn't have been out-of-place a few years later. Someday I'll have to scoop up a Rufus compilation...
Maybe. But the only thing that really stands out on that particular cut - apart from some forward-leaning production - is Chaka.
And even on the songwriting credits, Ms. Khan shared that with Tony Maiden. And it sounded like a group effort. As opposed to cats being herded together into a room.
As for the album, my three favorite cuits on it are "Sweet Thing", "Fool's Paradise", and "Little Boy Blue". The latter two were really ambitious songs.
Crickets. OK, next #1: Boogie Fever - Sylvers Week ending March 6, 1976, 1 wk This song was another big crossover hit. Good pop song from yet another 70s family group that begged comparisons to the Jacksons. But, somehow, their sound reminds me more of the Osmonds than that family from Gary, Indiana. "Boogie Fever" was a feel-good tune that bursted out of the radio speaker and at evening jr. high dances. And, again, it is one of those songs that were so popular that I got sick of hearing it. I was still listening exclusively to KBBC FM in Phoenix at this point. In a few more chart years, we will be hearing a lot more from Leon Sylvers III who played a major role in a future record company owned by Dick Griffey.
Weirdly enough, I bought Wish That I Could Talk To You but skipped this smash. I guess it seemed kind of juvenile sounding to me and a Jacksons/Osmond rip-off. Starts off like Yo-Yo and then adds on a Jackson vibe. It's okay but I wouldn't go out of my way to hear it. I guess I-I ain't got the Boogie Fever!
"Boogie Fever's" producer was Freddie Perren who, as part of "The Corporation™," co-wrote and co-produced his share of Jackson 5 hits. Thus, no surprise that this number leaned bubblegum, and especially no surprise the Jackson 5 comparisons. I remember reading something about this was one of the last major sessions on which James Jamerson played bass, under way different circumstances than when he was among the "Funk Brothers" at Motown. (Though the bass line he played on this was derived somewhat from that on The Beatles' "Day Tripper.") The red on the red/black label color scheme on releases such as this varied wildly depending on where pressed. On Winchester pressings, its red every so often matched almost what was used for the Atlantic label. And the Winchester's what I have: Mr. Perren's work on this would foreshadow a future #1 on these here charts from another act on this same label a few months hence from here (other than that, as usual, mum's the word).
Funny you should mention that, because I spent four full summers and one half-summer in an upstate New York summer camp in the late '70's. And would occasionally hear crickets at night as we were all going to sleep in our bunk beds. It may have been that camp that, at one point, had this record among its collection, which ties in to this whole thing.
Crickets again? Not even a lone car driving down the street at 3:00AM? Sheesh! Man! I guess the majority of the forum went to rock and punk at this point, or they all are trying to show me they just don't like Black music. Yeah, I said it. Next #1: Disco Lady - Johnnie Taylor March 16, 1976 6 weeks at #1! Now, this was a huuuuge comeback for Johnnie Taylor! His first single for Columbia Records after coming from Stax Records. He still had his longtime producer Don Davis, but with a slightly updated sound that is straight up funk with a hint of disco. Even Mr. Taylor got angry when people called his song disco. In my opinion, this was the strongest song from the strongest album he ever made in his career. And, it crossed over big, too. It would also hit #1 on the Billboard pop Hot 100 three weeks later, so this song occupied the #1 slot on both charts at the same time. Take that! And, the song got a lot of airplay around here. As with Paul Simon's "50 Ways To leave Your Love", this 45 is the same length as the album length.
Not exactly. One bar of the intro of the Simon song was cut from the 45. The drums were heard for three measures (or whatever you call it) before the rest of the band came in, on the LP - and only two measures on the single. Now on to this. I do have this 45, and boy was it yuuuuuge as you say. I.I.N.M., this was the first-ever single to have been certified platinum by the RIAA. It was definitely ubiquitous on WABC Musicradio 77, where I mostly heard it "back then." The lacquers for this were cut at Frankford/Wayne Mastering Labs in New York (an offshoot of Philly's Frankford/Wayne Recording Labs - I don't know how many times on places like Discogs I've seen mass confusion between the two in terms of credits given on pressing variants of records mastered/cut there) by Stuart J. Romaine, who'd been a few years before that at - and then, years after this, rejoined - Columbia's lacquer cutting department where he was one of the first, in 1972, to sign his lacquers (most notably on some copies of Ten Years After's A Space In Time LP and the Looking Glass' "Brandy (You're A Fine Girl)" 45). He drew an apple next to the 'F/W' and his signature, to signify that the lacquers he mastered came from the Big Apple. I read somewhere about Don Davis that one of his "secrets" was, despite his being based in Detroit, recording his rhythm tracks in the South, which would explain why those productions of his that hit, hit as they did. The credited co-arranger (with Mr. Davis) on this was David Van DePitte who, until about 1971, toiled at Motown. Being as the prior #1 here would also top the pops, something tells me we'll be hearing more input on these two "over there." But I certainly try my best to keep the flame alive, for sure. Oh, and if anybody asks, among the collection I grew up with were Belafonte At Carnegie Hall and Brock Peters At The Village Gate (the latter produced by Tom Wilson years before his working with Bob Dylan, Simon & Garfunkel, Eric Burdon & The Animals, Frank Zappa & The Mothers of Invention et al.). So I had more openness, comparatively speaking . . .
Disco Lady is another one of those songs and hat did a fantastic job and shoe-horning itself into it's era. But it is actually a fantastic song. As for the Rufus ft. Chaka # it is also great. Chaka Khan is another artist who's voice, look and name fit so well together.
