Disco was everywhere in 1975, a new wave of soul and funk for the dancefloor. This song shows why.
It’s impossible to listen to the euphoric opening seconds without wanting to get up and dance, a big fat smile on your face. It’s like an instant carnival, with the hyperactive horn section and the dancing girls.

The lively rhythms and Glam-inspired costumes of disco made the veteran vocal groups from Detroit and Philly look like old-timers from a bygone era with their suits and synchronised twirls. Which they were by comparison.

KC and the Sunshine Band looked and sounded as exuberant as their name suggested, this infectious tune topping the US charts as a wave of disco fever swept America. Even when it was knocked off the top, it was replaced by another disco tune, Silver Convention’s Fly Robin Fly.

Apparently this song had to be “toned down” from the original recording because it’s “sexual overtones” might have been too much for the delicate sensibilities of radio DJs, but there were no such concerns on the dancefloor, where its core demographic would have heard it first.

KC and the Sunshine Band came from Florida – The Sunshine State – where they were formed in 1973 by Harry Wayne Casey (“KC” – geddit), who worked at TK Records in Hialeah, as a secretary and booking agent for Timmy Thomas of Why Can’t We Live Together fame.

The group was completed by his workmates Richard Finch, a sound engineer, and studio musicians Jerome Smith (guitar) and drummer Robert Johnson (drums) from the TK house band.

Their first few efforts sank without trace but they hit the jackpot when they wrote and played on the disco landmark Rock Your Baby for George McCrae, which went on to become one of the biggest-selling singles of all time, topping the charts in 51 countries.

Returning the favour, McCrae went on to sing vocals (uncredited) on KC’s first UK hit, Queen Of Clubs. This one’s all their own work.