George McCrae

446. Dr. Hook – When You’re in Love with a Beautiful Woman (1979)

/ robbarker1979

The Intro

From the cover of Rolling Stone to UK number 1, New Jersey country rock band Dr Hook enjoyed three weeks at the top with this disco-flecked look at the perils of punching above your weight.

Before

Dr Hook and the Medicine Show: Tonic for the Soul formed in 1968. Guitarist George Cummings had left the band Chocolate Papers and moved to Union City, New Jersey to start a new group. He brought with him their vocalist Ray Sawyer and keyboardist Billy Francis. Sawyer had lost his right eye in a motorcycle accident in 1967 and he’d worn an eyepatch ever since. Cummings came up with the new name as a reference to Sawyer resembling a pirate, despite Captain Hook not wearing a patch. They hired Dennis Locorriere as their bassist, and soon after former Chocolate Papers drummer Popeye Phillips also joined their ranks.

Phillips didn’t hang around long, and neither did his replacement, Joseph Olivier, but session drummer John ‘Jay’ David did. After two years of performing locally, fortune smiled on the five-piece. Their demo tapes were heard by Ron Haffkine, the musical director on the film Who Is Harry Kellerman and Why Is He Saying Those Terrible Things About Me?. He liked their sound and hired them to perform two songs, both sung by Locorriere. Though the film was only a modest success upon its release in 1971, it did get Dr Hook and the Medicine Show a recording contract with CBS Records. Haffkine became their producer and manager.

Their first album, Doctor Hook, spawned Sylvia’s Mother, a cheeky dig at teen-heartbreak ballads. This became a huge hit, reaching two in the UK and five in the US, but number 1 in Australia, Ireland and New Zealand. Follow-up album Sloppy Seconds featured The Cover of Rolling Stone, which poked fun at the idea of having made it if they were to appear on the front of the music magazine. When Jann Wenner, one of Rolling Stone‘s founders, heard about the song, he sent Cameron Crowe, then 16, to interview the band. They made it to the cover – but in cartoon form, and the song peaked at six in the US.

Meanwhile, the song couldn’t even get played on most UK radio stations. The BBC considered it wasn’t on to in effect advertise a publication on the air. A few of their DJs got together and edited the song to sing ‘Radio Times‘ instead, but it still failed to chart.

As the occasionally tortured voice of Locorriere began to feature more and more over Sawyer’s vocals, they hired Jance Garfat to play bass and Rick Elswit became second guitarist, both in 1972. But things began to go downhill for Dr Hook and the Medicine Show over the next few years. They earned a reputation for partying hard and quirky live performances, where they’d sometimes impersonate their support acts. But they overindulged, the 1973 album Belly Up! was a flop and David then left, to be replaced by John Wolters. In 1974 they filed for bankruptcy and their LP Fried Face didn’t even get a release.

Realising they needed to get their act together, they shortened their name to Dr Hook, signed with Capitol Records and penned their own material for a new album. The aptly named Bankrupt saw them return to the US singles chart, at six with a cover of Sam Cooke’s Only Sixteen. Elswit was briefly out of action due to cancer, so Bob ‘Willard’ Henk was brought in to help in 1976. He remained even once Elswit had recuperated and returned.

Also in 1976, Haffkine had bought the song A Little Bit More by Bobby Gosh for 35 cents at a flea market. He loved it and thought his band could make it a hit, and this romantic, but slightly rapey ballad was a smash, particularly in the UK, where it stormed to number two. The album it came from, with the same name, also featured If Not You, which peaked at five and More Like the Movies, number 14 in 1978.

In 1978 came their eighth album, Pleasure and Pain, which featured When You’re in Love with a Beautiful Woman. Songwriter Even Stevens (great name) pitched the song to Haffkine in the studio bathroom of Muscle Shoals Sound Studio in Alabama.

Review

Dr Hook’s brand of novelty country rock in general does little for me, and this isn’t up there with some of 1979’s many classic, innovative chart-toppers. However, whether this disco shuffle was a cynical attempt to get on the disco bandwagon or not, I’ve a soft spot for it. The rhythm really is irresistible, and brings to mind one of my favourite examples of the genre – George McCrae’s Rock Your Baby. The lyrics haven’t aged well – they’re a bit on the condescending side, assuming that because this woman is beautiful, she’s not to be trusted. Take the tune out of the equation and the lyrics sound like the man in the relationship is paranoid to the point of psychosis. He’s ‘been fooled before/By fair-weathered friends and faint-hearted lovers’ and it’s clearly left its mark. Big round of applause for the innuendo of the first line though, especially when the backing singers join in.

The video is more in keeping with the music, with Dr Hook having a lot of fun, beaming away in the studio. Locorriere pokes fun at the lyrics, going all starey and wild-eyed at ‘You watch your friends’, glancing edgily at Sawyer, then grinning at the camera so we know he’s just kidding. But then – oh no! Sawyer drives off at the end with not one but two beautiful women! Locorriere cannot believe it! What larks.

After

When You’re in Love with a Beautiful Woman was so successful, Dr Hook also included it on their next LP, Sometimes You Win. Their final Capitol album also featured Better Love Next Time, which peaked at eight, and Sexy Eyes, another decent disco/soft rock hybrid and number four smash in 1980. Henke left that year and was replaced by Rod Smarr. Going further down the disco route, they signed with Casablanca Records, but their time in the charts was up.

Sawyer reportedly was unhappy with Dr Hook’s songs, and perhaps felt sidelined now Locorriere was considered their frontman. He was by now the equivalent of Bez in Happy Mondays, or Davy Jones in The Monkees, mostly just shaking maracas. He decided to leave in 1983 and two years later, Dr Hook split up.

The Outro

Locorriere retained ownership of the band’s name but from 1988 to 2015 Sawyer toured as ‘Dr Hook featuring Ray Sawyer’. In 2018 Sawyer died, aged 81. Few classic era Dr Hook band members remain – Wolters died in 1997, Graft in 2006, Francis in 2010 and Smarr in 2012. Locorriere still tours under the band’s name.

The Info

Written by

Even Stevens

Producer

Ron Haffkine

Weeks at number 1

3 (17 November-7 December)

Trivia

Births

22 November: 5ive singer Scott Robinson
29 November: Comedian Simon Anstell
1 December: Field hockey player Lisa Wooding
3 December: Singer-songwriter Daniel Bedingfield

Deaths

23 November: Actress Merle Oberon
30 November: Comedian Joyce Grenfell

Meanwhile…

23 November: IRA member Thomas McMahon is sentenced to life in prison for the assassination of Lord Mountbatten.

4 December: When three boys are killed in the Hastie Fire in Hull, the hunt begins for Bruce George Peter Lee, one of the UK’s most prolific killers.

7 December: Lord Soames was appointed as the transitional governor of Rhodesia in order to oversee its move to independence.

409. Donna Summer – I Feel Love (1977)

/ robbarker1979

The Intro

‘Queen of Disco’ Donna Summer sold hundreds of millions of records in the 70s and 80s. Her sole UK number 1, I Feel Love, is to put it mildly, one of the greatest, most influential records of all time. Pointing the way towards the future of pop, this collaboration with Giorgio Moroder and Pete Bellotte will never, ever grow old. It is as important to music as The Beatles’ She Loves You.

Before

Summer was born LaDonna Adrian Gaines on 31 December 1948 in Boston, Massachusetts. The third of seven children, her father was a butcher and her mother a schoolteacher. Her performing debut took place at church when she was aged 10, replacing another child who failed to appear. A popular child, at high school she performed in school musicals. In 1967, weeks before graduation, Gaines left Boston for New York, where she joined blues rock group Crow. Allegedly the band split when they failed to be signed due to the label only showing an interest in her.

Gaines remained in New York afterwards, where she auditioned to be in counterculture hit musical Hair. She agreed to take the role of Sheila in the Munich production. Her parents were reluctant for her to move to West Germany, but she did. In 1968 as Donna Gaines she released her first single Wasserman, a German cover of Hair‘s Aquarius/Let the Sunshine In, on Polydor. Over the next few years she became fluent in German and starred in several musicals.

In 1971, Gaines moved to Vienna in Austria, where she married the native actor Helmuth Sommer. She got work as a backing singer, going under the name Gayn Pierre. While flitting between this work and being a part-time model, she got to know Moroder and Bellotte in Munich during a recording session with Three Dog Night at their studio. She signed with them in 1974, releasing their first fruits together, Denver Dream, as a single. Due to an error on the demo’s cover, Sommer decided to keep the name Donna Summer instead. Debut LP Lady of the Night came out that same year. This mix of rock, folk and pop performed respectably in the Netherlands, where it was initially released.

Then a year later Summer approached Moroder with a sketch of a song called Love to Love You. Raunchy and explicit, she was unsure she wanted her name putting to it, but agreed to record a demo. Moroder loved it and insisted her version be released. It reached 13 in the Netherlands, but Moroder knew this was just the start. He sent a tape to Casablanca records boss Neil Bogart in the States. Bogart was a lively hedonist and would play Love to Love You at his wild parties. He loved it, but told Moroder it needed to be longer. This was because people would end up having sex to it at his parties and he got sick of having to put the needle on the record again when it ended too soon. A reticent Summer eventually threw herself into the job, laying on a near-dark studio floor to record a vocal the like of which had never been heard in mainstream pop before. Over 16 minutes long and according to the BBC featuring 23 orgasm sounds, Love to Love You Baby introduced the world to Summer. This filthy disco classic, renamed by Bogart, reached two in the US and four in the UK in 1975.

Summer, Moroder and Bellotte wasted no time in capitalising on the success, with an album of the same name following, then two more, A Love Trilogy and Four Seasons of Love in 1976. These were disco concept albums, featuring lengthy dance floor epics on one side and shorter tracks on the flip. Summer had by now earned herself the nickname ‘First Lady of Love’. Sales dropped in the UK, although Winter Melody climbed to 27 in the UK singles chart.

That October, the trio set to work on another concept album. I Remember Yesterday was planned as an LP showcasing Summer’s ability to put her voice to varying music styles from the past, as well as her trademark disco stylings. The final track, it was decided, would be set to what they envisioned as the music of the future. That future was I Feel Love.

Although Moroder had spent several years developing his string-laden disco epics, he had history with the future of music. His song Son of My Father became the first number 1 to feature a synthesiser when covered by Chicory Tip in 1972. For I Feel Love, Moroder borrowed the Moog Modular 3P from classical composer Eberhard Schoener, who had been something of a Moog pioneer. Schoener’s assistant Robby Wedel proved integral in the recording process. Bellotte later called him the unsung hero of the track as he was able to control the Moog in a way nobody, including Robert Moog himself, thought possible.

The large unwieldy instrument, looking like a small TARDIS, was brought into Musicland Studios in Munich. The first line was laid down and Wedel taught Moroder and Bellotte how to synch tracks. It was he that produced the most distinctive and initiated bassline in electronic music, thought up by Moroder. Each note of the baseline was doubled by a delay effect, with the original note coming through the left channel and the delay through the right, creating that hypnotic strobing sensation. Moroder would alter the key at regular intervals to add variety. The recording process was laborious, with the unpredictable Moog going out of tune every 20 or 30 seconds. For the hi-hat sound they took white noise generated by the machine’s envelopes and cut it up. There was however one human element added to the instrumentation. Because they were unable to get a large enough kick drum sound from the Moog, they used their regular session drummer Keith Forsey, who added seven minutes of thump. Forsey later co-wrote Flashdance… What a Feeling with Moroder.

Summer and Bellotte were supposed to work together on the lyrics. Bellotte headed over to her house one night and got started while Summer was on the phone. It was three hours later before she finally came down, apologising for being on the phone to her astrologer, who was helping her decide between two men she was dating. Bellotte had finished writing the song. Summer made up for the wait by eventually recording her vocal in one take.

Review

There simply aren’t enough superlatives to describe this song. It’s far too big to even be called a song. It’s a cultural touchstone. A landmark in music. And unlike some of the greatest songs of all time, I think it’s actually impossible to tire of it. While researching it I fell down a rabbit hole and listened to over 90 minutes of this one song and the many remixes through the years. I could have gone on, too. It’s also an understatement to say no number 1 before it had ever sounded like this. The Moog fades in, shimmering, before the bass and its delay creates a totally addictive, motorik arpeggio, used on countless tunes ever since. It’s alien, electronic, magnetic. And you can feel blissed-out even before Summer comes in. But when she does… total ecstasy. She glides over the retro-futuristic electronic soundscape like an angel.

Understandably when I Feel Love is discussed it’s the backing that gets most of the attention. Summer’s one-take vocal, though, is fantastic. It takes George McCrae’s orgasmic falsetto on that earlier dancefloor revolutionary number 1, Rock Your Baby to another level. The only criticism I could possibly give this single is that it’s too short. The album version, 5:53 long, is hacked down to 3:45, with the fade-in happening too quick, and it fades out before the third verse. If ever a song deserved to stretch out, it’s this.

And yet, Casablanca didn’t seem so sure about I Feel Love. Moroder later recalled that Bogart enjoyed it but not as much as he’d hoped. Bellotte also says that nobody involved in the making of it seemed to realise just how special it was. It was initially tucked away as the B-side to the ballad Can’t We Just Sit Down (And Talk It Over), released 1 May 1977. But it gained traction in nightclubs, particularly in the UK. Casablanca switched sides and I Feel Love became the single here and then internationally. It became huge. The 12″ version, at 8:15, is even better than the album version.

After

Summer followed I Feel Love with the beautiful Theme from “The Deep” (Down, Deep Inside), co-written by John Barry. It peaked at five. Love’s Unkind, also from I Remember Yesterday, went to number three. Summer, Moroder and Bellotte followed up that LP with Once Upon a Time… a double album based on Cinderella. In 1978 she acted in the modestly received disco comedy film Thank God It’s Friday. Her song from the soundtrack, Last Dance, saw Summer win her first of five Grammys, for Best Female R&B Vocal Performance. Also that year, she notched up her first US number 1 with a live recording of MacArthur Park. Her final album for Casablanca, released in 1979, was Bad Girls. This double LP was the biggest selling and most acclaimed of her career. Moroder brought in Harold Faltermeyer to contribute. Hot Stuff and Bad Girls were both US number 1s, making her the first solo artist to have two songs in the Billboard top three. When her duet with Barbra Streisand, No More Tears (Enough Is Enough) also went to number 1 there, she became the first female artist to achieve three chart-toppers in one calendar year.

Casablanca wanted Summer to continue to record disco only but she had other ideas and as the 80s began she signed with the new Geffen Records. Her album The Wanderer was its first release. Despite a more eclectic sound, the album didn’t have the same impact in the UK as her Casablanca material. The next collection, Donna Summer, was released in 1982. A pregnant Summer sang at the funeral of Bogart, who died during recording sessions. The eponymous album was a success, with State of Independence a number 14 hit in the UK. It was produced by Quincy Jones, ending her long and fruitful relationship with Moroder and Bellotte.

This was followed by an I Feel Love (Mega Mix) by Patrick Cowley. The American producer, like Moroder, is now considered a disco and hi-NRG pioneer. But he was virtually unknown while alive. Shortly before he died of AIDS in November that year, Casablanca released this 15:43 version of I Feel Love that Cowley originally produced in 1978. Stretching the song out even further than before by looping the bassline, he laid new effects and synth work over long instrumental passages. Allegedly, Moroder isn’t a fan. This could be because Cowley somehow managed to better the original. This is the definitive version of I Feel Love, and made the song a UK hit once more, climbing to 21.

In 1983 Summer recorded the album She Works Hard for the Money to settle her contract dispute between Geffen and Casablanca. It was her bestselling album of the 80s and the single Unconditional Love, featuring Musical Youth, was her last UK chart hit for four years. She returned there with Dinner with Gershwin, which peaked at 13 in 1987. Two years later she worked with the UK’s biggest production team of the era – Stock Aitken Waterman. They were untouchable at the time and it paid off. The album Another Place and Time featured This Time I Know It’s for Real, which peaked at three, and I Don’t Wanna Get Hurt, reaching seven.

The 90s were a leaner time for the Queen of Disco but she was still doing well. In 1994, Melody of Love (I Wanna Be Loved) reached 21. Not bad for a new song tacked on to a greatest hits. The following year a new mix of I Feel Love was released and soared to eight. Featuring a new vocal from Summer and remixes by Masters of Work and Rollo & Sister Bliss from Faithless. I’ve heard many great remixes of the track and these are not among them – but they’re very ‘mid-90s’. Remixes of State of Independence followed in 1996 and gave Summer her final chart hit (13).

The Outro

In 2003 Summer released her autobiography Ordinary Girl: The Journey. Five years later came her first original album in 17 years – Crayons. It would be her last. She died on 17 May 2012 of lung cancer. A nonsmoker, she blamed the 9/11 attack for causing toxic fumes she inhaled, as she had an apartment near Ground Zero. Many of the world’s top singers, influenced by her, paid tribute. She had many hits in her lifetime but non compare to I Feel Love. Few things do.

The Info

Written by

Donna Summer, Giorgio Moroder & Pete Bellotte

Producers

Giorgio Moroder & Pete Bellotte

Weeks at number 1

4 (23 July-19 August)

Trivia

Births

30 July: SNP MP Derek Mackay

394. ABBA – Dancing Queen (1976)

/ robbarker1979

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.

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.