Monday, November 17, 2008

Genius: Right Back Where We Started From / Rock the Boat



Genius’d Song: Right Back Where We Started From
Artist: Maxine Nightingale
Album: Right Back Where We Started From






Selection: Rock the Boat
Artist: The Hues Corporation
Album: Rock the Boat

Genius Results:

Song - Artist
Right Back Where We Started From - Maxine Nightingale
Don't Leave Me This Way - Thelma Houston
If I Can't Have You - Yvonne Elliman
Rock The Boat - The Hues Corporation
Summer Breeze - Croft & Seals
Build Me Up Buttercup - The Foundations
Jump (For My Love) - The Pointer Sisters
Vacation - The Go-Go's
Hot Child In The City - Nick Gilder
Bennie and the Jets - Elton John
It's Not Unusual - Tom Jones
Doctor My Eyes - Jackson Browne
Saturday Night - Bay City Rollers
How Much I Feel - Ambrosia
Car Wash - Rose Royce
Band on the Run - Paul McCartney & Wings
Fooled Around And Fell In Love - Elvin Bishop
I Love the Nightlife (Disco 'Round) - Alicia Bridges
Dream Weaver - Gary Wright
Magnet & Steel - Walter Egan
If You Leave Me Now - Chicago
I Just Want To Be Your Everything - Andy Gibb
Knock Three Times - Tony Orlando & Dawn
Disco Inferno - The Trammps
You Sexy Thing - Hot Chocolate

Maxine Nightingale

Career
First signed to Pye Records in the early 1970s, she recorded such singles as "Love on Borrowed Time" while appearing in the West End productions of Hair, Jesus Christ Superstar, and Savages. In 1975, she switched labels to United Artists, and with the collaboration of record producers J. Vincent Edwards and Pierre Tubbs, she recorded the album Right Back Where We Started From, which yielded the titular hit single. United Artists took time trying to gain her recognition in the United States (she was only moderately known in the UK), and scheduled her appearances on American Bandstand and The Mike Douglas Show. As a result, "Right Back Where We Started From" rose to #2 in the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 in the beginning of May 1976, and peaked at #8 in the UK Singles Chart.

Other Top 40 hits followed, including the song "Love Hit Me" (which reached #11 in the UK in 1977) and a cover of the Delfonics' song "Didn't I (Blow Your Mind This Time)", which entered the dance charts. In the U.S., however, Nightingale found it initially difficult to match the success of "Right Back Where We Started From". Then in 1979, Nightingale released the single "Lead Me On", which rose to #5 in the United States and spent seven weeks at number one on Billboard's Adult Contemporary singles chart. The follow-up, "(Bringing Out) The Girl in Me," was her last entry on the U.S. pop charts. Nightingale released one album a year until 1980, when she decided to retire from regular recordings. While compiling a greatest hits album in 1982, she performed a duet called "Turn to Me" with Jimmy Ruffin which entered the U.S. R&B Top 20.

Nightingale more recently recorded a jazz CD, based on her performances at B.B. King's Club at Universal Studios Hollywood.

She appears in the PBS music special My Music, alongside Patti LaBelle, the Commodores, Heatwave and many more. Her song, "Right Back Where We Started From", has appeared in numerous films including Slap Shot; Yours, Mine and Ours; Starsky and Hutch and most recently The Family Stone.

As of February 2008, Maxine Nightingale is touring to all parts of Australia to perform her 1970s hits.


The Hues Corporation

The Hues Corporation was a pop and soul trio formed at Santa Monica California in 1969. They are best known for their 1974 hit, "Rock the Boat". Before making it big in mainstream music they would be the opening act for some big name stars including Frank Sinatra, Milton Berle, Nancy Sinatra, and Glen Campbell.

The group's name was a pun on the Hughes Corporation, with the "hue" being the group's African-American heritage. The band's members were St. Clair Lee (born Bernard St. Clair Lee, 24 April 1944 in San Francisco, California, U.S.), Flemming Williams, and Ann Kelley. The original choice for the group's name was The Children of Howard Hughes, which their record label turned down.

The group's first big break came in 1972 when they were invited to appear in the blaxploitation film, Blacula, starring William Marshall. They were also asked to record three songs for the film's soundtrack. There He Is Again, What The World Knows, and I'm Gonna Catch You.

Shortly after, RCA signed the group and their first single, Freedom For The Stallion, from the album of the same name, became a moderate hit, reaching #63 on Billboard's Hot 100. The follow-up single, "Rock the Boat," became a #1 hit on the charts and the group's signature song. The million-seller song is considered one of the earliest disco songs. Some authorities proclaim it to be the first disco song to hit #1, while others grant that distinction to "Love's Theme" by Love Unlimited Orchestra, a chart-topper from earlier in 1974.

After the success of Rock The Boat the Hues Corporation's other charted singles on the Billboard Hot 100 included Rockin' Soul (1974, #18), Love Corporation (1975, #62), and I Caught Your Act (1977, #92).

Despite their initial success, the group was unable to duplicate the success of their earlier hits and disbanded in 1978. But with renewed interest in disco music throughout the 1990s, the group reunited for tour dates and special events, including the PBS special Get Down Tonight: The Disco Explosion.

Right Back Where We Started From (live)


Rock the Boat

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