Disco

407. The Jacksons – Show You the Way to Go (1977)

/ robbarker1979

The Intro

An early glimpse of the biggest pop star of the 80s. But not early enough, in a way. The Jacksons, when known as The Jackson 5, were one of the most exciting and successful acts of the late 60s and early 70s. And yet despite their first four singles becoming number 1 in the US, it took until 1977 for them to reach the pinnacle of the charts here.

Before

The Jackson 5, like it or not, began with Joe Jackson in Gary, Indiana. The strict disciplinarian who allegedly put his family through years of physical and mental abuse, couldn’t make it as a professional boxer. He then failed to become a pop star after a stint in the 50s as a guitarist in the Falcons. And so he became a crane operator instead and raised a family with his wife Katherine. Rebbie came first and went on to become a singer in the 70s. Then came Jackie, Tito, Jermaine, LaToya, twins Marlon and Brandon (Brandon died shortly after birth), Michael and Randy.

Joe returned home one day in 1964 to discover Tito had been playing with his guitar without permission. Although initially furious, he wondered if his children could achieve what he couldn’t. He became the manager of The Jackson Brothers – Jackie, Tito and Jermaine, with childhood friends Reynaud Jones and Milford Hite playing keyboards and drums. Within a year Michael, then only eight, was added to the line-up on congas. Soon after Marlon joined on tambourine and Joe renamed them The Jackson Five Singing Group. In 1966 they won their first talent show. That same year Janet, the youngest of the family, entered the world.

Jones and Hite were replaced by Ronnie Rancifer and Johnny Jackson and the band performed at talent shows around the region, soon also performing paid gigs. Little Michael began to outshine Jermaine and replaced him on lead, wowing crowds with his dance moves, mimicking the likes of James Brown. He later said he paid for his talent because Joe focused his strict ways specifically on him, helping to turn his own son into a superstar but permanently damaging his own child in the process.

Allegedly a gig by the band at Harlem’s Apollo Theater earned them their first celebrity fan. Gladys Knight was impressed and sent a demo tape to Motown Records, which was rejected. As was a recording of Big Boy, which became their debut single when Joe signed them to Steeltown Records in 1968. That July they supported Bobby Taylor & the Vancouvers. Taylor was blown away my Michael and arranged a taped audition with Motown. Founder Berry Gordy Jr refused to sign any more ‘kid acts’ after Stevie Wonder, but he too couldn’t deny they had something special. They finally signed with Motown as The Jackson 5 in 1969.

It was decided that The Jackson 5 had a better chance to make a big first impression by claiming they were discovered by Diana Ross from The Supremes. Michael was billed as being eight, even though he was 10. Gordy had high hopes for his latest signing, even going so far as to assemble a crack team of songwriters specifically to create hits for The Jackson 5. He dubbed them The Corporation. And they certainly achieved their aim.

Their debut single, I Want You Back, was released that October. This effervescent funk and pop was one of the last great songs of the 60s, eventually topping the Billboard Hot 100 in January 1970. It peaked at two in the UK, which is criminal. Their debut LP, Diana Ross Presents The Jackson 5, didn’t need Ross’s name to sell it after all. Second album ABC‘s title track was another stone cold classic and another US number 1, as was The Love You Save and ballad I’ll Be There, which came from their imaginatively titled Third Album. No act had ever achieved four number 1s with their first four singles before. And before the year was out they released a fourth album, Jackson 5 Christmas Album, featuring their energetic take on Santa Claus Is Coming to Town.

Jacksonmania was everywhere, and they overtook The Supremes as Motown’s bestselling group. The label made the most of it, licensing all manner of merchandise, including stickers, posters, colouring books and even a Saturday morning animated series. Michael’s star appeal was too big to limit to just the group and so he also began a solo career in 1971, reaching the top in the US with his ode to a rat, Ben. To a lesser degree of success, Jermaine followed.

Unfortunately, this tied in with the start of The Jackson 5’s commercial decline. Never Can Say Goodbye and Sugar Daddy went top 10 in the US in 1971 but after that their singles hovered around the bottom reaches of the top 20 in the US. In the UK they had two singles reach nine in 1972 – Looking’ Through the Windows and Doctor My Eyes. The Corporation split in 1973, which hardly helped matters. The title track to Dancing Machine in 1974 marked their foray into the emerging disco scene, and earned them a number two in the US. But the slide continued afterwards.

In 1975 The Jackson 5 released their final LP on Motown – the ominously titled Moving Violation. Joe and his sons were tired of low royalty rates and wanted greater creative control. They announced their decision at a press conference to garner interest from other labels. It worked. In June 1975 they signed with Epic Records for a much greater royalty rate. Well, most of them did. Jermaine had married into the Gordy family so decided not to rock the boat and remained with Motown. Joe replaced him with Randy, the youngest of the Jackson boys. As they were under contract with Motown until 1976, Gordy threatened to sue over the use of their group name, so they became known as simply The Jacksons.

Their eponymous album came out in 1976, and it looked like they’d made a wise move. They were teamed up with expert hitmakers Gamble and Huff and signed to their subsidiary, Philadelphia International Records. First single Enjoy Yourself was their biggest hit in two years, and then came Show You the Way to Go. Written and produced by Gamble and Huff, it featured Michael on lead and he joined the others on backing vocals too. Tito played guitar, Randy played bass and the rest of the music came from their label’s house band of session musicians, MFSB (meaning Mother Father Sister Brother).

Review

How strange that of all those initial massive pop hits by The Jackson 5, it was this more subtle track that gave them their only UK number 1. On first listen, you’d be forgiven for thinking, this is an album filler at best. But Show You the Way to Go is, for me, fascinating. It’s a strong sign The Jacksons were growing up, and Michael in particular. No longer the squeaky voiced cute little boy, he was maturing into just as talented an adult star and the others were fading into the background. Michael makes tentative steps into his signature sound, with the yelps and improvising pointing the way. Showing the way he’d go, in fact.

But then the song has this weird structure, where it sounds as though it’s coming to a natural end, but carries on. It’s even in the single edit and it’s like nothing I’ve ever heard in a number 1 before. It should make for a total mess, but Michael saves it with his interjections. The yelping on the fade out is of note too. It surely can’t have been performed in one take, which means it must be studio trickery – so is it early sampling? It almost sounds like 90s techno. So yes, what on first listen is far from an obvious chart-topper, makes for an intriguing listen. The other Jacksons deserve mentioning too. Those backing vocals, warm and comforting, work so well with the tenderness of the tune.

After

In a curious reversal of fortunes, this period in the Jacksons saw greater chart success than in the US. Their 1978 classic Blame It On the Boogie was a number eight hit here, didn’t even crack the US top 50. By this point they had been given total creative control, and the parent album Destiny was a huge success. It also featured the excellent Shake Your Body (Down to the Ground), written by Michael and Randy. And soon after the former’s solo career really took off thanks to 1979’s Off the Wall album.

In 1980 The Jacksons’ album Triumph lived up to its name, especially thanks to the disco epic Can You Feel It (number six in the UK), written by Michael and Jackie. But there was no escaping the fact that Michael had become a superstar and the rest of the brothers couldn’t match his talent and magnetism. Not that there appeared to be any bad blood. In 1983 on the US TV special Motown 25: Yesterday, Today, Forever, The Jacksons reunited with Jermaine. It was the show on which Michael’s ‘Moonwalk’ to Billie Jean made headlines around the world.

In 1984, with Jermaine back on board, they recorded their bestselling album yet, Victory. However, it was essentially a collection of solo recordings. Their final UK top 20 single, State of Shock, was mainly a duet between Michael and Mick Jagger. Despite the success, this proved a tumultuous year for the group. Famously, while filming a Pepsi commercial with his brothers, Michael suffered burns to his scalp. Their tour was marred by Jackie suffering a leg injury, ticket issues and friction within the family.

Understandably, Michael felt it was time to concentrate purely on his own career. Marlon left soon after to go solo too, before quitting music entirely. One more album followed in 1989. The remaining four released 2300 Jackson Street and the title track featured Michael and Marlon as well. But it sold poorly and the brothers went on hiatus.

And that was it until September 2001, when all six reunited for two concerts filmed for TV, celebrating Michael’s 30th anniversary as a solo artist. Then in 2009, Jackie, Jermaine, Tito and Randy began filming a reality TV show centred around their plans to reform and record a new album to celebrate 40 years in showbiz. Everything changed a few days after filming in June when Michael died. It was turned into a series and named The Jacksons: A Family Dynasty. The surviving Jacksons recorded backing vocals for Michael’s previously unreleased This Is It, intended as the title track to his big comeback. Instead it became his epitaph.

There was talk of a reunion tribute tour and album from The Jacksons but it never transpired. Jermaine and Jackie released new music though. Then a tribute concert was in the running, to the extent Jackie, Tito and Marlon appeared alongside Katherine and LaToya for press conference. But Randy and Jermaine issued their own statement denouncing the idea as it was planned to coincide with the manslaughter trial of Michael’s doctor Conrad Murray. It went ahead anyway and in 2012 Jermaine joined the trio for the Unity Tour, which ended in 2013. In 2018, Joe died.

Although Michael had at times publicly spoken about the abuse suffered at his father’s hands, his brothers are always quick to jump to his defence. Whether this is a case of joint Stockholm syndrome, we’ll never know. At time of writing, Jermaine, Jackie, Tito and Marlon are publicising a political reworking of Can You Feel It.

The Outro

Obviously, there will be plenty more Michael Jackson to follow in due course, but I’ve decided to give The Jackson 5/The Jacksons and relevant solo careers a deeper listen. Forever overshadowed by Michael, for good and bad reasons, I feel it’s time the band’s career was reappraised away from the controversy of their most famous member’s life.

The Info

Written & produced by

Gamble and Huff

Weeks at number 1

1 (25 June-1 July)

Meanwhile…

26 June: Jayne McDonald is found battered and stabbed to death in Chapeltown, Leeds. Police suspect she is the fifth person to be murdered by the Yorkshire Ripper. McDonald was a 16-year-old shop assistant, not a prostitute, which brought a new level of revulsion to the Ripper’s crimes from the media.

1 July: Virginia Wade won the Women’s Singles title at Wimbledon. 

394. ABBA – Dancing Queen (1976)

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The Intro

Simply magnificent. Right that’s Dancing Queen covered.

I’m joking, but really, what can be said about Dancing Queen that hasn’t already been said? How does one analyse the ecstasy contained within those three minutes and 52 seconds? In a moribund year of number 1s, this stands out not only as the best, it’s one of the greatest pop songs of all time, up there with She Loves You.

Before

Dancing Queen had been the first song ABBA recorded in the sessions for the album Arrival, beginning on 4 August 1975. The demo was known as Boogaloo and as sessions progressed, Benny Andersson and Björn Ulvaeus became inspired by another disco classic – George McCrae’s Rock Your Baby and the drum sound from Dr John’s 1972 LP Dr John’s Gumbo. It’s slightly blown my mind to discover that the intro sounds very similar to Delaney & Bonnie’s Sing My Way Home from 1971. It was manager and co-writer Stig Anderson that gave the song its title.

Once the backing track was complete, with session musicians Rutger Gunnarsson on bass and Roger Palm on drums, Andersson took a tape home and played it to Anni-Frid Lyngstad. She was so moved she burst into tears and later recalled ‘I found the song so beautiful. It’s one of those songs that goes straight to your heart.’. Fellow ABBA vocalist Agnetha Fältskog agreed, reminiscing that ‘It’s often difficult to know what will be a hit. The exception was Dancing Queen. We all knew it was going to be massive.’

Andersson, Anderson and Ulvaeus worked on the missing piece of the puzzle, coming up with lyrics that capture how it feels to be young, on a night out, and feeling the music and eyes of adorers upon you.

Review

Dancing Queen is a masterclass in pop on every level. Just like the Beatles with She Loves You, they know they have a killer chorus on their hands and go straight into it after a triumphant piano roll. It’s euphoric and ecstatic, and before turning the spotlight (or should that be Super Troupers?) on the 17-year-old girl in the disco, it’s pointing at the listener. You can dance. You can jive. Having the time of your life. The combination of this message and the beautiful music is so inviting, I don’t see how can anyone can turn it down. And then the verses. It’s Friday night, the lights are low and the Dancing Queen is on the prowl.

The only real complaint I’ve heard about Dancing Queen is that the lyrics are politically incorrect, that the girl is a prick tease. I don’t agree. I think the lyrics are empowering, particularly considering the era they were written in. To read ‘Anybody can be that guy’ as a sign of her not being fussy who she pulls, needs to pay attention to the preceding line: ‘You come to look for a king’. Although this is obviously considered a disco anthem, the lyrics note she’s dancing to rock music. Andersson and Ulvaeus wisely ditched a verse that was here originally and has survived via footage from a recording session:

‘Baby, baby, you’re out of sight
Hey, you’re looking all right tonight
When you come to the party
Listen to the guys
They’ve got the look in their eyes’

You could still argue with me, and it’s a strong argument, that the final verse really does prove this girl is bad news:

‘You’re a teaser, you turn ’em on
Leave them burning and then you’re gone
Looking out for another, anyone will do’

ABBA somehow manage to make all this sound kind of innocent though, and I’d still say it’s refreshing to see the girl in charge. And it’s true. It’s the girls that hold all the power in the nightclub discos. And if you listen to this wonderful music, you can feel that way again. It’s a song that doesn’t age thanks to the heavenly production. Lyngstad and Fältskog sing like angels and Andersson’s piano is the highlight – I love the way his pieces seem to tumble from ear to ear with earphones on. Nice synth too, adding texture here and there. As the song fades away, you can almost cry at the sheer beauty of it all. Ah to be young again. There’s none of the Europop cheese ABBA often indulge in here. If there is a higher power up there, I think ABBA somehow channeled it with this song. It’s perfect.

Recorded in two days flat, ABBA knew they were on to a winner, but Anderson suggested Fernando should be released before it as it was broader. This seems like madness to me, but both were massive hits so there you go. Dancing Queen went global. A very respectful six weeks here, 14 weeks in their native Sweden and topping the charts in more than 10 countries, including their only number 1 in the US. It became the second track on Arrival, which was a smash.

After

In 1980 they recorded a Spanish version for their Latin LP Gracias Por La Música, where it was renamed Reina Danzante. Over the years Dancing Queen has only grown in stature and is often referenced by critics who want to get over the simple beauty of pop at its best. It returned to the UK charts in 1992, reaching 16 off the back of Erasure’s number 1 Abba-esque EP. it’s perhaps here that the ABBA revival really began.

The Outro

So, with three number 1s, all huge sellers and this one ruling the roost, 1976 really was ABBA’s year. They weren’t one-hit wonders anymore. They were one of the UK’s favourite groups. In the video to Dancing Queen above, they are performing in a small, packed venue to bopping fans. The band look to be on top of the world. They were.

The Info

Written by

Benny Andersson, Stig Anderson & Björn Ulvaeus

Producers

Benny Andersson & Björn Ulvaeus

Weeks at number 1

6 (4 September-15 October)

Trivia

Births

6 September: Footballer Ian Ashbee/Actress Naomie Harris
8 September: Model Abi Titmuss
11 September: Swimmer Neil Willey
16 September: S Club 7 singer Tina Barrett
13 October: Field hockey player Jennie Bimson

Deaths

1 October: Royal Air Force officer George Stacey Hodson
14 October: Actress Edith Evans

Meanwhile…

4 September: 25,000 people attend the Peace March in Derry and call for an end to violence in Northern Ireland.

9 September: The Royal Shakespeare Company opens a production of Macbeth at The Other Place, Stratford-upon-Avon. Directed by Trevor Nunn, it stars Ian McKellen and Judi Dench in the lead roles.

12 September: Portsmouth football club are reported to be on the brink of bankruptcy due to huge debts.

23 September: Eight men are killed when a fire breaks out on the destroyer HMS Glasgow while being fitted out at Swan Hunter at Wallsend on Tyne.

29 September: Ford launch the Cortina Mark IV.

4 October: The famous InterCity 125 high-speed train is introduced into passenger service on British Rail, initially between London Paddington, Bristol and South Wales.

15 October: Two members of the Ulster Defence Regiment are ailed for 35 years for murder of the members of the Republic of Ireland cabaret performers Miami Showband.

391. The Real Thing – You to Me Are Everything (1976)

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The Intro

Number 1 throughout the most memorable heatwave of the past 50 years, Liverpool soul quartet The Real Thing stepped out of David Essex’s shadow in style with the disco stylings of You to Me Are Everything.

Before

They formed in 1970 with Chris Amoo as lead singer, along with Dave Smith, Kenny Davis and Ray Lake. Originally they were The Sophisticated Soul Brothers and then Vocal Perfection. Pretty cheesy names. Fortunately manager Tony Hall saw a Coca-Cola billboard while waiting at traffic lights in Piccadilly Circus with their famous slogan ‘The Real Thing’ in huge letters.

Initially they performed soul covers of US hits, and landed a contract with EMI, releasing debut single Vicious Circle in 1972. They struggled to break through and David left. Even an appearance on Opportunity Knocks couldn’t turn their fortunes around.

What did make a difference was signing with Pye Records in 1975. Essex produced their initial sessions, resulting in the single Watch Out Carolina. They joined him on tour as his support act but it wasn’t just famous friends that opened doors for The Real Thing. Amoo’s brother Eddie, who had sung with 60s soul group The Chants, joined the band and the Amoos began writing together.

However, You to Me Are Everything was written by Ken Gold and Michael Denne. They were British but most of the material they had spent the last few years writing was sold to US musicians, such was the lack of UK soul groups.

Review

I’ve always had a soft spot for You to Me Are Everything. It has a infectious groove thanks to that wah-guitar, uplifting piano and luscious strings. The lyrics on the whole are a little too cliched to impress, though Gold and Denne get round this by explicitly saying ‘Words cannot express how much you mean to me’. One line that is great though is ‘So now you’ve got the best of me/Come on and take the rest of me’, implying they’ve already got on very well in the bedroom and although it won’t get better than that, perhaps they can get to know each other too? You to Me Are Everything is a great track for romancing down the disco, and in a year where quality number 1s are very thin on the ground, it stands out even more now. Great to see that Liverpool could do soul and disco, too.

After

The Real Thing nearly made it two in a row that year when Can’t Get By Without You stopped short at two. They finally released their eponymous debut LP and a third single from it, You’ll Never Know What You’re Missing, took them to 16 in 1977. Over the next few years they had several hits and misses, including Whenever You Want My Love, which reached 18 in 1977. Most successful was Can You Feel the Force?, a decent disco floorfiller, which may have caught on in part due to Star Wars. It reached five in 1979, but the follow-up Boogie Down (Get Funk Now) was their last hit for seven years, only reaching 33.

The Real Thing returned to working with David Essex in 1982, performing backing vocals, which they also did on his hit Me and My Girl (Nightclubbing). Then 10 years after their number 1, The Real Thing were back in the charts, courtesy of DJ Froggy, Simon Harris and KC. You to Me Are Everything (The Decade Remix 76-86) shot to five and Can’t Get By Without You (The Decade Remix II) went to six. Can You Feel the Force? (’86 Remix) was their final chart entry at 24.

In 2002 Thomas Bangalter from Daft Punk and DJ Falcon released a single under the name Together called So Much Love to Give. It sampled The Real Thing’s Love’s Such a Wonderful Thing from 1977 and became a big club hit. Although they didn’t credit The Real Thing, N-Trance’s Kevin O’Toole and Dale Longworth did when they released their version of So Much Love to Give as The Freeloaders. It was a number nine hit.

The Outro

Lake died in 2000, and Eddie Amoo in 2018 during the making of a BBC Four documentary about the band. Everything – The Real Thing Story was shown in 2020.

The Info

Written by

Ken Gold & Michael Denne

Producer

Ken Gold

Weeks at number 1

3 (26 June-16 July)

Trivia

Births

28 June: Actress Lorraine Stanley
1 July: Actress Kellie Bright
7July: Actress Natasha Collins
8 July: Yachtswoman Ellen MacArthur
12 July: Actress Anna Friel
13 July: Actress Lisa Riley
14 July: Cricketer Geraint Jones

Deaths:

28 June: Actor Sir Stanley Baker
5 July: Comics artist Frank Bellamy

Meanwhile…

26 June–16 July: The legendary 1976 heatwave reaches its peak with a temperature of 26.7C every day of this period. For 15 consecutive days, (23 June-7 July), it reaches 32.2 C in London. For five consecutive days – the first being 26 June the temperature exceeded 35C. On 28 June, the temperature reaches 35.6C (96.1 °F) in Southampton, the highest recorded for June in the UK. And then on 3 July, thermometers recroded 35.9C in Cheltenham.

29 June: The Seychelles become independent of the UK.

7 July: David Steel is elected as the leader of the Liberal Party.

14 July: Ford launches the Fiesta, a small three-door hatchback.

386. Tina Charles – I Love to Love (But My Baby Loves to Dance) (1976)

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The Intro

Tina Charles holds the unusual honour of being a backing singer on a number 1 before reaching the top spot in her own right. A year after she featured on Steve Harley and Cockney Rebel’s Make Me Smile (Come Up and See Me), I Love to Love (But My Baby Loves to Dance) became the first homegrown disco tune to conquer the UK charts.

Before

Charles was born Tina Hoskins in Whitechapel, London on 10 March 1954. As well as being a backing singer she also worked as a session musician. She was only 15 when she recorded her debut single, Nothing in the World, and it featured Elton John, then unknown, on piano. Charles released one or two singles a year from then until 1974, but didn’t make a mark. In the meantime she sang on the Top of the Pops album series, in which anonymous session singers and musicians performed covers of hits. In 1971 she guested on The Two Ronnies, performing The Rolling Stones’s Ruby Tuesday, among other famous hits.

1975 was where Charles’s career took off. In addition to providing the famous ‘Oooh la la la’ backing vocals on Make Me Smile with her friend Linda Lewis, she sang on 5000 Volts’s disco hit I’m on Fire. Due to contractual issues her name was not given publicly and singer/actress Luan Peters stood in for Charles on Top of the Pops. Then she met Biddu, the Indian/British producer responsible for making Kung Fu Fighting. They recorded the album I Love to Love, but it wasn’t the first single to be released. You Set My Heart on Fire preceded it but despite going top 10 in Belgium, the Netherlands and Sweden, she still couldn’t crack the UK top 40. She and Biddu must have known they were on to something with I Love to Love (But My Baby Loves to Dance) however, to name the LP after it.

Review

I Love to Love (But My Baby Loves to Dance) starts very promisingly, bouncing along to a nifty disco groove played by Manchester musicians Richie Close (keyboard), Clive Allen (guitar), Des Browne (bass) and Tom Daley (percussion). The conceit appears to be, Charles wants to make love, but her partner is too busy dancing. This rather suggests there is a problem in the relationship and Charles should start asking him a few awkward questions really, but she doesn’t sound too upset about her situation and ends the night danced out but still hoping to ‘have my way’.

Unfortunately, the song doesn’t really go anywhere and is too lightweight to get much out of. Charles certainly has a powerful voice, but what at first sounds appealing gets a bit annoying. This song is probably as frustrating as wanting a good time with a partner who goes off to dance as soon as he hears music. If it came on at a club on a drunken night out (remember those?) you could probably enjoy yourself but that’s about it.

After

I Love to Love (But My Baby Loves to Dance) was a massive hit all over Europe. Charles’s follow-up LP, Dance Little Lady, was also produced by Biddu and spawned two top 10 hits in 1976 – Dance Little Lady Dance (reached six) and Dr Love (four). At the time her then-boyfriend, future genius producer Trevor Horn, featured in her backing band for live shows.

Only a year later, her hit rate was decreasing, and in 1978 I’ll Go Where Your Music Takes Me was the last time she charted (at 27). Charles tried to move with the times in 1980 with the harder sound of her album Just One Smile but interest was low. She concentrated on family life for the next few years. In 1987 there was a brief resurgence when I Love to Love and Dance Little Lady were remixed by Sanny-X. Both songs did well in Europe.

The Outro

Since then she has resurfaced from time to time, touring in Europe since 2000, performing on stage as a guest with The Producers, Horn’s supergroup of, yes, you guessed it, producers.

The Info

Written by

Jack Robinson & James Bolden

Producer

Biddu

Weeks at number 1

3 (6-22 March)

Trivia

Deaths

19 March: Free guitarist Paul Kossoff

Meanwhile…

16 March: Labour leader Harold Wilson shocked the nation by announcing his resignation as Prime Minister, to take effect on 5 April. Since returning to Downing Street in 1974, he had admitted in private that he had lost his enthusiasm for the role. Publicly, he claimed he had always intended to retire at 60, and said he was physically and mentally exhausted. He may have also been aware of the first stages of early-onset Alzheimer’s disease.

19 March: Princess Margaret and Lord Snowdon announce they are to separate after 16 years of marriage.

361. Barry White – You’re the First, the Last, My Everything (1974)

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The Intro

Literally one of the biggest soul stars of the 70s, US singer-songwriter-producer-arranger Barry White was a disco pioneer, and You’re the First, My Last, My Everything is a prime example of his smooth, sexy résumé. Jokes about his weight aside, the ‘Walrus of Love’ sold millions in his lifetime, making him a chart heavyweight. Sorry.

Before

Barry Eugene Carter was born on 12 September 1944 in Galveston, Texas to Melvin A White and Sadie Marie Carter. They moved to South Central Los Angeles, California when he was young, and he fell in love with his mother’s classical records and began learning the piano, while his mother also taught him how to harmonise. Perhaps this explains the lush orchestration that would become one of his trademarks. One of the most obvious things to spring to mind is White’s baritone, with him since the day his voice dropped suddenly, aged 14. He later recalled his mother crying that his previously squeaky voice had gone forever.

At 16 White was sent to prison for stealing tyres, and while there his life changed when he heard Elvis Presley singing It’s Now or Never (O Sole Mio). He vowed to go straight and focus on music. This was nearly taken away from him when he was arrested again shortly after his release for attempted murder. Luckily for him, the victim came out of a coma and was able to give a proper description of the attacker, thus proving White was innocent.

He joined The Upfronts and sang bass over six singles, beginning with Too Far to Turn Around in 1960. His debut solo single, as Lee Barry, was Man Ain’t Nothin’ in 1966 on Downey. For much of the 60s he worked as a songwriter and arranger for small labels in California, and he relied on welfare cheques to feed his family. Among the acts he worked with were The Bobby Fuller Four, and he also wrote music for The Banana Splits children’s TV series in 1968.

After years of plugging away, White got his big break in 1972 when Love Unlimited recorded debut album From a Girl’s Point of View We Give to You… Love Unlimited. They were an all-female soul trio in the mould of The Supremes that White had spent two years honing. The ballad Walkin’ in the Rain with the One I Love became a hit in the UK and US.

Then came The Love Unlimited Orchestra in 1973. The 40-piece were assembled by White to back Love Unlimited, but he also decided to release material by them in their own right, and Love’s Theme became a smash-hit and was one of the few instrumentals to top the Billboard Hot 100. It also climbed to 10 in the UK. Also in 1973, White was searching for a male singer to work with, and recorded some demos, but when his business partner Larry Nunes heard them, he loved White’s croon and said he should record them and take the spotlight. White didn’t agree and took some persuading, but he subsequently recorded enough to release an album, and from I’ve Got So Much to Give came his first solo hit, I’m Gonna Love You Just a Little More Baby, featuring a riff as heavy as the man himself, and his deep purring, it’s a soul classic.

With that and songs like Never, Never Gonna Give You Up from follow-up Stone Gon’, White became known as the go-to man to soundtrack sex. I wonder how many children came about to the music of White? We Brits had certainly never heard such steamy stuff in the singles chart.

Love Unlimited’s lead singer Glodean James became White’s second wife in 1974, and this was the peak of the Walrus of Love’s chart placings. His music became less raunchy and more celebratory of love in general with the singles from Can’t Get Enough. The almost-title track Can’t Get Enough of Your Love, Babe, climbed to number eight on these shores before he hit the top spot.

You’re the First, the Last, My Everything was originally a country song written by White’s friend Peter Radcliffe back in 1953 but the singer couldn’t get You’re My First, You’re My Last, My In-Between recorded. When White was down on his luck, Radcliffe bought his children toys for Christmas, and White never forgot that. Songwriter Tony Sepe was shocked when Radcliffe played it to them both in the studio, finding it dated, but White told Radcliffe to stay away for three weeks and he’d turn it into a smash. When he heard the results, he cried.

Review

With a shortened intro from the album version, White purrs ‘We got it together, didn’t we?’ You can imagine him saying it with an after-sex cigarette in his hand. Try not to picture it too hard though… Rather than seducing his lover, this is a tribute to their love, and so there’s no wonder this became his safest hit, used at wedding discos and anniversary parties decades later. Like all White’s prime cuts, it’s made with the dancefloor in mind, with stabbing strings that make you want to punch the air or even slide along it on your knees depending on how much you’ve drunk.

And yet, it doesn’t click with me like it perhaps should. As a big soul, funk and disco fan it should be right up my alley, but there’s something about White’s work that stops me loving it. It’s perhaps the sad fact he’s considered a cliché now, and a bit of a joke due to his sweaty appearance and frilly shirts, a throwback to cheesier times. I prefer his filth from the year previous, and consider that more groundbreaking, but I certainly don’t deny as disco goes, this is superior to some of the tat that followed in its wake. And as a huge Pulp fan, I do enjoy White’s spoken word, lengthy, hypnotic intros. As did Jarvis Cocker, clearly.

After

The hits kept coming for White, for a few years, with plenty of top 10 action in the UK with singles like What Am I Gonna Do (number five), Let the Music Play (nine) in 1975 and You See the Trouble with Me (two) in 1976. Two years later his cover of Billy Joel’s Just the Way You Are was his last hit for nine years.

After six years of fame with 20th Century Records, White left in 1979 to set up his own label, Unlimited Gold, with CBS/Columbia Records. Unfortunately this coincided with a downturn in sales. Tastes were changing and disco was on its way out. The 80s were lean times and the label folded in 1983. Four years later the single Sho’ You Right briefly returned him to the charts.

In the 90s, disco came back in vogue, as the children of the 70s looked back on their youth, just as rock’n’roll had a revival in the 70s. White became a living legend and his 1992 album Put Me In Your Mix returned him to the US charts. In 1994 Practice What You Preach (from The Icon Is Love) reached 20 in the UK singles chart. He leant his voice to The Simpsons and appeared on Ally McBeal, and seemed happy to poke fun at himself. He wasn’t always as cool as his reputation suggested though, enjoy these outtakes of him losing his rag while recording a voiceover for Paul Quinn College. BBC comedies such as The Mary Whitehouse Experience and The Smell of Reeves and Mortimer liked to spoof the Walrus, the latter being particularly funny to the teenage me.

Ironically, White’s last album was called Staying Power, released in 1999. His health problems were catching up with him, and that year he was forced to cancel tour dates due to exhaustion and high blood pressure. In 2002 he was hospitalised due to kidney failure, and while undergoing dialysis and awaiting a transplant in May 2003 he suffered a severe stroke. White died on 4 July 2003, aged 58.

The Outro

Look past all the layers of irony, and White was very talented, and his songs of love were a positive force in disco. As the Fun Lovin’ Criminals sang on 1998 single Love Unlimited:

‘Barry White, saved my life
and if Barry White, saved your life
Or got you back with your ex-wife
Sing Barry White, Barry White, it’s alright.’

The Info

Written by

Peter Radcliffe, Tony Sepe & Barry White

Producer

Barry White

Weeks at number 1

2 (7-20 December)

Trivia

Births

13 December: Radio DJ Sara Cox/Franz Ferdinand guitarist Nick McCarthy

Meanwhile…

15 December: In an attempt to save fuel at a time of Arab embargoes following the Yom Kippur War, new speed limits are introduced on Britain’s roads

18 December: The government pays £42,000 to families of victims of the Bloody Sunday riots in Northern Ireland.

356. Carl Douglas – Kung Fu Fighting (1974)

/ robbarker1979

The Intro

‘Woah-ho-ho-ho!’ Knocked off in 10 minutes as a B-side, this huge-selling number 1 is one of the most famous novelty hits of all time. It took advantage of the 70s kung fu craze and briefly made Carl Douglas a star.

Yes, the mid-70s wasn’t just about streaking. The films of martial artist Bruce Lee had become popular in the US and subsequently the UK, but he died after the making of his 1973 blockbuster Enter the Dragon, which only added to his legend. He had allegedly also been in the running to star in US action drama Kung Fu, before David Carradine took the role in 1972. The mid-70s was the high watermark of the nation’s fascination with kung fu. There were adverts for Hai Karate aftershave, cartoon canine Hong Kong Phooey and an episode of The Goodies, ‘Kung Fu Kapers’ that concentrated on the ancient art of ‘Ecky Thump’. Famously, this was the episode in which a man literally died laughing at home while watching. What a way to go.

Before

But anyway, Carl Douglas. Carlton George Douglas was born 10 May 1942 in Kingston, Jamaica but also spent his childhood in California before relocating to London as a teenager to study sound engineering, and enjoyed playing football. He also underwent vocal training and developed a strong tenor voice that he would use to sing in church. Douglas loved soul and jazz music, and his heroes were Sam Cooke and Otis Redding.

In 1964 Douglas formed Carl Douglas & the Big Stampede, and they released three singles in the UK but failed to get anywhere. His debut solo single was Serving a Sentence of Life in 1968, but again, no joy. With another group, Carl Douglas & the Explosion, he released the single Eeny Meeny in Spain. No reaction. Douglas returned to the UK and started working with Indian producer Biddu for the first time in 1971.

Biddu Appaiah, better known as just Biddu, would become one of the pioneers of disco. Born in Bangalore, India in 1944, he moved to England in the 60s and became a producer, working on Japanese band The Tigers’ Smile for Me in 1969, before moving on to a number of tracks that became popular on the Northern Soul scene.

Douglas recorded the single Marble and Iron with Biddu, who used the singer again in 1972 on the soundtrack to the spy thriller Embassy, starring Richard Roundtree (Shaft). Biddu hired Douglas again in 1974 to record I Want to Give You My Everything. He asked the singer if he had any ideas on what they could use as a B-side, and Douglas had several, one of which was a bunch of lyrics about watching a kung fu film. Not taking it too seriously, Biddu came up with a tune, and when it came to recording, allegedly I Want to Give You My Everything took two hours, wheras Kung Fu Fighting took 10 minutes as they were running out of studio time.

When the single was taken to Pye Records, an executive couldn’t understand why Kung Fu Fighting wasn’t the A-side, and insisted they swap the two around, for which Douglas and Biddu must be eternally grateful.

Review

You may have heard it a million times, and not consider it something you’d ever need to listen to again by choice, but I’d defy anyone to not have a soft spot for Kung Fu Fighting. Sure, it’s cheesy, but it’s also bloody funky, and I’m a sucker for some wah-wah guitar and a nice bassline. Funk is one of my favourite genres and there’s sadly very few that reached number 1. And for all this is considered a disco classic, and Biddu went on to be one of the genre’s foremost producers, this to me is more funk than disco. Although credit is due to Biddu for the oriental strings. Over-the-top, sure, as are the ‘ha!’ noises at the end of each line, but they only add to the fun. I’d imagine this song must have been incredible for your average child into kung fu at the time, and is still able to make anyone feel young again, no matter their age.

After

Kung Fu Fighting looked like another failure upon its release, but picked up momentum from airplay in clubs. After reaching number 1 here, it topped charts around the world, including Billboard‘s, making Douglas the first Jamaican to top the US chart. An album was quickly cobbled together, the wonderfully named Kung Fu Fighting and Other Great Love Songs. Douglas is remembered as a one-hit wonder, but he had two more UK hits – the inferior follow-up cash-in Dance the Kung Fu later that year (number 35) and Run Back in 1977 (number 25).

The Outro

Two more albums were released, Love, Peace and Happiness in 1979 and Keep Pleasing Me in 1983, and then Douglas disappeared into obscurity, moving to Hamburg, Germany, occasionally surfacing to remember his time as the man behind Kung Fu Fighting. And then in 1998 his song was back in the top 10 again thanks to the dance act Bus Stop, reaching number eight. It was pretty pointless, just the original with some rapping added into the mix, but it captured the 90s obsession with the 70s and Douglas was wheeled out once more for TV shows. He seems a genial character, and who wouldn’t be, really, when you can have an income for life thanks to one song made in a hurry?

The Info

Written by

Carl Douglas

Producer

Biddu

Weeks at number 1

3 (21 September-11 October)

Meanwhile…

23 September: The first Teletext information service Ceefax began on the BBC. This precursor to the internet was fascinating to people of a certain age, ie, me.

30 September: With the year’s second general election 10 days away, opinion polls showed Labour were in the lead, with Harold Wilson well-placed to gain the overall majority that no party achieved in the election held in February.

5 October: The Provisional IRA killed five people in the Guildford pub bombings.

10 October: The second general election of 1974 resulted in Labour gaining a majority, but only by three seats. Speculation began immediately that Edward Heath’s leadership of the Conservatives would soon be over. The Scottish National Party secured its highest Westminster party representation to date with 11 seats, and former Conservative MP Enoch Powell was returned to parliament standing for the Ulster Unionist Party in Northern Ireland. 

353. George McCrae – Rock Your Baby (1974)

/ robbarker1979

The Intro

I love George McCrae’s Rock Your Baby. One of my favourite number 1s of the 70s, this is a landmark in early disco music, thanks to the slinkiest of grooves and McCrae’s heavenly falsetto – and to think, his performance was the happiest of accidents. Finally, after seemingly endless 50s rehashes and tributes, here was a new sound.

Before

KC and the Sunshine Band were Florida-based disco pioneers, formed in 1973 by record store employee Harry Wayne Casey (aka KC) and TK Records engineer Richard Finch. The same year, Vince Aletti became one of the first to use ‘disco’ as a term to describe a genre, in Rolling Stone that September. Casey and Finch had begun releasing material with their new band and among the demos they worked on was Rock Your Baby.

The backbone of the track was courtesy of an early drum machine on a Lowry organ left in the TK Records studio, a rare sound back then. Casey took to the keyboards and Finch took care of the bass and real drums, and as they built up the track, they felt something magical. Finch told Songfacts ‘it was like God was in the building or something’. They paid KC and the Sunshine Band guitarist Jerome Smith $15 to lay down some licks and wrote lyrics inspired by Hues Corporation’s hit Rock the Boat. KC and the Sunshine Band were not an established act at this point, and Casey couldn’t reach those high notes, so who should they get to sing it? TK Records owner Henry Stone suggested soul singer Gwen MCrae, but fortune smiled on her husband, George, instead.

George Warren McCrae, Jnr was born 19 October 1944 in West Palm Beach, Florida, the second of nine children. He formed his own singing group, The Jivin’ Jets, before joining the US Navy in 1963. That same year, he married Gwen Mosley. Four years later, the McCraes reformed the group, but they split soon after, and they began working as a duo. Gwen signed a solo contract and began to have modest hits, so George became her manager. He was about to return to college to study law enforcement when he sang over Rock Your Baby.

Review

KC and the Sunshine Band are mainly remembered these days for catchy disco anthems, great blasts of fun, but perhaps short on substance. With Rock Your Baby, they created something magnificent, entering unchartered territory by adding the sweet soul voice of McCrae to a drum machine with a holy melding of man and machine. I Feel Love is the most magnificent disco song, but without Rock Your Baby, would we have got there?

The keyboard melody at the start is almost nursery rhyme-like, setting the scene for a tender serenade in which a blissed-out McCrae surrenders to his love – which is pretty unusual for this time. He’s no alpha male, and is letting her take the lead. Smith’s choppy guitar line is vital, even if it sounds very similar to Rock the Boat. This would in time become one of the key ingredients to the disco sound.

Rock Your Baby is sexual, of course, but it’s sensual and seductive more than anything. Listen to the way McCrae’s falsetto glides over the rhythm in an aural orgasm, and it can move like few disco songs can. The six-minute-plus album version is superior as it lets the song stretch and breathe. To be honest, I could listen to an hour-long mix of this and not tire of it.

After

Rock Your Baby sold millions and was number 1 in the UK, US and across Europe. It inspired John Lennon’s Whatever Gets You Thru the Night and ABBA’s Dancing Queen. Not bad for a debut solo single. McCrae, the first black artist to top the UK charts in nearly two years, is considered a one-hit wonder, but he actually had other popular material. Follow-ups I Can’t Leave You Alone and You Can Have It All went number nine and 23 respectively later in the year, and in 1975, It’s Been So Long climbed to number four, and I Ain’t Lyin’ reached number 12.

Also in 1975, Gwen recorded a reply to Rock Your Baby, Rockin’ Chair, on which George provided backing vocals. The following year, he and Gwen divorced, and Honey I became his last UK charting single. We Did It! was his last album for some time in 1979, as he left TK Records and went into semi-retirement.

In the meantime, KC and the Sunshine Band became one of the biggest disco acts on the planet, with a string of floorfillers that encapsulated the genre’s positivity. They recorded Rock Your Baby too, but only as an instrumental. It wasn’t until 1983 that they scored a UK number 1, with the effervescent Give It Up.

The Outro

McCrae surfaced again in 1984 with the album One Step Closer to Love, but it failed to chart. A remix of his number 1, known as the Frankfurst Mix, remixed by Paul Hardcastle, was released in 1986. He continued to make albums up until Do Something in 1996, then disappeared again, and has returned sporadically. He was part of Jools’ Annual Hootenanny in 2017. A cover of Rock Your Baby was a number eight hit for dance act KWS in 1992.

The Info

Written & produced by

Harry Wayne Casey & Richard Finch

Weeks at number 1

3 (27 July-16 August)

Trivia

Births

31 July: Actress Emilia Fox

Meanwhile…

15 August: The collapse of Court Line and its subsidiaries Clarksons and Horizon Holidays results in 100,000 holidaymakers stranded abroad.