1974 George McCrae " Rock Your Baby"
1974
This was voted the #1 Single of the Year by Rolling Stone magazine
"TK Records owner Henry Stone recalled in 1000 UK #1 Hits by Jon Kutner and Spencer Leigh, "I suggested to Harry that Gwen McCrae (George McRae's wife) might be a good contender to cut the track, but just then George walked in and I then told Harry to let George have a go first."
One of the first hits of the disco era, this sold over 11 million copies worldwide. The song was written by Harry Wayne Casey and Richard Finch of KC & The Sunshine Band, and it formed the basis for their wildly successful writing and performing partnership which yielded five more US #1 hits and pioneered the disco sound.
Casey and Finch worked for TK Records, which was a distributor and a studio, complete with a house band that would become KC & The Sunshine Band. One of the artists who recorded at TK was Timmy Thomas, who had a hit with "
Why Can't We Live Together?"
Finch told Songfacts:
"
His organ was left up in the studio, and 'Rock Your Baby' became born unto this crazy drum machine that was inside of this Lowry organ that he left there. I used to use that as a tempo map, and I would play along with the drum machine.
In the beginning it would hide my errors, but it would also teach me to be a better drummer, because I was paying attention to it that closely. Then we would build on that.
We had a 1-inch 8-track machine and I had a cheap Japanese bass. We were just recording and recording and recording.
And one night, this one track came out like better than anything else. It was like God was in the building or something - we had been blessed. It was like the hunger and desire was so incredibly overwhelming that some magical moment happened in there. We knew to build on that track.
https://www.songfacts.com/facts/george-mccrae/rock-your-baby
GEORGE McCRAE:
George Warren McCrae, Jr. is an American soul and disco singer, most famous for his 1974 hit "Rock Your Baby". Wikipedia
Born: October 19, 1944 (age 76 years), West Palm Beach, FL
Spouse: Gwen McCrae (m. 1963–1977), Yvonne McCrae
Biography
There are few singers in soul music with a unique signature sound starting in the 60’s and still going strong today.
With his straight from the heart, rich in emotion and knee-deep singing delivering breathtaking vocal depth and range George McCrae is one of those artists.
After an impressive career including a #1 in more than 40 countries, several golden records, a Grammy nomination as best male R&B singer in 1975 and having worked with legends such as Michael Jackson & the Jackson 5, James Brown, KC & The Sunshine Band, Nile Rodgers and Bernard Edwards as well Bill Wyman, George McCrae is now back with a new great classic and fresh sounding album called LOVE.
Born the second of nine in West Palm Beach, Florida, George started singing gospel in church.
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http://www.georgemccrae.com/index.html