This week US Disco Top 10 in 1978

[fabio]

August 12, 1978
1. (1) Karen Young HOT SHOT
2. (4) Sylvester YOU MAKE ME FEEL (MIGHTY REAL) · DANCE (DISCO HEAT)
3. (3) Grace Jones DO OR DIE · PRIDE · FAME
4. (2) A Taste Of Honey BOOGIE OOGIE OOGIE
5. (5) Donna Summer · Pattie Brooks · Love And Kisses · Sunshine
LAST DANCE · AFTER DARK · THANK GOD IT'S FRIDAY · TAKE IT TO THE ZOO
6. (6) The Rolling Stones MISS YOU
7. (7) Rick James & The Stone City Band YOU AND I
8. (8) Patrick Juvet I LOVE AMERICA · WHERE IS MY WOMAN · GOT A FEELING
9. (9) Kebekelektrik WAR DANCE · MIRAGE
10. (12) Sweet Cream I DON'T KNOW WHAT I'D DO

I have heard all the tracks included in this Top 10 except "Sweet Cream". Can anybody tell me what the record sound like? Is it worth checking it out and get it on ebay (or other)?

Sweet Cream
Real Name: Gloria Ridgeway, Gracie Ridgeway and Esther Ridgeway
Profile:Funk and Soul vocal group from Detroit, Michigan. The group comprised of three sisters: Gloria Dehaven Ridgeway (b. June 1955), Esther Lene Ridgeway (b. 7 June 1959 d. 22 February 2003) and Gracie Mae Ridgeway (b. 16 June 1957 d. 19 April 2006). The sisters formed their singing group at the age of four, six and eight, respectively, and sang all types of music from Gospel to Jazz, Blues to Hip Hop, Classical to Country Western in addition to their mainstay, Soul and R&B.

[thommy2458]

Fabio-thankyou so much for posting this.This period is
one of my all time favorites.The memories each song
brings makes me so sentimental for those days.Sweet Cream is an absolute classic-happy,joyous girlgroup
with a great sing along hook-my favorite line " I like
to wrestle but I don't wanna fall"......................

Thom

[markydefad]

10. (12) Sweet Cream I DON'T KNOW WHAT I'D DO
I have heard all the tracks included in this Top 10 except "Sweet Cream". Can anybody tell me what the record sound like? Is it worth checking it out and get it on ebay (or other)?

Fabio--this is a winner!!! Great record.... Around 130 bpm, it's a hot girl group record like something First Choice might have recorded.
http://www.discomusic.com/records-more/5571_0_2_0_C/

"I don't know what I'd do-- if you ever left me... oh how could I make it."

[needlefingers]

Get it! Now!:icon_twisted:

I Don't Know What I'd Do( If You Ever Left Me) -Sweet Cream

[STEPHEN L FREEMAN]

I have to chime-in... You simply MUST own this recording! But I'd advise you track down the UK 12". The arrangement's very busy, and the US-mastered pressing doesn't do it justice.

Her ad-libs, at the end of the song, tear at your heartstrings.
There must be something about ya
Cause you know that I can't live without ya
There must be something about ya
Cause you know I can't, I ain't , I won't...Don't leave me baby!

Please don't go, I don't know
Please don't go, I don't know what I'd do...

And if, at the end of 7mins+, you are not in love with this song... Well then, there must be a hole where your heart ought to be.

What kills me is that no one (not the group, the writers, nor the producer...) managed to create a follow-up that rivaled this track.

http://www.discomusic.com/records-more/5571_0_2_0_C/

like something First Choice might have recorded.

Ya know? I never noticed that quality to it, but that's an excellent reference point!

[fabio]

Thank you guys!! It's nice to know I can always relay on you. Needlefingers thank you for the link. I should have it thought it myself. The sound on the video is not great but I get the sense of the style. I think you have persuaded me to put it in my shopping list.

[EricHG23]

The Sweet Cream song has been covered by Almighty's team of Hi NRG covers--it's on one of the UK Queer as Folk soundtracks, which is where I first heard it.

I can't believe SUnshine's track from TGIF did so well. I wonder why Casablanca never released the album their sister Donna Summer helped make?

[STEPHEN L FREEMAN]

I can't believe Sunshine's track from TGIF did so well.
I wonder why Casablanca never released the album their sister Donna Summer helped make?

It's a real sore-spot. The album was called "Watchin' Daddy Dance". It had 4 (maybe 5) tracks. A couple of them had that Last Dance/slow-intro, fast-song structure.

When I was working promotion for "Another Place & Time", the Florida promotion-head let me listen to an old cassette of it. It was really very good! Very full-production (from what I could hear) ala MacArthur's Park, etc...

As I was told... The album wasn't finished until 1979. Bogart owned it (Casablanca bought complete rights to a lot of their product.) and refused to release it, after Donna sued him and Joyce. In a rather spitefull move.

As for "Take It To The Zoo"... It didn't do all that well. Remember that it was bundled for the charts, with the rest of the soundtrack cuts.

[EricHG23]

Awesome! On the Donna forum I'd been hearing about it for YEARS, but never much thought as to why it didn't get released (the consensus was maybe they were worried because of disco peaking) but the fact that it came around the time of Donna's Casablanca law suit makes PERFECT sense.

I've also never heard of anyone who's heard it before... You make it sound wonderful--God knows Mary (still one of Donna's backup singers) and the others can all sing. I was a bit worried because DOnna Summer's "produced" album for Twiggy (I question how much she actually worked on it) is kinda... awful I think, and was shelved around the same time so I expected something maybe similar.

I do know that Maybe It's Over from Donna's Cats Without Claws was apparantly written (and recorded?) for Sunshien as Baby It's Over.

Arthur Wright produced Zoo, didn't he? Seemed an odd choice. I admit when I first heard the song I found it one of the worse cuts on the TGIF soundtrack and was very disappointed--for whatever reason it has grown on me, I think partly cuz of the vocals, although I still wouldn't rank it with tracks like Donna's 3, or Diana's, or Pattie's, or Love and Kisses', or even Santa Esmeralda's on that soundtrack.

[STEPHEN L FREEMAN]

Arthur Wright produced Zoo, didn't he? Seemed an odd choice.

Arthur Wright had a fairly good track record by the time he got to Casablanca, in 1977.

http://arthurgwright.com/index.html

As an arranger, Arthur had success the previous year with Paul Jabara's "Shut out/Heaven Is A Disco". He also wrote/produced The Pips release and Rare Gems Odyssey, on Casablanca. Then Casablanca gave him his own LP The Wright Brothers Flying Machine. Which, I believe, featured "Leatherman's Theme" from TGIF.
Giving arranger a shot at producer, like they did with Bob Esty. It just didn't pan-out as well for Wright, as it did for Esty.

And on a final note re: the Sunshine LP... It's purely "he said, she said", but the story conveyed to me, continued-on to describe a rather deliberate destruction of, either the 24-track Master, or the 2-track Mix-Down Master. So I doubt there's a chance of the LP ever seeing the light-of-day.

[SandraDee]

I'd never heard that Sweet Cream track before I went to 'Remember The Party' in San Francisco last year where Jerry Bonham mixed it very well between Esther Phillips & Stereo Fun Inc. It is very good; even though my knowledge of disco through the ages isn't bad, I'm thrilled to still be discovering fab stuff that's new to me.:icon_razz:

[needlefingers]

For those who may not have caught it, the Sweet Cream lp cover mimics another famous album cover from 1965.......

Herb Alpert's Tijuana Brass Whipped Cream & Other Delights



A very popular album in it's day.

[remicks]

No wonder it seemed somehow familiar !!! :icon_rolleyes:


*****

[drlove]

fyi . . . Sweet Cream was just one of a handful of takeoffs/parodies of that iconic Herb Alpert LP cover. Thank God for the existence of twisted art directors everywhere !!!!

Artist
Soul AsylumAlbum
Clam Dip & Other DelightsRelease Date
Jan 1988* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *Artist: The Frivolous Five
Title: Sour Cream & Other Delights
Date: 1966
Label: RCA Victor Records LSP-3663

* * * * * * * * * * * * * *and finally . .

[needlefingers]

Oh my! What hath Herb Alpert wrought?