Kathleen Loves Music

KC & The Sunshine Band > Keep It Comin’ Love
KC & The Sunshine Band > I’m Your Boogie Man

OK, go ahead and laugh. I love K.C. & The Sunshine Band. Why? Because they were one of the great Southern funk bands. Really.

I never saw the band in the flesh until the 90s (by which time they were a pale nostalgia act playing a Nick-at-Nite party) but on television they were a revelation. Like everyone else, I’d dismissed them as a pop disco band. But watching them focused me on the band who grooved as hard as anyone I’d ever seen including James Brown and Kool & the Gang. A white rhythm section & African-American horns it turned out they were among the studio musicians who’d backed Betty Wright, George & Gwen McCrae, and lots of others in TK Records‘ Florida heyday. Richard Finch and Henry Casey (K.C.) wrote material for all of them, including [Read more…]

Harold Melvin & the Bluenotes > The Love I Lost

If you think you know this song because it was a ubiquitously enormous hit, listen again. The hit was “The Love I Lost Part 1” and this one is the whole six minute version.

So what difference does it make?

Well, I’d pretty much forgotten myself until I heard it again on satellite radio the other day. This record was at the height of HM&TBN’s tenure at Philadelphia Intl. with Gamble & Huff and when Teddy Pendergrass was at the height of his powers. And what heights they were.

Teddy was one of the great improvisers of all time. You can hear it about halfway through this record. Teddy starts working over the rhythm section and the repeated vocal choruses like it’s the last time he’s going to sing again. And while he’s doing it he takes us to church (as Dan Meth mentioned to me today) and teaches us [Read more…]

Aaron Neville > This Is My Story/We Belong Together

It was bound to happen. Baby boomers have heard their favorite songs on the radio so darn much they’re searching for newer, fresher versions. Being ahead of the curve as usual, I started my quest about 20 years ago with this fabulous EP of doo-wop covers by the original he-could-sing-the-phonebook guy Aaron Neville.

It was hard to pick the best of the five original tracks (and there are four bonus tracks on the CD reissue) –I really feel like posting all of them– so I gave you a two-fer medley (originally by Gene & Eunice and Robert & Johnny). If you don’t already know Aaron maybe you’ll get the impulse to buy lots more of his stuff. Even the dross is worth it.

–Fred
[Read more…]

I thought I’d take a jazz break for a couple of completely unrelated pop songs that have re-turned me on lately.

The Toys > A Lover’s Concerto
The Toys were truly a one-hit wonder. A great underrated producer, Bob Crewe (The Four Seasons, Mitch Ryder), took Bach’s Minuet in G, put on a Motown bass lined married to a girl group trio, and presto! one of the greatest tracks of one the greatest pop years (1965).

[Read more…]