Wake Up Everybody And Get Down Tonight!

Some funk, soul and disco to enliven your Friday. 

All date from 1975, apart from a Tom Moulton mix, which may have followed a few years later, and every single second oozes with groove!

For those of you interested in such things, some production statistics for today's selection.

90: Minutes from idea to design to creation and upload of this post (all of it!)

12: Number of songs in the '1975' shortlist, arrived at 80 minutes ago; whittled down to the final 6 approx. 5 mins later

6: Times removing cat from keyboard or mouse

5: Minutes to crop and resize cover photo for post and 'sleeve art' (photo of graffiti wall taken last week)

3: Mugs of camomile tea quaffed 

2: Minutes to prepare breakfast

1: Miaowing cat fed and fussed; breakfast eaten; post finished and posted

Enjoy!

1) Wake Up Everybody (Album Version By Kenneth Gamble & Leon Huff): Harold Melvin & The Blue Notes

2) Get Down Tonight ("A Tom Moulton Mix"): KC & The Sunshine Band

3) Somebody Up There Likes Me (Album Version By Tony Visconti & Harry Maslin): David Bowie

4) I Can't Turn Around (Album Version By Isaac Hayes): Isaac Hayes

5) Fly, Robin, Fly (12" Version By Michael Kunze): Silver Convention

6) Hope You Feel Better Love (Part 1 & 2) (Album Version By Malcolm Cecil & Robert Margouleff): The Isley Brothers

1975: Chocolate Chip: 4

1975: Fly, Robin, Fly EP: 5

1975: The Heat Is On: 6

1975: Wake Up Everybody: 1

1975: Young Americans: 3

1994: Part 3... And More (Expanded Edition) (USA): 2

Wake Up Everybody And Get Down Tonight! (43:14) (KF) (Mega)

People All Over The World Join Hands, Start A Love Train

Side 1 of a mixtape recorded for Mrs. K on 21st March 2002.

No fancy sleeve for this one, just a generic TDK FE Ferric cassette sleeve with some neat, upper case lettering and a terribly punning but title, Disco? Get The Funk Out Of Here!

It does pretty much what it sets out to do, a mix of soul, funk and disco classics (mostly) from the 1970s and a nod to some of the club nights we used to go to in Bristol at the time.

 

The selection starts and (no spoilers) ends with What It Is from 1977 by Garnet Mimms & Truckin' Company, which seems to be Garnet's one and only single with the truckers, although a version also appears on Mimms' album from the same year, Garnet Mimms Has It All. It's a great song, written and produced by Jeff Lane and Randy Muller from Brass Construction.

 

I've included longer versions of classics by Curtis Mayfield, The O'Jays, Donna Summer and Harold Melvin & The Blue Notes because...well, because, so the selection pushes past the original C90 side to come in at just under and hour. 

 

A couple of the songs - Bill Withers and Bobby Womack - were lifted straight from the Jackie Brown soundtrack, Womack's song also serving as the eponymous theme to 1972 film, Across 110th Street. Disco Inferno by Trammps appeared on the Saturday Night Fever soundtrack, the version here edited down from the album's 11 minute behemoth to a more manageable three and a half.

 

Dance Your Pants Off is, as far as I can tell, a rare Sly & The Family Stone circa 1967 that I got with a freebie CD called Hippy Chic, attached to RCD Classic Rock Collection Vol. 11, in a clearance bin in the mid-1990s. The magazine was, well, pants but the CD was worth the 30 or 40p that I paid at the time.

 

The Joe Simon song appeared on the appallingly-titled Those Boogie Knights & Disco Divas (and, looking at my mixtape effort, that's saying something), another freebie CD with the late, lamented Vox magazine in 1998. 

 

If disco makes you sick, come back here tomorrow for the cure (or should that be The Cure?)

1) What It Is (Part I) (Single Version): Garnet Mimms & Truckin' Company (1977)

2) Dance Your Pants Off: Sly & The Family Stone (1967)

3) Freddie's Dead (Full Length Version): Curtis Mayfield (1972)

4) Love Train ("A Tom Moulton Mix"): The O'Jays (1977)

5) Disco Inferno (Edit): Trammps (1976)

6) You Make Me Feel (Mighty Real) (Album Version): Sylvester (1978)

7) Hot Stuff (Album Version): Donna Summer (1979)

8) Feel The Need In Me: Detroit Emeralds (1971)

9) Who Is He (And What Is He To You?) (Album Version): Bill Withers (1972)

10) Get Down, Get Down (Get On The Floor): Joe Simon (1975)

11) Bad Luck (A Tom Moulton Mix): Harold Melvin & The Blue Notes (1977)

12) Across 110th Street (Part 1): Bobby Womack (1972)

1971: You Want It, You Got It: 8

1972: Across 110th Street: 12

1972: Super Fly OST: 3

1972: Still Bill: 9

1975: Get Down: 10

1976: Disco Inferno EP: 5

1977: I Love Music / Love Train EP: 4

1977: Philadelphia Classics: 11

1977: What It Is EP: 1

1978: Step II: 6

1979: Bad Girls: 7

1993: Hippy Chic: RCD Classic Rock Collection Vol. 11: 2

Side One (55:42) (GD) (M)

I Think The Melody On The Box Will Explain

It's Friday and time to take a trip back to 1973 and (a smidge over) half an hour of pop, rock, funk and soul for all you hell raisers and all you natural born ravers!

 

Many of these I grew up with, others I discovered as a keen record-buying adult, the rest found in the last decade and a half thanks to all you wonderful people out in the blogosphere. 

Only my opinion but all killer, no filler? I think so.

Bring on the weekend!

1) If I Were Only A Child Again: Curtis Mayfield

2) Lend A Hand: Bobby Hutton

3) Hell Raiser (Single Version): The Sweet

4) Angel (Album Version): Aretha Franklin

5) Skin I'm In: Sly & The Family Stone

6) The Love I Lost (Part 1) (Single Version): Harold Melvin & The Blue Notes 

7) I Won't Step On Your Shoes: Barnaby Bye

8) Watch That Man: David Bowie

9) I Want To Be Free: Hot Chocolate

10) Hercules (Single Version): Aaron Neville

Melody On The Box (32:43) (Box) (Mega)

I'll Surely Miss Your Tender Kiss

Time to go back 45 years and get discofied for a Saturday night. What are you doing in your bed on your back? You should be dancing!

1) Boogie Nights (Album Version By Barry Blue): Heatwave (1976)

2) You Should Be Dancing (Special Disco Version): Bee Gees (1976)

3) Get The Funk Out Ma Face (Disco Version By Quincy Jones): The Brothers Johnson (1976)

4) Let's Spend The Night Together (Album Version) (Cover of The Rolling Stones): Joe Simon (1976)

5) Love Is You (12" Version By Tom Moulton): Carol Williams (1976)

6) Il Veliero (Full Length Italian Version) (Cover of I Camaleonti): Lucio Battisti (1976)

7) Don't Leave Me This Way (A Tom Moulton Mix): Harold Melvin & The Blue Notes (1976)

I'll Surely Miss Your Tender Kiss (45:11) (GD) (M)

Are You Ready For The 70's Explosion?

Side 1 of a mixtape, originally compiled 16th September 1990 and another of my cassette set cobbled together for my year abroad. This liberally pilfered my parents' K-Tel & Ronco vinyl collection, cheap and cheerful purchases from the local cash and carry when I was a kid. Some classics, some cheese, no apologies.

 

1) The 'In' Crowd (Cover of Dobie Gray): Bryan Ferry (1974)

2) Red Dress: Alvin Stardust (1974)

3) Emma (Album Version): Hot Chocolate (1974)

4) Rock Your Baby (Single Version): George McCrae (1974)

5) What Am I Gonna Do With You: Barry White (1975)

6) Reach Out I'll Be There (Cover of The Four Tops): Gloria Gaynor (1975)

7) The Love I Lost (Single Version): Harold Melvin & The Blue Notes (1973)

8) Queen Of Clubs: KC & The Sunshine Band (1974)

9) Saturday Night's Alright For Fighting (Album Version): Elton John (1973)

10) Pool Hall Richard: Faces (1973)

11) Dance With The Devil: Cozy Powell (1973)

12) Radar Love (Single Version): Golden Earring (1973)

13) The Show Must Go On: Leo Sayer (1973)

14) Seasons In The Sun: Terry Jacks (1974)

15) I Can See Clearly Now: Johnny Nash (1972)

 

Side One (53:31)