KC and the Sunshine Band
| KC and the Sunshine Band | |
|---|---|
 KC and the Sunshine Band performing live at Del Mar Fairgrounds (USA) |
|
| General information | |
| Genre (s) | Rhythm and blues , funk , disco |
| founding | 1973, 1993 |
| resolution | 1985 |
| Founding members | |
| Harry Wayne "KC" Casey | |
Songwriter, producer |
Richard Finch |
| Jerome Smith († 2000) | |
| Robert Johnson | |
KC and the Sunshine Band is an American disco band from Florida that mixed contemporary R&B with funk and Latin grooves to party music in the Miami sound .
She was best known in the second half of the 1970s through her hits Get Down Tonight, That's the Way (I Like It) , (Shake, Shake, Shake) Shake Your Booty , I'm Your Boogie Man, Keep It Comin ' Love and Please Don't Go known. Although the group consisted almost entirely of seven to eleven (mostly black) musicians, the core of the band was made up of the two (white) music producers and songwriters Harry Wayne Casey (nickname: KC) and Richard Finch.
Band history
1973-1975
Harry Wayne (HW) Casey and Richard "Rick" Finch worked in 1973 for Steve Alaimo's record label TK Records in Hialeah , Florida. Since they wanted to make music themselves and already wrote songs for other TK artists, they were allowed to use the recording studios occasionally . Jerome Smith, Fermin Goytisolo and Robert Johnson soon joined, and the first recordings of the Sunshine Band were made. Her role models range from Diana Ross and Marvin Gaye to Billy Preston to Blood, Sweat & Tears - these influences can be heard most clearly on her first LP Do It Good . Blow Your Whistle (September 1973) and Sound Your Funky Horn (February 1974) achieved first successes in the US R&B music charts as single releases .
The breakthrough for Casey and Finch came with another artist. Together with guitarist Smith, they had recorded a piece of music on unused tapes in the studio, Casey played keyboards and Finch played the electric bass and drums . The vocals , however, were too high for Casey's voice; the band decided to have the song recorded by another singer, as their second single was just on the market. The next day George McCrae happened to drop by; The recording was finished in two takes . Rock Your Baby became a number one hit in 1974 in the US, UK and many other states; more than five million singles have been sold. Casey and Finch also co-wrote Betty Wright's Grammy- winning song Where Is the Love , and produced Gwen McCrae's Move Me Baby and Jimmy “Bo” Hornes Gimme Some .
1975-1980
The success of Rock Your Baby made not only McCrae famous, but Casey and Finch as well. Her next single, Queen of Clubs, became a hit in the UK and Europe; Sound Your Funky Horn was re-released and also hit the charts. The band went on a successful tour of Europe in 1975 .
During this time her record company released new recordings on LP with the band name KC and the Sunshine Band as the title; Get Down Tonight was released as a single . The group got back from Europe just in time to see their single hit number one on the Billboard charts on August 30, 1975 ; the LP rose to number four. That same year, on November 22nd, the second chart topper, That's the Way (I Like It), followed . In 1976, the music album Part 3 brought three more US top hits, of which (Shake, Shake, Shake) Shake Your Booty (on September 11th) and I'm Your Boogie Man (on June 11th, 1977) again number 1 Captured position. The US B-side of Shake Your Booty , Boogie Shoes , sold even better - on the soundtrack of Saturday Night Fever . The success continued, slightly weakened, until their fifth album. Her last number one in the US was the ballad Please Don't Go, the first top hit of the 1980s on January 5, 1980.
The 1980s
The disco wave was over (Casey had always been convinced that disco was just another sales label for contemporary R&B ), the TK label went bankrupt, KC and the Sunshine Band broke up. Casey however continued to record under the band name, signed a contract with Epic Records in 1980 and released the album The Painter .
On January 15, 1982, Casey was in a car accident; he suffered a concussion and pinched nerves that paralyzed the entire right side of his body . He spent some time in a wheelchair and had to learn to walk again.
But while he was still in rehab , the LP All in a Night's Work came out in 1982 , for which he had written a song called Give It Up with Debra Carter . This was released as a single in Europe - and soon KC & the Sunshine Band had their biggest hit on the east side of the Atlantic . Give It Up topped the UK charts on August 13, 1983. Epic in the US refused to release the single in America. Casey then dissolved his contract and founded his own label Meca Records, on which he re-released Give It Up - and thus in 1984 reached a respectable number 18 in the Billboard charts for an independent label . Since the LP did not meet Casey's expectations, he withdrew into private life. The songs by KC and the Sunshine Band, however, remained catchy tunes - you could hear them in advertising jingles , including General Motors and Burger King, as well as in films such as Sid and Nancy , Forrest Gump , Space Jam , The Crazy Professor and Arlington Road .
The 1990s and 2000s
1991 brought renewed interest in disco music and Casey re-formed the Sunshine Band. The group recorded the album Oh Yeah! In 1993 . up and went on tour again. At the 1999 Super Bowl , she played a medley of her greatest hits. Several best-of albums were released until 2001 - after eight years - new songs appeared on the album I'll Be There for You ; the album did not get into the charts. In 2003, the band appeared in the film The In-Laws (The In-Laws) on. Also in 2006 KC & the Sunshine Band were on tour again.
Jerome Smith, longtime guitarist for the Sunshine Band, was killed in an accident on a construction site in Miami in August 2000, where he worked as a bulldozer driver .
Discography
Studio albums
| year | Title music label |
Top ranking, total weeks, awardChart placementsChart placements (Year, title, music label , placements, weeks, awards, notes) |
Remarks | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 DE
|
 UK
|
 US
|
R&B
|
|||
| 1975 | KC and the Sunshine Band T. K. Records |
- |
UK26 (7 weeks) UK |
US4 (47 weeks) US |
R&B1 (31 weeks) R&B |
First published: July 6, 1975
|
| The Sound of Sunshine T. K. Records |
- | - |
US131 (8 weeks) US |
R&B24 (8 weeks) R&B |
Instrumental album, first published as The Sunshine Band
: September 1975 |
|
| 1976 | Part 3 T. K. Records |
- | - |
US13 (77 weeks) US |
R&B5 (50 weeks) R&B |
First published: October 1976
|
| 1978 | Who Do Ya (Love) TK Records |
- | - |
US36 (13 weeks) US |
R&B25 (11 weeks) R&B |
First published: August 1978
|
| 1979 | Do You Wanna Go Party T. K. Records |
- | - |
US50 (37 weeks) US |
R&B19 (36 weeks) R&B |
First published: June 1979
|
| 1983 | All in a Night's Work Epic Records |
- |
UK46 (4 weeks) UK |
- | - |
First published: August 1982
|
| 1984 | KC Ten Meca Records |
- | - |
US93 (18 weeks) US |
- |
First published as KC : December 28, 1983 |
More studio albums
- 1974: Do It Good (TK Records)
- 1980: Space Cadet: Solo Flight (TK Records)
- 1981: The Painter (Release: September; Epic Records)
- 1993: Oh Yeah! ( ZYX Music )
- 2001: I'll Be There for You (Sunshine Sound)
- 2007: Yummy (Sunshine Sound)
- 2015: Feeling You! (The 60s) (Release: March 10th; BFD)
occupation
1970s
- Harry Wayne Casey (born January 31, 1951 in Hialeah, Florida) - keyboards, vocals, songwriter, producer
- Richard Finch (born January 25, 1954, Indianapolis, Indiana) - bass, drums, percussion , songwriter, producer
- Jerome Smith (born June 18, 1953, Florida; † August 10, 2000, West Palm Beach, Florida) - guitar
- Robert Johnson (born March 21, 1953, Florida; † 1976 from cancer ) - drums
- Ronald Louis "Ronnie" Smith (* 1952, Florida; † January 21, 2012) - trumpet
- Fermin Goytisolo (born December 31, 1951, Havana, Cuba) - congas, timbales , percussion
- Charles Williams (born November 18, 1954, Rockingham, North Carolina) - trombone
- James Weaver - Trumpet
- Denvil Liptrot - saxophone
Later the wind section consisted of:
- Mike Lewis - tenor saxophone
- Vinnie Tanno - Trumpet
- Ken Faulk - trumpet
- Whit Sidener - alto saxophone
Choral singing: FIRE (Margret Reynolds, Beverly Champion & Jeanette Williams) and HW Casey
2006
- Harry Wayne Casey - vocals, keyboards, songwriter, producer
- Fermin Goytisolo - percussion
- Rusty Hamilton III - keyboards
- Zeljko (Nick) Marinovic - keyboards
- Jeffery Reeves - guitar
- Steve Lashley - bass
- Jody Hill - drums
- Steve Reid - trumpet
- Rick Benedetto - Trumpet
- Tim Pitchford - trombone
- Kenny Hamilton - saxophone
- Maria De Crescenzo and Charlotte McKinnon - choral singing
- Kenetha Morris and Mikie Duran - dancers
literature
- Donald Clarke (Ed.): The Penguin Encyclopedia of Popular Music, p. 643. London 1989/1990, ISBN 0-14-051147-4 .
- Fred Bronson: The Billboard Book of Number One Hits, 3rd ed., New York 1992, ISBN 0-8230-8298-9 .
swell
- ↑ Chart sources: Singles Albums UK US
- ^ The Billboard Albums by Joel Whitburn , 6th Edition, Record Research 2006, ISBN 0-89820-166-7 .
- ^ Joel Whitburn : Top R&B Albums 1965–1998, ISBN 0-89820-134-9 .
