354 Hello Kool and the Gang - Ladies' Night

Chart  entered : 27  October  1979

Chart  peak : 9 ( the  band  were  also  credited  on  Atomic  Kitten's  version  of  the  song  which  reached  number  8  in  2004 )


Number  of  hits  : 21

I  can't  say  I'm  a  great  fan  of  their  music  but  I  do  think  that,  compared  to  the  likes  of  Chic, these  lot  do  get  a  bit  short  changed  by  the  critics.

The  band  had  been  going  for  more  than  a  decade  before  their  UK  breakthrough. Robert "Kool"  Bell  ( born  1950 )  and  his  younger  brother  Ronald  ( born  1951 )  formed  a  group  with  5  school  friends  in  New  Jersey , 1964  called  The  Jazziacs.  They  played  a  regular  slot  at  a  jazz  club. Robert  played  bass  and  Ronald  tenor  sax. Claydes  Smith  was  lead  guitarist , George  Brown  was  drummer ,  Dennis  Thomas  played  alto  sax, Rick  Westfield   played  keyboards  and  Robert  "Spike"  Mickens  played  trumpet.  They  changed  their  name  to  Kool  and  the  Flames  in  1967  then  Kool  and  the  Gang  two  years  later.  In  1969  they  were  signed  to  De-Lite  Records.

They  released  their  eponymous  debut  album  in  1969.  At  this  time  they  were  an  instrumental  band  who  played  a  brand  of  gritty  jazz  funk  with  complex  horn  parts. Their  first  single  "Kool  and  the  Gang"  reached  number  59  into  the  charts  although  the  album  didn't  break  out  of  the  R &  B  charts. For  the  next  four  years  they  released  a  string  of  singles  and  two  more  albums  gradually  working  more  vocals  into  the  mix  though  it  was  usually  shouted  slogans  from  various  members  of  the  group  and  extraneous  chatter. Most  of  the  singles  failed  to  crack  the  Billboard  chart  and  for  a  non-disciple  like  me  it  can  be  hard  to  tell  them  apart.

However  something  clicked  with  their  fourth  studio  album  "Wild  And  Peaceful"  in  1973 which  spawned  three  big  US  hits  in  "Funky  Stuff",  "Jungle  Boogie "  and  "Hollywood  Swinging". They  all  sound  to  me  like  good  grooves  waiting  for  a  song  but  this  music  was  now  going  over  ground  and  the  band  were  hot  news. The  album  itself  reached  number  6.  They  consolidated  this  success  the  following  year  with  the  "Light  of  Worlds "  album  which  also  spawned  three  hit  singles  in  "Higher  Plane", "Rhyme  Tyme  People" and  the  mellow, much-sampled  "Summer  Madness"   with  Ronald's  synth  to  the  fore. This  was  the  preferred  B-side  to  the  lead  single  and  title  track  from  the  next  album  "Spirit  of  the  Boogie"  . The  second  single  "Caribbean  Festival"  was  also  a  respectably  sized  hit. After  "Love  and  Understanding  in  1976 , the  second  side  of  which  was  mainly  live  tracks, Westfield  quit  the  group. The  title  track  made  number  77  but  "Universal  Sound"  fell  short  of  the  Top  100.

The  band  had  added  trombonist  Otha  Nash  and  another  trumpeter  Larry  Gittens  to  the  line  up  for  the  next  album  "Open  Sesame"  later  that  year.  The  title  track  was  a  respectable  hit  reaching  number  55  but  it  was  to  be  their  last  for  three  years. It  was  later  included  on  the  Saturday  Night  Fever  soundtrack   which  made  it  their  most  lucrative  composition. The  parent  album  fared  markedly  worse  than  its  predecessors .

Gittens  left  before  the  next  album  "The  Force"  in  1977  and  a  new  keyboard  player  Kevin  Lassiter  came  on  board. That  album  and  its  1978  follow  up  "Everybody's  Dancin" continued  their  downward  trajectory  and  Lassiter  soon  left  to  be  replaced  by  Earl  Toon   and  Nash  left.  The  band  then  took  a  momentous  decision  to  do  what  they'd  conspicuously  avoided  for  the  past  decade   and  bring  in  a  lead  singer  and  frontman. James  Taylor  ( born  1953 )  was  a  club   singer  who  worked  as  a  schoolteacher  by  day  but  his  impact  was  immediate.

"Ladies  Night"  is  a  fully  realised  song  written  primarily  by  George.  With  Earl's  loping  electronic  piano  riff  ,  Kool's  sturdy  bassline  and  producer  Deodato's  slightly  cheesy  handclaps  and  general  cleansing  of  the  sound  they  had  the  ingredients  to  create  the  ultimate hen  party  anthem.  James's  silky  smooth  tenor  is  used  a  little  more  sparingly  than  perhaps you remember  but  is  still  an  important  ingredient  in  the  mix.  It  reached  number  8  in  the  States  and  was  their  first  single  since  "Jungle  Boogie"  to  make  an  impact  in  continental  Europe. I  wasn't  a  big  fan  at  the  time  but  appreciate  it more  now. It  was  liberally  sampled  in  Heavy  D's  1993  hit  This  Is  Your  Night   then  covered  by  Atomic  Kitten  in  2004  with  the  help  of  what  then  remained  of  the  band.