On A Solo Disco Trip

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Push your furniture aside and dance through your living room during these days of lockdown!

More or less by accident George McCrae had a worldwide hit with Rock Your Baby on the Miami-based TK label in 1974. The song was written and produced by Harry Wayne Casey and Richard Finch (KC & the Sunshine Band). It was originally intended as a single for his wife Gwen, but she called in sick the day the studio was booked. When her manager, husband George, showed up to say sorry for his wife, they put him behind the microphone and the rest is history. Rock Your Baby became a million-selling number one all over the world and it heralded the disco craze.

Cultures of Soul Records recently released Sparkle’s self-titled album, which initially came out in 1979, just before the disco backlash. Sparkle was a studio group from Connecticut, assembled by producer Harold Sargent, former drummer of legendary funk band Wood, Brass & Steel, and creator of manifold drum breaks that would go on to be sampled for decades.

The track by Highway Society is on the upcoming compilation Early Works: Funk Soul & Afro Rarities from the Archives, which is out on ATA Records, the 15th of May.

Next week The Smooth Operators (Martijn Soetens and I) will show up again and we will go on a trip together! :-)

Tracklist:

Edwin Starr – I Just Wanna Do My Thing (1977)
Dee Clark ‎– Ride A Wild Horse (1975)
Tapestry – Life Is What You Make It (1975)
Marvin Gaye – Love Party (1981)
Highway Society – Brother Move On (2014)
Millie Jackson – Never Change Lovers In The Middle Of The Night (1979)
Terry Collins ‎– I L.O.V.E. Y.O.U. (1973)
Leroy Hutson – Classy Lady (1982)
Moonshoes – Someone (2013)
George McCrae – Rock Your Baby (1974)
Whirlwind ‎– Don't Let Him Get The Best Of You (1975)
Four Below Zero ‎– My Baby's Got E.S.P. (1976)
Ecstasy, Passion & Pain Feat. Barbara Roy ‎– Touch And Go (1976)
Eddie Holman – Where Have You Been All My Life (1977)
Herbie Mann – Hi-Jack (1975)
Gentlemen And Their Lady Feat. Danny Mitchell ‎– ...Like Her! (1976)
Sparkle – Down The Way (1979)
Vicky Leandros – Dein Brief (1973)
Roy Ayers – Chicago (1982)

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