R&B

 

The Billboard Book of Number One Rhythm & Blues Hits

The Billboard charts have a currency acknowledged around the world.  The Billboard Book of Number One Rhythm & Blues Hits, written by Adam White and Fred Bronson, pays tribute to many of those who helped to create a quarter-century of unimpeachable music:  singers, songwriters, musicians, producers and more – even some of the record executives whose hustle delivered the hits and sent them to the soul summit.

 
 
 
Through hundreds of interviews with the musicians, producers and songwriters involved in the making of such classics as “Respect,” “Rainy Night In Georgia” and “One Nation Under A Groove,” it provides a fascinating insight into the sound of black America
— The Times
 

Excerpt

CAR WASH

Rose Royce
MCA 40615
Writer: Norman Whitfield
Producer: Norman Whitfield
December 25, 1976 (2 weeks)

The fact that the lyrics of “Car Wash,” the hit record, were originally written on a Kentucky Fried Chicken bag is as improbable as the genesis of Car Wash, the movie.

Film producer Art Linson recalled how he was taken with the notion of doing a stage musical built around the life of a car wash. “You had to be young, completely reckless, and desperate for money to go to [Universal Pictures] and say, ‘I’ve got this idea, ya know, guys in orange suits, and we’re gonna put it to music,’ ” he told Peter Biskind in Premiere magazine. Universal chief Ned Tanen, by Linson’s account, said, “This is the worst idea for a play I’ve ever heard. I think we should just make a movie out of it right away.”

Record producer Norman Whitfield wasn’t crazy about the idea of Car Wash as a movie, either – at least not as one featuring his music. But director Michael Schultz really wanted him, and kept up the pressure. “Norman saw dollar signs,” says Gwen Dickey, the former lead singer of the band who recorded the soundtrack, Rose Royce.

Whitfield also saw something else: the opportunity to use Car Wash as a vehicle to launch the career of Rose Royce, his latest proteges. The group had already played behind the Temptations, and the producer had cut an album’s worth of material with them. “We were recording that when Norman was offered the Car Wash soundtrack,” affirms Dickey. “They wanted him to use the Temptations or the Undisputed Truth, but he wanted to break us.”

Coincidentally, it was one of the Truth’s vocalists, Joe Harris, who had introduced Dickey to Whitfield. “I was working with a group in Miami, the Jewels, when I was discovered by Joe,” she explains. “They flew me to L.A. to audition for the Truth, but Norman decided it would be best for me to go with Rose Royce.”

Renamed Rose Norwalt for that purpose, Dickey joined a line-up comprising Kenji Brown (guitar), Lequeint “Duke” Jobe (bass), Henry Garner (drums), Victor Nix (keyboards), Terry Santiel (percussion), and a horn section: trumpeters Kenny Copeland and Freddie Dunn, saxman Michael Moore.

MCA Records had the rights to the Car Wash soundtrack. Having successfully argued with the label about using a brand new group for the music, Whitfield and Rose Royce got down to work. “We rehearsed at Norman’s house, then went into the studio to record the tracks,” says Gwen. “Once the instrumentation was put down, it was just so electric. Norman said, ‘This is going to be a major hit.’ ”

Dickey recalls Whitfield writing the lyrics of Car Wash after a basketball game, on the fried chicken wrap. “He said, ‘I want you to sing this for me.’ I said, ‘I’m not singing this song, it’s crazy.’ Norman replied, ‘Believe me, this song is going to make you rich.’ I told him, ‘Yeah, right.’ ”

Cutting the tune with the band at Sound Factory West in Los Angeles, Dickey laboured over one of the quirkier lyric lines, about an Indian chief. “Norman told me, ‘You’re not singing “chief,” you’re singing “sheep.” I told him, ‘I’m not,’ but we fought over it. I must have sung that line 60 times.”

Rose Royce also saw the making of Car Wash, the movie. Whitfield was scoring it as Michael Schultz rolled the cameras. “We would go each day to watch the filming so Norman would know what to come up with for that segment,” says Dickey.

Movie and music came up trumps. Michael Schultz’s handiwork, which cost Universal less than $2 million to make, collected $20 million at the box office. Norman Whitfield’s labours delivered a gold soundtrack album for MCA and, as planned, broke Rose Royce. After Car Wash yielded two other Top 10 R&B singles, he signed the band to his own Whitfield Records and produced more hits – although probably without the help of KFC bags.