So why is KC & The Sunshine Band on this best 1,000 albums ever thing?
The summer after I graduated from college, I had no idea what I wanted to do with my life, so I worked as a temp at a huge company that sells dental office supplies.
The office was located in a massive corporate park on Long Island, New York. If you’ve ever seen the movie Office Space (which… if you haven’t, stop reading this right now and go watch it), the gray cube farm and overall office drone zone vibes map to that classic film disturbingly well.
Even though I had just experienced what had been one of the great years of my life as a college senior, I soon felt lost, living with my parents and working at a job that I despised. The office culture was buttoned down conservative with a side of Long Island attitude*.
* Think Office Space meets Boiler Room to throw in another classic ‘90s movie, the latter of which is set on Long Island.
At some point, I became aware that there was this other young guy in the office who was around my age. He had longish hair, wore flamboyant open-collared shirts, and had a speech impediment. I mention that latter bit only because I quickly took in that most of the other people in the office treated this guy pretty dismissively. Nothing was said outright, but it became clear that this guy was to be ignored.
Eventually, I struck up a conversation with him and learned that not only was he cool, but he was really freaking cool, funny and magnetic in a super unique way. I soon forgot about his speech impediment, and was completely charmed by his worldview and take on life, much of which involved transcending the weary world of office drudgery that we were both mired in and trying to have as good a time as possible.
I mention all of this because he turned me onto KC & The Sunshine Band, a band that in the 1990s was very much not in fashion, let us say*. He even made me a mix tape, and encouraged me to head out with him to a local dance club after work.
* Back on our ‘90s movie theme, I believe movies like Swingers in 1996, and especially Boogie Nights in 1997 helped to bring disco back to some degree of respectability in the U.S., but it took some time.
I didn’t end up taking him up on his offer, which had much more to do with my feelings about partaking in Long Island nightlife than anything else, but it’s something I still occasionally regret simply because I wish that I had gotten to know this guy a little bit better.
“Get Down Tonight” is my favorite KC & The Sunshine Band song of all. The mixture of funk and disco has a propulsive energy, and the chorus – do a little dance, make a little love, get down tonight – is catchy, iconic, and lit up my imagination in the 1990s, I’m sure, wondering what life must have been like at the discotheques of yore back in the day.
Much the same goes for “That’s the Way (I Like It),” but throw in those big looping horn riffs. And then of course the chorus allows you to throw anything you want in place of the “I” – that’s the way ERIC likes it! – when you sing along.
“Boogie Shoes” is a tight midtempo disco number and a true mid-1970s classic.
“I Get Lifted” is a super funky little deep cut, and sounds incredibly fresh.
Some stats & info about KC & The Sunshine Band
- What kind of musical stylings does this album represent? Disco, Funk, Dance Music, R&B
- Rolling Stone’s greatest 500 albums ranking – not ranked!
- All Music’s rating – 4.5 out of 5 stars
- When was KC & The Sunshine Band released?
- My ranking, the one you’re reading right now – #305 out of 1,000
KC & The Sunshine Band on Spotify
A lyrical snippet from KC & The Sunshine Band that’s evocative of the album in some way, maybe
Do a little dance, make a little love, get down tonight.
What does the “best 1,000 albums ever” mean and why are you doing this?
Yeah, I know it’s audacious, a little crazy (okay, maybe a lot cray cray), bordering on criminal nerdery.
But here’s what it’s NOT: a definitive list of the Greatest Albums of All-Time. This is 100% my own personal super biased, incredibly subjective review of what my top 1,000 albums are, ranked in painstaking order over the course of doing research for nearly a year, Rob from High Fidelity style. Find out more about why I embarked on a best 1,000 albums ever project.