Post by erik on May 21, 2022 12:19:12 GMT -5
The legendary R&B/funk group Kool and the Gang are in this week's Pop Music Hits Spotlight with an old-school dance hit from the spring of 1984.
TONIGHT (Kool and the Gang; De-Lite; 1984)—Led by Robert “Kool” Bell and James “J.T.” Taylor (not to be confused with the legendary 1970’s singer/songwriter), Kool and the Gang were one of the prominent R&B/funk groups of the 1970’s and 1980’s, having actually begun in 1969 with jazz/funk-inflected dance music. The group gained great national prominence in 1974 with such hits as “Jungle Boogie”, “Funky Stuff”, and “Hollywood Swingin’”, followed in 1975 by “Spirit Of The Boogie” and the very moody instrumental “Summer Madness”. Another one of their funk hits, “Open Sesame”, was featured on the soundtrack of the 1977 smash hit Saturday Night Fever. Under the aegis of Brazilian-born jazz-rock keyboardist Eumir Deodato (who had a massive instrumental hit of his own in 1973 with “Also Sprach Zarathustra [2001]”), the group reached another peak between 1979 and 1981 with “Ladies Night”, “Too Hot”, and their #1 hit “Celebration”, followed in 1982 by “Get Down On It”. Their late 1983 album release In The Heart continued their streak of R&B/pop/funk that encompassed both ballads and up tempo dance hits, the best example of the first being “Joanna”, which peaked at #2 at the beginning of 1984. Three months later, they had one of their more underrated dance hits, “Tonight”, co-written by Taylor and perhaps taking some of its inspiration from the classic 1957 Broadway musical West Side Story and the Stephen Sondheim-penned song of that name in that musical. Incredibly, “Tonight” even received some airplay on FM rock stations that ordinarily wouldn’t play this kind of dance music, assuring that it would be a sizable hit; “Tonight” peaked at #13 on the Billboard Hot 100 for the week ending May 5, 1984, as well as #7 on Billboard’s R&B/Black singles chart. More hits, including “Fresh”, “Misled”, “Cherish”, and “Emergency”, and “Victory” would follow; and though most of their hits dried up at the end of the 1980’s, Kool and the Gang would be awarded with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 2007.
TONIGHT (Kool and the Gang; De-Lite; 1984)—Led by Robert “Kool” Bell and James “J.T.” Taylor (not to be confused with the legendary 1970’s singer/songwriter), Kool and the Gang were one of the prominent R&B/funk groups of the 1970’s and 1980’s, having actually begun in 1969 with jazz/funk-inflected dance music. The group gained great national prominence in 1974 with such hits as “Jungle Boogie”, “Funky Stuff”, and “Hollywood Swingin’”, followed in 1975 by “Spirit Of The Boogie” and the very moody instrumental “Summer Madness”. Another one of their funk hits, “Open Sesame”, was featured on the soundtrack of the 1977 smash hit Saturday Night Fever. Under the aegis of Brazilian-born jazz-rock keyboardist Eumir Deodato (who had a massive instrumental hit of his own in 1973 with “Also Sprach Zarathustra [2001]”), the group reached another peak between 1979 and 1981 with “Ladies Night”, “Too Hot”, and their #1 hit “Celebration”, followed in 1982 by “Get Down On It”. Their late 1983 album release In The Heart continued their streak of R&B/pop/funk that encompassed both ballads and up tempo dance hits, the best example of the first being “Joanna”, which peaked at #2 at the beginning of 1984. Three months later, they had one of their more underrated dance hits, “Tonight”, co-written by Taylor and perhaps taking some of its inspiration from the classic 1957 Broadway musical West Side Story and the Stephen Sondheim-penned song of that name in that musical. Incredibly, “Tonight” even received some airplay on FM rock stations that ordinarily wouldn’t play this kind of dance music, assuring that it would be a sizable hit; “Tonight” peaked at #13 on the Billboard Hot 100 for the week ending May 5, 1984, as well as #7 on Billboard’s R&B/Black singles chart. More hits, including “Fresh”, “Misled”, “Cherish”, and “Emergency”, and “Victory” would follow; and though most of their hits dried up at the end of the 1980’s, Kool and the Gang would be awarded with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 2007.