(The Hit Hammer is where I'm reviewing each #1 song on the Billboard Hot 100. Starting from when the chart started in 1958 and eventually working my way to the present. To see my inspiration and more information about this blog, please CLICK HERE)
KC & the Sunshine Band - "Get Down Tonight"
Hit Number 1: August 30, 1975
Stay at Number 1: 1 Week
If you were a young adult in 1975, chances are you'd go dancing at nightclubs all the time. These nightclubs are where disco originated, and Harry Casey and Richard Finch were two guys that were very intrigued by the vibe of these clubs. The problem was they were broke as hell, so they would have to sneak in if they wanted a chance to get a look inside. Well, they were successful in doing that, often sneaking into several different nightclubs in the Miami area and getting a taste of the new dance scene. This is what inspired them both to start writing music, and though this music often had the corniest, most basic lyrics you could ever imagine, these two were able to find good grooves for their songs. Casey and Finch would go on to form KC & the Sunshine Band, and they became one of the true pioneers of the disco genre.
Even though "Get Down Tonight" was their first #1 hit, this is not the first time I've ever talked about KC & the Sunshine Band on this blog. They were the ones behind the 1974 #1 hit "Rock Your Baby" by George McCrae, and after you listen to that song, you can tell that this was a Casey-Finch composition. The lyrics only tell of a woman taking you in her arms and rocking. In "Get Down Tonight," the lyrics are just as simple. This time the narrator of our song is in a nightclub, and he's trying to get a girl to do some dancing with him before making some love and "getting down tonight." You will never, and I mean ever find any sort of deep meaning in KC & the Sunshine Band songs, so if that's your thing, you're listening to the wrong guys.
Casey (or KC, however you wanna spell it out) usually wrote his songs with a title already in mind, and him and Finch would find a way to create a song to fit that title. Well, "Get Down Tonight" was a little bit different. KC was in the middle of writing and recording the song and admitted later on that he just sang the first few words that would come to his mind. "Get Down Tonight" was originally titled "What You Want Is What You'll Get," but obviously, that just doesn't have the same ring as "Get Down Tonight." Simply, KC just thought about all the different things he loved to do, and he would write a song about all those things. He was a big fan of dancing, and like everyone else enjoyed making some love every now and then, so that's what we hear about in "Get Down Tonight." It's a song about being young and care-free, and generally just having a hell of a fantastic time.
This is the key ingredient in any disco song. Nobody is going to write a song about heartbreak or anything deep/sad and then try to turn it into a dance song. Nothing will clear a dance floor quicker than that. So KC and Finch were able to find that sweet spot, and they continued to keep hitting it. These guys were living proof that you didn't need to be the greatest songwriter ever to make an absolute banger of a song. The best thing about "Get Down Tonight" isn't the words or even KC's singing voice. (Casey was just an average vocalist) It's that damn soul-sucking groove that gives the song all of its life. It starts with a guitar progression played at double speed, before launching into its dance-floor-filling chaos. The bass line is smooth as silk, the horn section breathes all kinds of hype into the song, and overall, the song proves to be a great time. And the fact that it's about having a great time too fits even better. I think it's safe to say that "Get Down Tonight" was a blueprint for the kinds of charting hits that would dominate the Hot 100 for the latter part of the '70s. Casey and Finch didn't overthink anything, and they found something that worked.
"Get Down Tonight" was only a precursor for what was about to come in the later part of the '70s, as well as opening the door for KC & the Sunshine Band to have some serious stardom. Again, Casey and Finch; not amazing songwriters. But they loved singing songs about having fun and dancing, and it's hard for anyone to resist the urge to dance to any of their songs. "Get Down Tonight" commands you to dance, and that groove is addicting as all hell. It really was a hell of a way for them to get their first #1, and they'll appear in this blog again shortly.
GRADE: 9/10
IN POP CULTURE:
Here's a video for the 1998 U.K. hit "Bamboogie" by a short-lived British house music band Bamboo. The song heavily samples "Get Down Tonight," so Casey and Finch actually received songwriting credits on it. The song didn't chart on the Hot 100, but it made it to #2 on the U.K. charts:
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