FUNK - SOUL - DISCO MUSIC

The Real Thing are a British soul group formed in the 1970s. The band charted internationally with their song "You to Me Are Everything", which reached No. 1 on the UK Singles Chart. They also had successes with a string of British hits such as "Can't Get By Without You" and "Can You Feel the Force?". They returned to mainstream success in 1986 with the Decade Remix of "You to Me Are Everything". By number of sales, they were the most successful black rock/soul act in England during the 1970s. The journalist, author and founder of Mojo magazine Paul Du Noyer credits them alongside Deaf School with restoring "Liverpool's musical reputation in the 1970s" with their success. Founded in 1970 by Chris Amoo, Dave Smith, Kenny Davis and Ray Lake, the Real Thing's live, progressive soul-influenced covers of American hits attracted enough attention for them to secure a recording deal with EMI. The singles they released through EMI in...

Blue Feather was a Dutch male vocal/instrumental group, who had a single called "Let's Funk Tonight", in the UK Singles Chart. It was released on the Mercury label, entered the chart on 3 July 1981, and rose to a high of number 50; it remained in the charts for four weeks. This track was used on the 2008 compilation album Return to the Playboy Mansion by Dimitri from Paris. The group released two albums: Feather Funk in 1982, and Shadows Of The Night in 1985. Their singles include "Call Me Up" (1981), "It's Love" (1981), "Let It Out" (1983) and "After Midnight" (1986). https://lesaccrosdufunk.bandcamp.com/track/blue-feather-lets-funk-tonight-1982  

Master of the Game is the thirteenth studio album by American keyboardist and record producer George Duke. It was released in 1979 through Epic Records. Recording sessions for this full-length album took place at Westlake Recording Studios in Los Angeles. The album features contributions from vocalists Lynn Davis, Josie James and Napoleon Murphy Brock, guitarists David Myles, Ray Obiedo and Roland Bautista, bassists Byron Miller and Freddie Washington, drummer Ricky Lawson, percussionist Sheila Escovedo, trombonist Bill Reichenbach, trumpeters Jerry Hey and Gary Grant, and saxophonist Gary Herbig. In creating of Master of the Game, Duke used a variety of keyboard instruments viz. Fender Rhodes electric piano, Yamaha Acoustic piano, Yamaha Electric grand piano, Wurlitzer electric piano, Hohner Clavinet D6, ARP Odyssey and ARP String Ensemble synthesizers, Minimoog, Oberheim synthesizer, Sequential Circuits Prophet-5 and Crumar synthesizer. David Myles played six and twelve-string acoust...

Recorded in 1974, Latimore's biggest hit has remained one of the favorite soul song in the deep South for decades. Produced by Steve Alaimo, it was issued as a single and on the LP "More more more Latimore" (Glades, 1974).   https://lesaccrosdufunk.bandcamp.com/track/latimore-lets-straighten-it-out-1974

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https://funkprojet80.bandcamp.com/track/peter-jacques-band-mighty-fine-1980  

Leroy Hutson (born June 4, 1945) is an American soul and R&B singer, songwriter, arranger, producer and instrumentalist, best known as former lead singer of R&B vocal group The Impressions. His music concerns 1970s soul, as noted in the June 29, 2006 issue of Rolling Stone magazine. He is the father of producer JR Hutson. As a teenager, Hutson formed the Nu-Tones, a four-man vocal group based in New Jersey. They won several talent shows during his high school years. The other members of the Nu-Tones were Ronald King, Bernard Ransom, Ed Davis, and Irving Jenkins. In 1968, as part of the duo Sugar & Spice, Lee Hutson and Deborah Rollins recorded for Kapp Records. They recorded several singles with some success. Their single "In Love Forever" ranked the "Best New Record Of The Week" in the local newspaper column "Soul Sauce". Two other singles recorded were "Ah Ha Yeah" and "Dreams". In 1973 Hutson wrote, produced, arranged and...

Disco soul funk group from Dayton, Ohio. Formed by Stephen C. Washington in 1979 as a spin-off from Slave and originally consisted of Starleana Young (lead vocals, percussion), Curt Jones (lead vocals, guitar, percussion), Charles Carter (keyboards, flute, percussion, sax, vocals) and Buddy Hankerson (bass). But just like Slave, Aurra was not a group in the strict sense of the word, more like an extended family, where members from both camps collaborated freely across the borders that record contracts, managers and personal egos normally sets up. Curt Jones and Starleana Young changed name to Déjà when they were signed to Virgin. credits https://funkprojet80.bandcamp.com/track/aurra-baby-love-1983

Go for It is the fifth album by American R&B group Shalamar, released in 1981 on the SOLAR label. The album features the 'classic' Shalamar line-up (Jeffrey Daniel, Howard Hewett and Jody Watley). Daniel has confirmed that Go For It and Friends were recorded at the same time. For distribution purposes, SOLAR was in the process of leaving RCA Records and joining Elektra Records, but still owed a final Shalamar album to RCA: Go for It was that album, while Friends became the first to be delivered to WEA. Go for It received indifferent promotion from RCA, and the garish cover-art was also the subject of negative comment. Only one single ("Sweeter as the Days Go By") was issued, and the album peaked at #18 on the R&B chart and #115 on the Billboard chart. In 2002, Go for It was re-released by Sanctuary Records in the United Kingdom in a double CD package with Friends. The Rolling Stone Album Guide deemed Go for It "a remarkably wide-ranging pop album." h...

"Crazy" is a song written and produced by the Americans songwriters and music producers John V. Anderson, Steve Williams and Steve Horton. The song was recorded in 1983 by popular American R&B vocal group The Manhattans and released the same year on the album Forever by Your Side by Columbia Records. Crazy" was released as a single in June 1983, reaching No. 4 on the R&B chart, and No. 72 on the Billboard Hot 100. Besides the United States, "Crazy" peaked at No. 63 on the UK Singles chart. Two formats were released for the single of "Crazy". The first was 7" single, where "Crazy" was only 3:55 in length and containing the song "Love Is Gonna Find You" on B-side. The second was 12" single, containing the instrumental version of "Crazy" on B-side. "Crazy" was followed later in 1983 by a second single, the title track "Forever by Your Side", which was successful in Brazil in 1985. https:...

Tasha Thomas (c. 1945 – November 8, 1984) was an American singer and actress, known for her role as Aunt Em in the original Broadway production of The Wiz. Thomas also had a hit single, "Shoot Me (With Your Love)", from her 1979 album, Midnight Rendezvous. Her birthplace is often cited as "Jeutyn, Alaska", though no such town exists. Thomas' breakthrough came when she was cast in the original Broadway production of The Wiz in the role of Aunt Em. Her performance on the cast album, singing her soulful rendition of the ballad "The Feeling We Once Had", earned her wide critical acclaim. In 1972 Tasha sang backup vocals along with singer-songwriter & Songwriters Hall of Famer Ellie Greenwich (1949–2009) for Jim Croce's debut album You Don't Mess Around With Jim. She appears on Slade's 1976 Nobody's Fools LP providing backing vocals on several songs including the title track. Tasha also provided backup vocals on the 1977 Kiss album Love ...

https://funkprojet80.bandcamp.com/track/shirley-jones-jean-carne-whatever-it-takes-sean-mccabe-remix

Webster Samuel Lewis (September 1, 1943 – November 20, 2002) was an American jazz and disco composer, arranger and keyboardist. Lewis was born in 1943 in Baltimore, Maryland. At a young age, his family encouraged him to take up music. Later, he earned a bachelor's degree in sociology from Morgan State University. As a student at Morgan State University, Lewis was one of twelve students who founded Iota Phi Theta fraternity. Webster then completed a master's degree at the New England Conservatory of Music with Gunther Schuller as his mentor. He started out in jazz working with drummer Tony Williams, George Russell, Bill Evans, Stanton Davis, and the Piano Choir. His first release was Live at Club 7, issued in 1972. He signed with Epic Records in 1976 and began releasing disco music, where he found commercial success. He had several charting singles including 1977's "On the Town/Saturday Night Steppin' Out/Do It with Style" (U.S. Club Play #36) and 1980's ...

Mikki Farrow American singer and songwriter born in Detroit. In the mid-'60s she met and married saxophonist Andrew "Mike" Terry. Around 1968, she came to Philadelphia and got involved with the upcoming Sound of Philadelphia. She worked as songwriter and background vocalist, having recorded early on with Gamble & Huff, starting with "I Just Can't Stop Dancin" by Archie Bell And The Drells, all of the Jerry Butler sessions including "The Ice Man Cometh", and "Ice on Ice", as well as co-writing several Jerry Butler classics. Her work for Loleatta Holloway, Blue Magic, and Trammps led to a partnership with Norman Harris, who wrote and produced her solo material. "Love Emergency" was her best charting record, at #59. Prior to that chart success she recorded various songs including "Could It Be" and "Set My Heart At Ease", both for Karate Records. In the late eighties, she went back to Chicago and reconnected ...

Lionel Richie - Lionel Brockman Richie Jr. (born June 20, 1949) is an American singer, songwriter, record producer, and television personality. He rose to fame in the 1970s as a songwriter and the co-lead singer of the Motown group Commodores; writing and recording the hit singles "Easy", "Sail On", "Three Times a Lady" and "Still", with the group before his departure. In 1980, he wrote and produced the US Billboard Hot 100 number one single "Lady" for Kenny Rogers. In 1981, Richie wrote and produced the single "Endless Love", which he recorded as a duet with Diana Ross; it remains among the top 20 bestselling singles of all time, and the biggest career hit for both artists. In 1982, he officially launched his solo career with the album Lionel Richie, which sold over four million copies and spawned the singles "You Are", "My Love", and the number one single "Truly". Richie's second album, Can...

Philly-soul - disco vocal quartet formed in Philadelphia. Known for the strong male vocal harmonies perfectly matched with the proto-disco combined sound of their producer John Davis ( and mix master Tom Moulton. They were the first group in pop history that released a 12" single ("I Just Can't Make It", on Columbia, in October 1975). One of the few singles they recorded in mid-7o's period was their cover of Little Anthony & The Imperials standard classic "Hurt So Bad". https://funkprojet80.bandcamp.com/track/philly-devotions-hurt-so-bad-extended-mix

https://funkprojet80.bandcamp.com/track/goody-goody-super-jock-1978

Gladys Knight & the Pips were an American R&B, soul, and funk family music group from Atlanta, Georgia, that remained active on the music charts and performing circuit for over three decades starting from the early 1950s. Starting out as simply The Pips in 1952, derived from a cousin's nickname, the founding members were Gladys Knight, brother Merald "Bubba" Knight, sister Brenda Knight and cousins Eleanor Guest and William Guest. After a couple of years performing in talent shows, the group signed with Brunswick Records in 1957, recording a couple of singles that failed to chart. Brenda Knight and Eleanor Guest eventually left the group and were replaced by another cousin, Edward Patten, and a non-relative, Langston George in 1959. This lineup produced the group's first hit single, "Every Beat of My Heart". After the single was released on three different labels, they changed their name to Gladys Knight & the Pips in 1961. Langston George left t...

Call On Me" is the third studio album by the American Soul-Disco singer from the Bronx, New York City Evelyn "Champagne" King. The album featured notable tracks including the hot single "Lets Get Funky Tonight" and "Talk Don't Hurt Nobody", released in 1980 on RCA Records. The album peaked at No.58 on the R&B albums Chart. It also reached No.124 on the US Billboard 200. https://funkprojet80.bandcamp.com/track/evelyn-champagne-king-talk-dont-hurt-nobody-1980  

Shakatak is an English jazz-funk band founded in 1980 by Bill Sharpe, Nigel Wright, Roger Odell and Keith Winter. Following an initial white label release, "Steppin", the band's name was derived from a record store in Soho, London Record Shack with the name created by Les McCutcheon, Passion records label owner and Northern Soul DJ Kev Roberts, It was they who first showed interest in the initial single. Shakatak scored a number of chart entries, including two Top 10 hits in the UK Singles Chart, "Night Birds" (1982) and "Down on the Street" (1984), plus a further 12 entries in the Guinness Book of British Hit Singles. The group is still active and popular throughout the world, particularly in Japan and the Far East, and generally produce a new album every two years on JVC Records. From their first release in August 1980 (the Bill Sharpe composition "Steppin'" on the Polydor record label), and their first 1981 album, Drivin' Hard, the...

Roy Ayers (born September 10, 1940) is an American funk, soul, and jazz composer, vibraphone player, and record producer. Ayers began his career as a post-bop jazz artist, releasing several albums with Atlantic Records, before his tenure at Polydor Records beginning in the 1970s, during which he helped pioneer jazz-funk. He is a key figure in the acid jazz movement, and has been dubbed "The Godfather of Neo Soul".He is best known for his compositions "Everybody Loves the Sunshine", "Searchin", and "Running Away".At one time, he was said to have more sampled hits by rappers than any other artist. Ayers started recording as a bebop sideman in 1962 and rose to prominence when he dropped out of Los Angeles City College and joined jazz flautist Herbie Mann in 1966. In the early 1970s, Roy Ayers started his own band called Roy Ayers Ubiquity, a name he chose because ubiquity means a state of being everywhere at the same time. Ayers was responsible for ...

  Soul, funk and disco sextet, formed in Mansfield, Ohio in 1974 with 3 members from Grand Rapids (Michigan) and 3 other members from Akron (Ohio). At the time, they called themselves First Class. They then joined Barry White’s White Heat as backing band musicians and were let go shortly thereafter. Eventually changing their name to Switch due to their ability to ‘switch’ to different instruments during a song, the group got the attention of Jermaine Jackson who heard the group’s demo tape and within days the group was promptly signed to the Motown Records subsidiary label, Gordy. There, they recorded and released their self titled debut album in 1978. The album featured their first Top 10 R&B hit single entitled “There’ll Never Be”. Depending on whom was singing lead on the songs, their songs were written by Williams, Ingram and the late Bobby DeBarge and often in collaboration with Jermaine Jackson, who continued to sponsor the band throughout their five years on the label. T...

Barrett Strong American singer and songwriter. Born February 5, 1941 in West Point, Mississippi, USA. Died January 28, 2023 in San Diego, California, USA. Strong was the first artist to record a hit record for Motown, though he is best known for his successful songwriting collaboration with Norman Whitfield, which produced hits like "I Heard It Through the Grapevine", "Too Busy Thinking About My Baby", "Papa Was a Rolling Stone", "Ball of Confusion", and "War". Barrett Strong was inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 2004. https://funkprojet80.bandcamp.com/track/barrett-strong-is-it-true-1975  

  The Ritchie Family are an American vocal group based in Philadelphia that achieved several hits during the disco era. They have reunited and continue to perform. Their latest single "Whatcha Got" was released in 2021. The three original members were not related; the group was a creation of Jacques Morali who also formed the Village People. The group took its name from record producer Richie Rome, who added a T to the name; it originally consisted of three singers: Cassandra Ann Wooten and Gwendolyn Oliver (who eventually married musician Fred Wesley) of the girl group Honey & the Bees, and Cheryl Mason Jacks. Their manager was Jimmy Bishop, a successful Philadelphia radio personality who also managed Barbara Mason. Morali remembered Wooten and Oliver had done some session work for him, and he called them a few years later when he wanted to form a group and the Ritchie Family was born. Following Brazil, they had success with the Arabian Nights album. Their follow up albu...

  Pratt & McClain were an American musical duo known originally called Brother Love consisting of Jerry McClain and Truett Pratt, along with various sidemen. They scored a Billboard No. 5 hit in 1976 with "Happy Days", the theme to the sitcom of the same name, written and performed in a nostalgic 1950s rock and roll style. It was their only success, making them a one-hit wonder. Truett Pratt grew up in San Antonio, Texas, and sang in his church choir. Jerry McClain also sang in the choir in his hometown of Pasadena, California. McClain formed his first band, American Scene, with Michael Omartian in the mid-1960s. In 1970, Omartian began a successful record producing career, eventually recording hits for Michael Bolton, Christopher Cross, Donna Summer, Rod Stewart, Amy Grant, Gary Chapman and 4HIM, among others. In the early 1970s he introduced McClain to Pratt. They formed a band called Brother Love and began recording commercial jingles. In 1974, the duo decided to expan...

Recorded in 1974, Latimore's biggest hit has remained one of the favorite soul song in the deep South for decades. Produced by Steve Alaimo, it was issued as a single and on the LP "More more more Latimore" (Glades, 1974). bandcamp music  

  Master of the Game is the thirteenth studio album by American keyboardist and record producer George Duke. It was released in 1979 through Epic Records. Recording sessions for this full-length album took place at Westlake Recording Studios in Los Angeles. The album features contributions from vocalists Lynn Davis, Josie James and Napoleon Murphy Brock, guitarists David Myles, Ray Obiedo and Roland Bautista, bassists Byron Miller and Freddie Washington, drummer Ricky Lawson, percussionist Sheila Escovedo, trombonist Bill Reichenbach, trumpeters Jerry Hey and Gary Grant, and saxophonist Gary Herbig. In creating of Master of the Game, Duke used a variety of keyboard instruments viz. Fender Rhodes electric piano, Yamaha Acoustic piano, Yamaha Electric grand piano, Wurlitzer electric piano, Hohner Clavinet D6, ARP Odyssey and ARP String Ensemble synthesizers, Minimoog, Oberheim synthesizer, Sequential Circuits Prophet-5 and Crumar synthesizer. David Myles played six and twelve-string ...