Best Of 70s Soul: Welcome To The Disco!

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Pixabay
A warm welcome to 2022 and to the soulful disco sound of the 1970s, enjoy!

Lou Rawls (Philadelphia International All Stars) surely will be remembered as one of the best singers of all time, but when I saw an Unsung documentary about him the other day, I was quite shocked. Although he was famous for his charity work, he wasn’t a nice person at all. He looked very relaxed when he was on stage, but he was a violent man to his family. It even got to the point that he beat up his wife for 3 and a half hours and she had to be taken to hospital. He wasn’t a pleasant man to work with either and he always wanted to be in control. In the 1980s, when his records sold very poorly, he couldn’t understand that Janet Jackson was way more successful, because he thought he made much better albums. Lou Rawls died of lung cancer on the 6th of January 2006, so exactly 15 years ago today.

Peaches and Herb were known as the sweethearts of soul during the 1960s and had a string of hits, most notably Let’s Fall In Love in 1966. When the hits dried up, they decided to quit the music business. Herb Fame became a police officer, but after a few years he started to record again with Van McCoy and a newly recruited Peaches. Their first record flopped, but when Herb called his old friend Freddie Perren and asked him to make a record together, they hit the big time. Their first single, Shake Your Groove Thing, went gold peaking at #4 R&B and #5 pop in late 1978. The follow-up single, Reunited, earned platinum status, holding on to the #1 spot for 4 weeks on both the R&B and pop charts during spring 1979. Peaches & Herb kept on making records until 1983, but their success faded out in the early 1980s. Herb Fame then became a security officer in Washington D.C.

Tracklist:

Alicia Bridges ‎– I Love The Nightlife (Disco 'Round) (1978)
The Reflections ‎– Day After Day (Night After Night) (1975)
Eddie Kendricks – Keep On Truckin' (1973)
Diana Ross – Love Hangover (1976)
Rufus Feat. Chaka Khan – Once You Get Started (1974)
Stargard ‎– Theme Song From "Which Way Is Up" (1977)
David Bendeth – Feel The Real (1979)
Mr. Q – Party Party (1979)
James Last & His Orchestra – Falling Star (1979)
Gene Page – Blacula (1972)
Billy Paul – The Whole Town's Talking (1974)
Goody Goody – #1 Dee Jay (1978)
Air Power – Welcome To The Disco (1979)
Peggy March – Dancin’ Daddy (1979)
Peaches & Herb – All My Love (1978)
Philadelphia International All Stars – Let's Clean Up The Ghetto (1977)

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