Kc And The Sunshine Band Albums

[Cecelia Seiner]

KCand the Sunshine Band is an American disco and funk band that was founded in 1973 in Hialeah, Florida.[2][3] Their best-known songs include the 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", "Boogie Shoes", "Please Don't Go", and "Give It Up". The band took its name from lead vocalist Harry Wayne Casey's last name ('KC') and the 'Sunshine Band' from KC's home state of Florida, the Sunshine State. The group had five number one singles on the Billboard Hot 100 chart in the 1970s.

The band was formed in 1973 by Harry Wayne Casey (KC) and Richard Finch. Casey was a record store employee and part-timer at TK Records in Hialeah, Florida[4] The band was originally called KC & The Sunshine Junkanoo Band because KC used studio musicians from TK and a local Junkanoo band called the Miami Junkanoo Band. Meantime, bassist Richard Finch had been engineering records for TK, which is how the Casey-Finch musical collaboration began.[4] They were soon joined by guitarist Jerome Smith and drummer Robert Johnson, both TK studio musicians.[4]

The first few songs, "Blow Your Whistle" (September 1973) and "Sound Your Funky Horn" (February 1974), were released as singles, and did well enough on the U.S. R&B chart and overseas that TK wanted a follow-up single and album. In the meantime, while working on demos for KC & the Sunshine Band, the song "Rock Your Baby" (George McCrae) was created.[4] Written by Casey and Finch, it featured Smith on guitar and became a number one hit in 51 countries in mid-1974. The band's "Queen of Clubs", which featured uncredited vocals by McCrae, was a hit in the UK, peaking at number 7,[4] and they went on a tour there in 1975.

KC and other band members were frequent guests on WHYI-FM, branded as Y-100, one of southeast Florida's more powerful FM pop stations, that covered Dade and Broward Counties and beyond. This gave the band significant hometown exposure, during the rise of the disco genre in one of its epicenters.[5]

The release of the self-titled second album KC and the Sunshine Band in 1975 spawned the group's first major U.S. hit with "Get Down Tonight".[4] It topped the R&B chart in April and hit number one on the Billboard Hot 100 in August.[4] "That's the Way (I Like It)" also became a number one hit[2] in November 1975 and the group received four nominations and one win at the 1976 Grammy Awards. The 1976 album Part 3 yielded two number one singles: "I'm Your Boogie Man"[2] and "(Shake, Shake, Shake) Shake Your Booty".[2] Another hit, "Keep It Comin' Love"(1977), peaked at number two in the US. Their success lasted until the fifth album from 1979; their last chart topping hit was "Please Don't Go", hitting number one[2] for one week in January 1980, and becoming the first number one hit of the 1980s. With the explosion of new wave music and the declining popularity of disco, the group explored other styles and changed labels, joining Epic Records in 1980 after TK Records went bankrupt.[4]

With a change in styles, Casey enjoyed success, dueting with Teri DeSario with "Yes, I'm Ready", which hit No. 2 in March 1980;[4] the adult contemporary sound was much different from his disco hits of the 1970s, and his first major success away from the Sunshine Band.

In 1981, the partnership between Finch and Casey came to an acrimonious end. Two years after the release of the previous album, the band released two albums with new material: The Painter (1981) and Space Cadet Solo Flight (1981).[4] These albums did not chart, but in 1982, with All in a Night's Work a hit track called "Give It Up" (1983) brought a return to success in the UK, and appeared one year later in the U.S. Top 40.[4] The song was also featured on the band's next album, 1983's KC Ten.[4] Epic Records, however, refused to issue the song as a single due to its prior failure in the US. Because of this, a frustrated Casey formed Meca Records, releasing the single himself on this label in a final attempt to garner the song some success in America. It worked, but the album still failed to meet expectations. This led to the group falling into stasis around 1984 with Casey's retirement.

A revival of interest in disco music in 1991 brought Casey out of retirement. He reformed the band with some new members and two other original members, (percussionist Fermin Goytisolo and vocalist Beverly Champion-Foster) and began touring once again. The new band has released a large number of compilation albums through Rhino Records, along with some newly recorded material. The album Oh Yeah! was released in 1993 after a ten-year gap between new albums (excluding compilations).

KC and the Sunshine Band is an American musical group. Founded in 1973, their style has included funk, R&B, and disco. Their most well known songs include the disco hits That's the Way (I Like It), (Shake, Shake, Shake) Shake Your Booty, I'm Your Boogie Man, Keep It Comin' Love, Get Down Tonight, Give It Up, and Please Don't Go. They took their name from Wayne Casey's last name ("KC") and the "Sunshine Band" from KC's home state of Florida ('The Sunshine State').

The group was formed by Richard Finch, a budding studio engineer prodigy at TK Records and Harry Wayne Casey ("KC"), a record store employee and part-timer at TK Records in Miami. Though both worked at TK Records, their meeting was not immediate, with Finch spending much of his time in the recording studio working with other TK artists and Casey on the phones at the front desk. An introduction by Clarence Reid through a mutual friend was the beginning of their musical connection. Following demo work, Casey and Finch were encouraged to create their own group. The initial members were just Casey and Finch (first starting out as songwriting collaborators), but Finch soon added guitarist Jerome Smith (June 18, 1953 - July 28, 2000), and drummer Robert Johnson, both TK studio musicians.

The first few songs, "Blow Your Whistle" (September 1973) and "Sound Your Funky Horn" (February 1974), were released as singles, and had limited impact. However, a side project writing and producing music for George McCrae took Finch and Casey's "Rock Your Baby", featuring Smith on guitar, and made it a hit in mid-1974, selling 11 million copies worldwide. The band's "Queen of Clubs", which featured uncredited vocals by George McCrae, was a hit in England, peaking at #7, and they went on tour to England in 1975 off that success.

In 1981, the partnership between Finch and Casey came to an acrimonious end. Two years after the release of the previous album, the group released two solo albums with new material, geared toward pop: The Painter and Space Cadet. These albums generated little success, but in 1982, a hit track called "Give It Up" on the album All in a Night's Work (recorded before Casey and Finch split partnership) brought a return to success in the UK, and appeared two years later on the United States Billboard Top 40. The song was also featured on the band's next album, 1983's KC Ten. Epic Records, however, refused to issue the song as a single due to its prior failure in the US. Because of this, a frustrated Casey formed Meca Records, releasing the single himself on this label in a final attempt to garner the song some success in America. It worked, but the album still failed to surpass expectations. This led to the group falling into stasis around 1985 with Casey's retirement.

A revival in the interest of disco music in 1991 brought Casey out of retirement. He reformed the group with entirely new members except for the percussionist and began touring once again. Some of the original members of the band are now deceased. The new band has released a large number of compilation albums through Rhino Records, featured along with some newly recorded material. The album Oh Yeah! was released in 1993 after a ten year gap between new albums, excluding compilations.

In 2001, the band made a brief comeback into the music scene after an eight-year lull with the release of a new album titled I'll Be There For You. The album was praised by critics, but it failed to generate any impact on the charts or in sales. More recently, the group had an appearance in the 2003 remake of the movie The In-Laws.

Several KC/Finch songs have been included in the Dance Dance Revolution series of dance video games. That's the Way (I Like It) was included in the original Dance Dance Revolution, Shake Your Booty was in Dance Dance Revolution 4thMix and Get Down Tonight was in the American home version of DDRMAX2.

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In contrast, consider the next three finishers. Paul Simon'sstaunchest fans will admit that Still Crazy represents aslip--the controversy is over how big a slip. Red HeadedStranger is a cosmic cowboy cult record. And while FleetwoodMac is very, very pleasant, as my own list attests, it mostcertainly garnered its votes as "good listening" rather than "goodart."

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