K C & The Sunshine Band KC & The Sunshine Band CD

KC & The Sunshine Band: Harry Wayne "KC" Casey (vocals, keyboards); Jerome Smith (guitar); Richard Finch (bass, drums); Robert "Shotgun" Johnson (drums).
Additional personnel: Beverly Champion Foster, Jeanette Williams, Margaret Reynolds, Debra Carter (vocals); Mike Lewis (tenor saxophone); Whit Sidener (baritone saxophone); Kenny Faulk, Vinnie Tanno (trumpet); Fermin Goytisolo (percussion).
Producers: H.W. Casey, Richard Finch, Steve Alaimo.
Reissue producers: David McLees, Bob Fisher.
Includes liner notes by Amy Linden.
This self-titled effort wasn't the Florida band's first album (they'd recorded an underrated album in 1973 titled Do It Good), but it was the first K.C. collection to soar to the top of the charts. Fueled by such addictive funk hits as "That's the Way (I Like It)" and "Get Down Tonight," the album established K.C. as one of the top stars of the disco era. But while K.C. was labeled a disco artist, the truth is that many of these slick yet gritty songs have more in common with the Ohio Players than Silver Convention or Donna Summer. When Rhino reissued this album on CD in 1995 as KC and the Sunshine Band...And More, the company generously included several early K.C. smokers (including "I'm a Pushover") from Do It Good as bonus tracks. The invigorating material proves that even before the outfit hit big, its distinctive sound had been established. ~ Alex Henderson
While Kool & The Gang (not to mention James Brown) brought streamlined, commercial funk to the airwaves first, it was this integrated party band from Miami that first surpassed the Gang in danceability and sheer musical artistry. One can hear in Harry Wayne Casey's pungent vocals the authentic white soul of Alex Chilton's Box Tops (Chilton eventually covered KC's "Boogie Shoes") even as his and bassist Richard Finch's regional grooves borrowed the Stax trademark off-rhythms of Booker T & The MGs, another successful model of Southern musical integration. Whatever the case for the Sunshine Band's regional roots, nothing can beat the pure "party's-here" excitement of the bouncing clavinet figures leading into "Get Down Tonight" or the dervish-like minor-mode incantations of "That's the Way I Like It." An added bonus on this extended version of the group's debut album--besides '80s remixes of the two big hits--is the addition of "I'm a Pushover," a high-energy mover that rivals Bobby Byrd and JB himself for exhilarating dance floor power.