A big shout out to my friend niecy who asked to hear it, love ya baby! Thanks for the inspiration!
At the time, the last I heard from Kool & The Gang was when their 1976 single "Open Sesame" was on the "Saturday Night Fever" soundtrack from 1978. Kool & The Gang were contemplating disbanding in 1979 because they were unable to maintain their flair for creating hit records, but decided to change up their style by collaborating with Jazz Pop Legend Eumir Deodato. Children of the 70's may remember hearing him on the radio with his jazz rendition of "Theme from 2001, A Space Odyssey" otherwise known as "Also Sprach Zarathustra" a Richard Strauss classical composition. Originally from Brazil, he was a self taught musician who ended up working with Astrud Gilberto ("The Girl From Ipanema"). Roberta Flack, Bette Midler, Frank Sinatra and Wes Montgomery all worked with him. His incredibly funky tune with jazz overtones swept up to the #2 position in 1973 but could not dislodge Roberta Flack's "Killing Me Softly With His Song", but he did not work on that particular song. Kool & The Gang went down to the studio where Deodato was working on his "Knights Of Fantasy" LP, heard what he was doing and struck a partnership deal up. With the musical direction in place, leader Khalis Bayyan began to interview new vocalists. When he heard James Taylor he knew that he was the one, because he thought that "he had a Nat King Cole vibe about him". A few jam sessions with entire band saw him seamlessly fitting right in and he was on the road two weeks later performing with the band. Bayyan was working on a little song called "Celebration" and was putting together the chords when "Kool" walked in and said two things to him, "Ladies Night" and "Hangin' Out" and then walked out. That was all he needed, "Ladies Night" got its beat from drummer George Brown and when it was presented to the band, they each made contributions to it. Deodato pointed out that there was no recognizable hook, so Bayyan remembered something his mother, Aminah often repeated to him, "Always give the people nursery rhymes. Give them something they'll remember." Taking her advice, he came up with "Oh yes it's Ladies Night, and the feeling's right, Oh yes it's Ladies Night" and then added "Oh what a night" to pay tribute to her because she liked a song from the Dells that was called "Oh, What A Nite" The band was completely satisfied with the finished song and it became their biggest hit in years, #8 pop and #1 for three weeks R&B and #5 disco. In 1983, Deo remixed the song which added even more punch and an unobtrusive synth line. This is my take on his Deodato's 12 Version which adds lots of new elements from the original master tape without killing the original vibe.
