Isla,
Both Russ and I were DJs in the late seventies. As for KC...
"
KC & THE SUNSHINE BAND HISTORY
With the close of the 60' and the serious message oriented music of the era, the "we" generation became the "me" generation. Music was getting to be fun again, and it was time to party. KC and the Sunshine Band were primarily interested un making people happy with their party music; they were actually at the forefront of a revolution during the mid and late 70's that pushed rock towards its current percussive and dance oriented direction.
The sheer sonic assault of their great hits like "Get Down Tonight" and "That's The Way (I Like It)" was unprecented and all more remarkable because the songs were largely the work of novices in the recording studio - keyboard player and singer H.W. "KC" Casey and bass guitarist Richard Finch.
Casey worked in a retail record store in Hialeah, Florida, and hung out at a nearby recording studio, volunteering to do odd jobs for free just to be close to the action. He'd been working there for a year when Finch, an audio technician, was hired (for $46 per week).
Casey and Finch spent their evenings and weekends at the studio writing and rehearsing material. It was during this period (mid '74) that they wrote and produced "Rock Your Baby" for TK artist George McCrae. The song took off immediately and hit Billboard's top spot in August of '74. One of the essential singles of the '70s, Mc Crae's wildly soaring vocal and Casey & Finch's sparkling production were indicative of things to come. Startled by the skill shown in "Rock Your Baby" TK Records gave the go ahead for the formation of KC & The Sunshine Band. Its original members included Jerome Smith, guitar; Robert Johnson, drums; and Fermin Goytisolo, congas.The group's first two singles, "Sound Your Funky Horn" and "Queen of Clubs" were hits in England but failed to chart in America. Both feature an engagingly loose party atmosphere and display a band searching for a unique sound - and quite attaining it, but well on their way.
In the late summer of '75, they found it with "Get Down Tonight". A scorching , remarkable track, its cataclysmic production blew everything else off the radio. Recalling the evening he laid down the vocal track for "Get Down Tonight", Casey said, "I couldn't believe it, it was such an incredible sound. I remember they must've played it back a hundred times and I just couldn't believe it". What gives the track its distinctive sound (aside from its thunderous rhythm section) is the electronically speeded-up guitar throughout, making it sound like no record before or since.
With its simple lyrics, its bright, crisp, and trebly production, plus the unique vocal stylings of H.W. Casey (which many say has been emulated by Fine Young Cannibals, Roland Gift on the 1989 #1 hit "She Drives Me crazy", "Get Down Tonight" defined the band's sound. There were many more great records to come. As a follow-up, the band returned with "That's The Way (I Like It)", the lyrics of which are nothing less than the sexual communication of two partners engaged in copulation. Casey's "un-huh" alternates with the "un-huh" of the female background singers for a positively pornographic effect. According to Casey, the version of "That's The Way (I Like It)" which went #1 in November '75 was much tamer than the first rendition: "I had to cool it down. The "un-huhs" were more like a groaning and moaning and I had to clean that up considerably. It was 1975 and I just thought it was a little too risque". As confirmation of his instinct, 14 year later a far more overtly sexual version of "That's The Way (I Like It)" - called simply "I Like It" by Dino - entered the top ten.
Casey & Finch returned the following summer with the record most often associated with them, "Shake Your Booty", Its actual title is "(Shake, Shake, Shake) Shake Your Booty" and according to Billboard it stands alone as the song with the most repeated words in its title ever to make it to #1.
Trivia aside, "Shake Your Booty" is most noteworthy for its wonderful slinky and seductive intro, its brilliant horn charts, and perhaps most of all for the polarizing effect it had on the rock audience in the mid '70s. Speaking to Billboard at the time, Casey found himself apologizing for "Shake Your Booty"; to some it was a nonsense song, but it had a lot more meaning and depth...there were several connotations to "Shake Your Booty". It could mean to get off your can and get out there and do it in every area, not necessarily dancing , but in you whole life.
Kc & The Sunshine Band were now a phenomenon. They followed "Shake Your Booty" with an album track, "I Like to Do It", which broke their steak, barely cracking the Top 40. Undeterred, they returned to form following spring with "I'm Your Boogie Man".
One of the cooler items in their catalogue, "Boogie Man" features an ominous, hushed intro and barely audible off-mike count of "one-two-three" which kicks off this blistering ode to the sexual ability of the song's protagonist.
They followed "Boogie Man" with one of their very best - "Keep It Comin' Love". This shows KC & Co., at the top of their game. The song's irresistible guitar sound was later employed by producer Nile Rodgers for Chic and David Bowie, among others. Prince paid homage to it in 1988's "Alphabet City". During this time, Saturday Night Fever was released and its massively successful soundtrack album featured the B-side of "Shake Your Booty", "Boogie Shoes".
Not until mid '79 did KC & The Sunshine Band release the ballad "Please Don't Go", commercially successful attempt to alter their trademark sound. It became the group's fifth and final #1 record.
During their two year hiatus from the charts, the group tried on a number of styles, the most interesting of which - straightforward rock n' roll - is "Let's Go Rock and Roll". Not a hit, it nonetheless holds its own with the group's more legendary triumphs. TK Records went bankrupt soon thereafter, and the band was signed by Epic. Two albums were released, no hits resulted from the 1 st Lp, then on the second Lp a track called "Give It Up", became a Number 1 hit in England. Despite this Epic refused to issue it in the United States. A frustrated KC was forced to begin his own label, Mecca, and he released it himself.
Give It Up was a terrific forum for KC and became a big hit in America.
Looking back from today's perspective it's amusing that KC & The Sunshine Band - often labeled as non-progressive, was actually the most progressive rock band of the 70's. They had no precedents, were completely original in their approach and virtually by themselves, pointed the direction that pop music would take in the 80's, with 9 Grammy nominations and the receipt of 3 Grammy awards. KC & The Sunshine Band enter the 90's with a new release "The Game of Love", and a U.S. tour to continue their legacy."
Disco rules! So I'll do a special song sig this time...
I Love The Nightlife (Alicia Bridges)
Knock On Wood & Jealousy (Amii Stewart)
Ring My Bell (Anita Ward)
Good Times & Le Freak & Dance, Dance, Dance (Yowsah, Yowsah, Yowsah) (Chic)
Upside Down & The Boss (Diana Ross)
Bad Girls & Our Love & Hot Stuff & Lucky & Sunset People & Rumour Has It & Spring Affair & I Feel Love & Love To Love You, Baby (Donna Summer)
Here Comes That Sound Again (Love De-Luxe)
Come To Me (France Joli)
Found A Cure (Ashford & Simpson)
Journey To The Moon (Biddu Orchestra)
Love's Theme (Love Unlimited Orchestra)
Dancing Is Dangerous (Noelle)
Heart Of Glass (Blondie)
The Mexican (Bombers)
After Dark (Patti Brooks)
Money & Have A Cigar (Rosebud)
I'm Alive & All Over The World & Don't Bring Me Down (Electric Light Orchestra)
Surprise (André Gagnon)
Forbidden Love (Madleen Kane)
Trouble-Maker (Roberta Kelly)
Daddy Cool & Sunny & Ma Baker & Rasputin (Boney M)
Get Down Tonight & Boogie Shoes & That's The Way (I Like It) & Keep It Comin' Love & I'm Your Boogie Man & (Shake, Shake, Shake) Shake Your Booty (KC & The Sunshine Band)
Pop Muzik (M)
Le Spank (Le Pamplemousse)
Y.M.C.A. & Macho Man & In The Navy & Go West & Sleazy (Village People)
We Are Family (Sister Sledge)
Always On My Mind (Dance version) (Pet Shop Boys)
#1 Dee Jay (Goody Goody)
Undercover Lover (Debbie Jacobs)
Hot Stuff & Hold On, I'm Comin' (Karen Silver)
Beat The Clock (Sparks)
Groovin' You (Harvey Mason)
Instant Replay (Dan Hartman)
Everybody Get Up And Boogie (Freddy James)
Boogie Wonderland (Earth, Wind & Fire)
Savage Lover (The Ring)
Rise (Herb Alpert)
Don't You Feel My Love (George McRae)
Jive Talkin' & Nights On Broadway & Night Fever & You Should Be Dancing & Stayin' Alive (Bee Gees)
If I Can't Have You (Yvonne Elliman or Bee Gees)
More Than A Woman (Tavares or Bee Gees)
Dynomite (Bazuka)
Get Dancin' (Disco Tex & The Sex-o-lettes)
TSOP (MFSB)
The Hustle (Van McCoy & The Soul City Symphony)
El Bimbo (El Bimbo)
Rock The Boat (The Hues Corporation)
Car Wash (Rose Royce)
Boogie Woogie Dancin' Shoes (A Taste of Honey)
Soul Dracula (Hot Blood)
Chinese Kung Fu (Banzai)
Kung Fu Fighting (Carl Douglas)
Ladies Night & Celebration (Kool & The Gang)
Funkytown (Lipps, Inc.)
What A Night & I Wanna Rock You (Giorgio Moroder)
Fly Too High (Janis Ian)
More, More, More (Andrea True Connection)
Get Up & Boogie (That's Right) & Fly Robin, Fly (Silver Convention)
You Make Me Feel (Mighty Real) & Dance (Disco Heat) (Sylvester)
Let's All Chant (The Michael Zager band)
You Sexy Thing (Hot Chocolate
Born To Be Alive (Patrick Hernandez)
I've Got The Music In Me (Kiki Dee Band)
I Love To Love (Tina Charles)
Turn The Beat Around (Vicki Sue Robinson)
Brazil & The Best Disco In Town (The Ritchie Family)
Tangerine (Sal Soul Orchestra)
Got To Be Real (Cheryl Lynn)
Heaven Must Have Sent You (Bonnie Pointer)
Keep On Dancin' (Gary's Gang)
I Will Survive & Never Can Say Goodbye & I Am What I Am Gloria Gaynor)
Dancing Queen & Super Trouper & Voulez Vous (ABBA)
Boogie Nights (Heatwave)
I Can't Stand the Rain (Eruption)
Disco Inferno (Trammps)
Miss Broadway & Black Is Black (Belle Epoch = Belle Epoque)
Shame, Shame, Shame (Shirley & Company)
You're The First, The Last, My Everything (Barry White)
In The Bottle (Brother To Brother)
Lady Marmalade (Labelle or Nanette Workman)
Dancing Fever (Claudja Barry)
House Of The Rising Sun & Don't Let Me Be Misunderstood (Santa Esmeralda)
La Vie En Rose (Grace Jones)
Don't Leave Me This Way (Thelma Houston) (best disco song ever IMO)
A Fifth Of Beethoven Walter Murphy & The Big Apple Band)
Y Viva Espana (Sylvia)
I Wanna Be Your Lover (Prince)
Don't Stop Til You Get Enough (Michael Jackson)
Twilight Zone (Manhattan Transfer)
Theme From Close Encounters & Star Wars Title Theme (Meco)
Xanadu & Physical (Olivia Newton-John)
We Don't Talk Anymore (Cliff Richard)
Do Ya Think I'm Sexy (Rod Stewart)
Dancer (Gino Soccio)
Disco Duck (Part 1) (Rick Dees & His Cast Of Idiots)
Bend Me, Shape Me (Gilla)
Love Is In The Air (Martin Stevens)
Sugar Baby Love (The Rubettes)
Lady Bump (Penny McLean)
Disco Lady (Johnny Taylor)
At Midnight (T Connection)
Bang A Gong (Witch Queen)
Shadow Dancing (Andy Gibb)
Shame (Evelyn 'Champagne' King)
Pepper Box (The Peppers)
Ain't Gonna Bump No More (Joe Tex)
Contact (Edwin Starr)