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Michael Jackson – “Off The Wall”
The transition from verse to chorus is swift, sudden, and transportive—like stepping onto the dance floor, or entering Oz.
Richard Challen
Jul 31, 20209 min read
1,038 views
4 comments
Bonnie Pointer – “I Can’t Help Myself (Sugar Pie, Honey Bunch)”
Bonnie made four albums with her siblings, and then, in 1977, she went solo—just as the remaining Sisters went nuclear.
Richard Challen
Jul 27, 20209 min read
705 views
7 comments
Ray, Goodman & Brown – “Special Lady”
Ray, Goodman & Brown reached the Top 5 with a song practically lifted from an earlier era—and a name lifted from an accounting firm.
Richard Challen
Jul 20, 20209 min read
816 views
11 comments
Kool & The Gang – “Too Hot”
“Too Hot” was the first single from Kool & The Gang “Mach II” that would never have existed within the band’s earlier incarnation.
Richard Challen
Jun 15, 20205 min read
1,445 views
8 comments
Shalamar – “The Second Time Around”
This is discofied pop at its buoyant best, fizzy and funky in a way that epitomizes the whole of its parent album’s title, Big Fun.
Richard Challen
Jun 12, 20207 min read
914 views
7 comments
Commodores – “Wonderland”
“Wonderland” eventually redeems itself with a great, loose, freewheeling funk jam in the closing moments, but it’s too little, too late.
Richard Challen
May 25, 20205 min read
565 views
5 comments
The Spinners – “Working My Way Back To You/Forgive Me, Girl”
Working My Way Back To You” is a rare example of a modern remake eclipsing the original in popularity and cultural recognition.
Richard Challen
May 22, 202010 min read
829 views
9 comments
Donna Summer – “On The Radio”
“On The Radio” is a goodbye, but it’s also a love letter to the genre, a final example of how intoxicating disco when done right.
Richard Challen
May 18, 20208 min read
1,216 views
15 comments
Rufus & Chaka – “Do You Love What You Feel”
Sadly, the world never got a true Thriller-style match-up between Chaka and Quincy. But we did get “Do You Love What You Feel.”
Richard Challen
May 15, 20208 min read
586 views
3 comments
The O’Jays – “Forever Mine”
Its impeccably arranged universe gets completely laid out within the opening seconds, and from there, "Forever Mine" simply wallows.
Richard Challen
Apr 15, 20204 min read
913 views
3 comments
Dionne Warwick – “Déjà Vu”
“Déjà Vu” is an odd marriage between two competing strands of late ‘70s pop: deep burgundy soul and schlock-heavy soft-rock.
Richard Challen
Mar 27, 20205 min read
728 views
10 comments
Isaac Hayes – “Don’t Let Go”
A chewy morsel of glitter-ball silliness that returned the soul legend to the Top 40 for the first time since 1973.
Richard Challen
Mar 18, 20205 min read
467 views
3 comments
Prince – “I Wanna Be Your Lover”
“I Wanna Be Your Lover” is a sex song like most Prince songs are sex songs, but far too bright and fizzy to be confused with his later work.
Richard Challen
Mar 4, 20206 min read
1,017 views
4 comments
Smokey Robinson – “Cruisin’”
Smokey Robinson scored his first solo Top 10 at a time when a large swath of the public—and his own label—had written him off completely.
Richard Challen
Feb 21, 20204 min read
873 views
4 comments
Kool & The Gang – “Ladies’ Night”
“Ladies’ Night” is the sound of a veteran group recalibrating their entire aesthetic in an unabashedly craven bid for commercial acceptance.
Richard Challen
Feb 14, 20204 min read
606 views
4 comments
Stevie Wonder – “Send One Your Love”
A gorgeous wisp of a song also functions as a disarming, straightforward entry into the most head-scratchingly odd release of his career.
Richard Challen
Feb 7, 20204 min read
583 views
9 comments
Michael Jackson – “Rock With You”
Every second explodes with unabashed joy, deepened only by the knowledge that Michael Jackson would never sound so free on record again.
Richard Challen
Feb 4, 20207 min read
1,702 views
7 comments
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