“Get Up And Boogie,” sing the girls of Silver Convention with wide smiles and enthusiastic hand movements. “No thanks, we’re just fine sitting here,” reply the audience. (more…)

What a gloriously uplifting song this is. Except it isn’t. It’s anything but uplifting if you listen to the lyrics. In fact it’s as dark a song as you’ll ever hear. And it’s all autobiographical. (more…)

Melba Moore – This Is It

8th September 2021 · 1970s, 1976, Disco, Music

Full disclosure (as nobody said in the Seventies): I didn’t like disco at the time. But it was an inescapable part of my my late teens. (more…)

There are oldies and then there are oldies – this one is from before I was born. It’s a proper earworm, with some great lyrics, and it’s had almost 50 million views on YouTube, making it surely one of the best known oldies of all time. (more…)

Looking at the singles chart, 1976 was as dire a year as there’s ever been. No wonder punk came along to blow the rubbish away. (more…)

Another lost classic from the funk vaults, The Watts Breakaway is just one of many musical achievements of Johnny Otis. The singer is Delmar ‘Mighty Mouth’ Evans and the guitarist may well by Johnny’s equally well-known son Shuggie Otis. (more…)

Cliff Nobles is unique in the annals of one-hit wonders – he doesn’t appear at all on this his solitary hit. (more…)

General Crook – Gimme Some

3rd September 2021 · 1970, 1970s, Funk, Music
I don’t know why General Crook never became a star. Perhaps it was his unfortunate resemblance to creepy porn baron Ron Jeremy – a man who might well have shared his encouragement to “Gimme Some.”
 

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There’s not much to Tighten Up beyond a funk groove, some handclaps, and Archie introducing himself before urging the listener to dance. But it’s a classic. (more…)

I was going to post the gorgeous instrumental Walk In The Night, the only tune I knew growing up by Junior Walker & The All Stars. Then I stumbled upon Shotgun. (more…)