Sounds of The Seventies
- 1987chieftains
- SEOPS H
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- Location: IN A VAN DOWN BY THE RIVER
- 1987chieftains
- SEOPS H
- Posts: 7661
- Joined: Thu Aug 10, 2006 9:25 pm
- Location: IN A VAN DOWN BY THE RIVER
- 1987chieftains
- SEOPS H
- Posts: 7661
- Joined: Thu Aug 10, 2006 9:25 pm
- Location: IN A VAN DOWN BY THE RIVER
- 1987chieftains
- SEOPS H
- Posts: 7661
- Joined: Thu Aug 10, 2006 9:25 pm
- Location: IN A VAN DOWN BY THE RIVER
1974
The years biggest novelity in blackmusic was Carl Douglas's Kung Fu Fihting. Douglas was born in Jamaica but educated in the U.S. and England.Indian-born producer Biddu hired him to sing a Larry Weiss tune for release as a British single because the pair had worked together a couple of years earlier on the sound track to Richard Roundtree's film Embassey. Stuck for a B-side,they cut Kung Fu Fighting ,which Douglas,long a judo fan,had written for the newest martial arts fad and its icon,Bruce Lee.It was the B side that broke through across the Atlantic to America.
The years biggest novelity in blackmusic was Carl Douglas's Kung Fu Fihting. Douglas was born in Jamaica but educated in the U.S. and England.Indian-born producer Biddu hired him to sing a Larry Weiss tune for release as a British single because the pair had worked together a couple of years earlier on the sound track to Richard Roundtree's film Embassey. Stuck for a B-side,they cut Kung Fu Fighting ,which Douglas,long a judo fan,had written for the newest martial arts fad and its icon,Bruce Lee.It was the B side that broke through across the Atlantic to America.
1974
In October 1974,Al Green,then at the peak of his popularrity,was taking a shower in his Memphis home when exgirlfriend Mary Woodson burst in,threw hot grits on him and then shot herself to death.Green suffered second-degree burns.When he was ordained pastor of the Full Gospel Tabernacle Church in 1976,thie event was cited as the turning point in his life.Although Green always maintained that his spiritural transformation was already well under way by then. Sha-La-La (Make Me happy),released only a week after the tradgedy,did turn out to be one of the last purely secular singles of his tumultuous career.
In October 1974,Al Green,then at the peak of his popularrity,was taking a shower in his Memphis home when exgirlfriend Mary Woodson burst in,threw hot grits on him and then shot herself to death.Green suffered second-degree burns.When he was ordained pastor of the Full Gospel Tabernacle Church in 1976,thie event was cited as the turning point in his life.Although Green always maintained that his spiritural transformation was already well under way by then. Sha-La-La (Make Me happy),released only a week after the tradgedy,did turn out to be one of the last purely secular singles of his tumultuous career.
1974
By 1974,disco music was creating new stars seemingly every week.Barry White was one of the genre's most unlikely and most enduring artists,while George McCrae was one of its flukiest and most fleeting.White,who had been enjoying hits for the last year,was a Texan raised in Los Angeles.He had been around the fringes of the Hollywood rock scene since 1955,when, at age 11,he played piano on Jesse Belvin's quintessential doo-wop ballad. Goodnight My Love.in the 60s ,he was house arranged at Ramparts Records,East l.A,'s leading label,and arranged Harlem Shuffle for Bob and Earl and The Duck for Jackie Lee.Later,he did everything but sing and play on the records of the Banana Splits,a bubblegum band with a cartoon show on Saturday Mornings.
By 1974,disco music was creating new stars seemingly every week.Barry White was one of the genre's most unlikely and most enduring artists,while George McCrae was one of its flukiest and most fleeting.White,who had been enjoying hits for the last year,was a Texan raised in Los Angeles.He had been around the fringes of the Hollywood rock scene since 1955,when, at age 11,he played piano on Jesse Belvin's quintessential doo-wop ballad. Goodnight My Love.in the 60s ,he was house arranged at Ramparts Records,East l.A,'s leading label,and arranged Harlem Shuffle for Bob and Earl and The Duck for Jackie Lee.Later,he did everything but sing and play on the records of the Banana Splits,a bubblegum band with a cartoon show on Saturday Mornings.
- mustang_lvr
- SEOPS Hippo
- Posts: 45784
- Joined: Sun Nov 06, 2005 10:45 pm
- 1987chieftains
- SEOPS H
- Posts: 7661
- Joined: Thu Aug 10, 2006 9:25 pm
- Location: IN A VAN DOWN BY THE RIVER
- mustang_lvr
- SEOPS Hippo
- Posts: 45784
- Joined: Sun Nov 06, 2005 10:45 pm
1974
In 1972,Barry White wrote,arranged and produced Walking in the Rain with the one I love,for Love Unlimited, a female soul trio he had met three years earlier.The lush sound of that million seller set the stage for White's own recording career." The Prophet of Love"as this big man quickly dubbed himself,first reached the top 10 under his own name in 1973,and Can't Get enough of Your Love,babe from 1974 proved to be his only No.1 hit.
In 1972,Barry White wrote,arranged and produced Walking in the Rain with the one I love,for Love Unlimited, a female soul trio he had met three years earlier.The lush sound of that million seller set the stage for White's own recording career." The Prophet of Love"as this big man quickly dubbed himself,first reached the top 10 under his own name in 1973,and Can't Get enough of Your Love,babe from 1974 proved to be his only No.1 hit.
George McCrae had been trying to enter the music business for years.He sang with bands in the early 1960s,and at the end of the decade,he and his wife Gwen signed to Henry Stone's Alston Records in their native Miami.But their duets flopped,and Gwen moved over to Columbia as a solo act while George Began studing criminalogy.Both,however,kept a hand in with Stone as his operations evolved into T.K. Productions,which had a Caribbean-flavored disco sound that had already caught on via underground hits in England.
Rock Your Baby was written by Harry "KC" Casey for his band,which breezed through the track in 45 minutes.Because KC couldn't handle the high vocal line,he turned to Stone for help. The label head considered having either Jimmy "Bo" Home or McCrae sing it before deciding on the latter, apparently because he happened to be around the studios that day. McCrae laid down the vocals in two takes,and his ethereal tenor quickly made Rock Your Baby a No. 1 record.It sold three million copies on its way to the top of the charts and helped to define the Miami Sound. The next year,not only did KC and The Sunshine Band begin dominating the charts in earnest,but Gwen McCrae had a smash hit with Rockin' Chair.