memories of the ’70s – The Ohio Players

The sound of the ’70s was punctuated by the collaborations of this R&B band: The Ohio Players.

Formed in 1959, the band broke up and reformed twice before ever charting a hit.

In 1971, the band scored a minor hit with the song “Pain”, which reached the Billboard top 40 on the R&B charts, and propelling the album sales to certify this disc gold.

The band followed up with another hit single/album “Pleasure” and the album/single Ecstasy in 1973, which spawned the hit “Funky Worm”, influenced after a meeting with fellow funk player George Clinton. The song was their first single certified gold and led to the band signing with Mercury Records.

With a new lineup, the band recorded several successful albums with Mercury Records – Skintight, Fire, Honey and Contradiction, which spawned well-known hits such as Fire, I Want to be Free, Sweet Sticky Thing, Love Rollercoaster, Who’d She COO, Feel the Beat and O-H-I-O.

The albums reflected the freewheelin’ ’70s with sultry album covers that were not easily ignored – but also were showing their sexy soul.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The band achieved seven  top 40 hits in the time period, fusing R&B, funk, soul, disco and pop sounds into music that easily went from basement parties to uptown nightclubs and from urban radio stations to stereos across the USA.

The band’s compilation album Gold turned gold selling a million plus records in 1976.

By the end of the decade, the band had transformed again, but the hits weren’t happening. Through the next decade, the band continued to perform, play and record, but its the 1970s were the band’s sounds were easy found on the car radio and when you hit the floor at the dance club.

memories of the ’70s – Lady Marmalade by Labelle

The sound of the mid 1970s was found in the soulful sounds of the girl group Labelle and the hit song Lady Marmalade.

Written by songwriting duo Bob Crewe and Kenny Nolan, the song was inspired by Crewe’s observations of the city of New Orleans and produced by local Nola musician Allan Toussaint.

Patti Labelle, Nona Hendryx and Sarah Dash recorded the song for the album Nightbirds, pushing a change in their image from do wop girl group to funky girls in glamourous metallic space outfits.

The trio didn’t know the song referred to a prostitute, but were happy for the new sound of disco to get them noticed and played on radio.

The infamous line of the song – Voulez vous coucher avec moi ce soir? (Would you like to sleep with me tonight?) is taken from the famous play/film A Streetcar Named Desire, which is set in New Orleans.

Released in August 1974, the song slowly climbed the charts and led to Labelle appearing on Soul Train in December 1974. In early 1975, the song hit number one on the Billboard Hot 100 for one week. Their album Nightbirds became their first platinum sales success.

Now one of the most popular disco songs of the era, Rolling Stone Magazine chose Lady Marmalade as the one of the The 500 Greatest Songs of all Time.

 

 

memories of the ’70s – Roller Boogie

Life in the 1970s in Venice, California was all about roller skating and life on the beach was shown the Hollywood treatment in the musical Roller Boogie.

Starring Linda Blair and Jim Bray, who was a former competitive skate, the film showcases the world of roller skating. Blair plays Terry, a musician who dreams of going to Julliard to become better at playing the flute and become a professional musician. She comes from a wealthy family and lives in a snooty world of privilege.

Bray plays Tommy, an expert skater who dreams of winning the big competitions and being able to compete nationally and internationally. He works hard to save money and achieve his dreams, and his friends are beach bums, trying to make money to have some fun.

Their initial attraction is overcome by their friends, who don’t think the two of them should get together. They keep meeting up at the beach and eventually decide to become friends, and Tommy will teach Terry to roller skate at the beach hang out Jammers.

Meanwhile a developer has designs on Jammers to redevelop the land – which causes Tommy and Terry to try to figure out how to achieve their dreams – and save Jammers.

Directed by Mark Lester, this movie was released at the end of the disco era in 1979, trying to capitalize on the boogie craze of the time period. The choreography focused on the trending styles of dance of the time – and a double soundtrack LP was focused on sharing the sounds to all those movie fans.

Teenagers loved the film when it was released in December 1979 before Christmas, and the film grossed over US$13 million at the box office. Although there were plans for a sequel, Compass International scrapped the idea as the disco era faded in the early 1980s.

This cult classic was a film that captured the essence of the dance, roller skating and disco era – and paired it with classic songs like Boogie Wonderland from Earth, Wind and Fire. It may have gotten bad reviews, but it lives on as a snapshot of 1979.

memories of the ’80s – Atlantic Starr

Starting in the late 1970s, this r’n’b/soul\funk band became a hot Billboard group in the mid 1980s: Atlantic Starr.

Founded by five musicians including trumpet player Duke Jones and the Lewis brothers: Wayne, David and Jonathan, Atlantic Starr focused on R&B charts but by the mid 80s were focused on the pop charts as a quintet.

In 1982, the band’s third album Brilliance became a gold record with its steady airplay of two hits Love Me Down and Circles, but it was 1987’s All in the Name of Love which made this band a household word with the song Always.

Released in 1987, the album predominantly featured songs by David and Wayne Lewis with their brother Jonathan on keyboards, Joseph Phillips on percussion and Barbara Weathers on lead vocals.

Weathers noticeable style encouraged her to leave the band after this album to pursue a solo career, while the band brought in Portia Martin to work on their next album and hot single My First Love.

Their distinctive sound of mixing R&B, soul, pop, disco and adult contemporary made for a a couple of hot hits in a decade that embraced the cool tunes of the mixing of one end of the musical spectrum.

memories of the ’70s – Chic

For those ardent fans of the 1970s, the band Chic’s presence took traditional disco down the rock n roll road.

Founded by Nile Rodgers and Bernard Edwards, Chic came out of the desire for these two session players to create something unique. Bringing in drummer Tony Thompson, keyboardist Raymond Jones and eventually singer Norma Jean Wright.

The first song released by the band was Dance, Dance, Dance which later was part of their inaugural self-titled album in 1977 for Atlantic Records.

The following year the band released their second album C’est Chic, with the hit single Le Freak. After failing to meet with Grace Jones on New Year’s Eve at infamous NYC’s Studio 54, the band wrote the song as a rebuttal to the doorman.

The song became their first number one hit, selling six million copies and becoming a club hit in every disco across America. Their second hit song was from their third album Risque – the memorable song Good Times.

Not just a club hit for Chic, this song was influential to several artists and songs, including Grandmaster Flash’s Adventures on the Wheels of Steel, Rapper’s Delight by Sugarhill Gang, Another one bites the dust by Queen, Rapture by Blondie and Daft Punk’s Around the World.

While the band performed and created a few notable hits, Rodgers and Edwards produced songs for several other performers such as Sister Sledge, Sheila E., Diana Ross, Carly Ross and Debbie Harry, as well as working with a young Luther Vandross who worked as a backup singer for Chic.

By the end of the decade, the disparate paths of the band members and the change in the popular music caused the band to break up – but their influence and production was one that made for constant top 40 radio airplay in the 1970s.

memories of the ’70s – More More More by Andrea True Connection

A disco hit in 1976, this one hit wonder has become a classic for the clubs to this day: More More More by Andrea True Connection.

Written by Gregg Diamond, the song was performed by Andrea True, a porn actress.

True, who became well-known in certain circles after appearing in numerous adult films, was hired by a Jamaican businessman to appear in real estate television commercials.

After spending time on the island to complete the commercials, a political crisis in 1975 prevented True from leaving the island with her earnings. She invited producer/writer Diamond to come to the island, where she financed the recording of her first album.

True, who wanted to move into a recording career, recorded More More More, with Buddah Records releasing the song as a dance single to disco clubs in winter 1975, and by February 1976, was released as a radio single.

Although a solo artist, she named herself Andrea True Connection to differentiate herself from her porn career to a singing career.

The song became even more popular with its release to the mass market, hitting #4 on the Billboard Hot 100 charts and charting top 10 in Canada, UK, Germany and Ireland.

True continued her recording career, with follow up hits You Got Me Dancing and What’s Your Name, What’s Your Number, both on her second album White Witch.

But for the hardcore disco fans, More More More became a popular song of the nightly soundtrack, a popular inclusion in future period movies and was covered by Bananarama, Rachel Fox, Dannii Minogue and Samantha Fox.

memories of the ’70s – The Trammps

This Philadelphia disco/soul group is credited with being one of the first disco bands – The Trammps.

Coming out the 1960s bands such as The Volcanos and The Moods, The Trammps was initially Jimmy Ellis, Norman Harris, Earl Young, Robert Upchurch and Stanley Wade.

The band’s first hot single was a cover of a 1934 song – Zing! Went the Strings of the my Heart – which charted on the Billboard R&B list in 1972. Two other popular singles by the band were Hold Back the Night and That’s Where the Happy People Go.

But it was in 1976 that the band hit the A levels with their song Disco Inferno the title track of their fourth album, which became a hot song in every dance club across America, and was then included in the soundtrack for the film Saturday Night Fever.

The soundtrack was awarded a Grammy for best soundtrack, and The Trammps song was a disco anthem.

Although the band continued to release songs and albums, Disco Inferno became their signature song – and as the band members changed, the song stayed the same.

But for a decade obsessed with its dance music, this band’s song is still a dance favourite in the 21st century.