In the early 1970's The Stylistics were one of the most successful Philly Soul bands, all of their big U.S. hits were ballads. When this song was released in 1971 the band was producing hit after hit, ultimately they had a solid streak of twelve consecutive top ten hit records. In 1994 Spike Lee used a Marc Dorsey remake of their People Make The World Go Round for the opening scene of his film Crooklyn. The remake was the first release for Dorsey, who was known in the industry for writing commercial jingles. This nice video for the original is fan-made, there was no official video made.

This1972 funk classic by Lyn Collins was co-written and produced by James Brown, and recorded for Brown's People Record's label with the backing of the JB's. Five different breaks from this song have been sampled countless times, in fact this song is one of the most sampled songs ever. The "Woo Yeah" was famously used by many like Rob Base for the hip-hop anthem It Takes Two, and the song was also sampled for: EPMD's Gold Digger, Janet Jackson's Alright, TLC's Hat 2 Da Back, Yo Yo & Ice Cube's Bonnie and Clyde Theme and more.

This is the 1983 hit from John Rocca's UK jazz funk band Freeez. I.O.U., which was written and produced by Arthur Baker. The year before this was released Baker produced Afrika Bambaataa's Planet Rock and Rocker's Revenge's Walking On Sunshine. Baker was a successful club DJ turned producer in the early 1980's. He was famous for his remixes, which in the pre-digital 1980's were done all on analog tape. He went on later to start the Streetwise label where he produced New Edition and New Order - who he also co-wrote some songs with.
>>Be sure to check out the Christmas video collection in my XMAS XTRA.

Kurtis Blow was the first ever rapper to be signed to a major label, and this was that history making single that paved the way for hip-hop. This novelty song was such a hit that it was signed to Mercury Records in 1979, Blow's first record. The follow-up to this was his unforgettable classic The Breaks in 1980. This historic track of his has been sampled numerous times, such as in Next's 1998 hit Too Close. 
>>Be sure to check out the Christmas video collection in my XMAS XTRA.

After a legacy of dozens of albums since 1956, jazz and pop group The Crusaders (also known as The Jazz Crusaders) soared to the top with Street Life in 1979. The single featured Randy Crawford, who had been singing with jazz stars George Benson and Cannon Adderley, and she had released 3 solo albums in the mid 1970's. Georgia-born Crawford went on to have immense success in Europe, where she has had numerous hits in the top 5.

In 1978 funk band Rufus & Chaka Khan released their sixth and final album with this song as it's title track - Street Player. After that Khan kicked off her solo career with her anthem I'm Every Woman. The following year in 1979 Street Player was covered by Chicago on their Chicago 13 album, the song had actually been co-written by Danny Seraphine - Chicago's drummer. In 1994 The Bucketheads famously sampled this Chicago version for their club hit The Bomb (These Sounds Fall Into My Mind). This version has also been sampled by many others, including Pitbull in 2009 for I Know You Want Me (Calle Ocho).  

Pick Up The Pieces was the first of many big hits for the Scottish funk and soul sensation Average White Band, the song off their second album soared to the top of the Billboard Hot 100's in 1975. The song's title also describes how the band was able to move forward after their troubled start. The bands 1973 debut got little attention, and they had moved to L.A. to produce a second album AWB, which was released in Aug 1974. Pick Up The Pieces had been released the previous month in the UK but hadn't much attention. A month after AWB was released drummer/founding member Robbie McIntosh died of a heroin overdose at a L.A. party. Alan Gorrie, also a founding member, overdosed at the same party survived - Cher was credited with helping to keep him conscious until the medics arrived. The surviving band members picked up the pieces and recorded a very successful third album Cut The Cake - which they dedicated to McIntosh.

This classic piece from The Dave Brubeck Quartet's 1959 album Time Out has been called the greatest selling jazz single of all-time. The song was composed by the group's saxophonist Paul Desmond, and it was revolutionary at the time because it was played in an unusual 5/4 time - hence the name of the song. This song was one of the first significant U.S. jazz songs to use this quintuple meter, straying from the usual 4/4 time that musicians used. After a legacy of chain-smoking, the successful and busy Paul Desmond died of lung cancer in 1977. When he died, Desmond left the rights and royalties for Take Five to the American Red Cross.

Here is a rare 1958 Peggy Lee TV performance of her infamous cover of Little Willie John's very successful Fever. There are, and there will continue to be, many memorable covers of this song but Lee's version is the best known. This version was completely rewritten from the 1956 original with new lyrics from Lee. In 1959 at the first annual Grammy Awards, Lee's Fever was nominated in the "song of the year" category and in the "record of the year" category. She has been nominated a total of eight times and she has won two Grammys, including the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award in 1995.

In English the songs title means "no way" or "yeah right." This song famously performed by the great Sergio Mendes was originally written and performed by Jorge Ben. In 1963 an unknown Ben sang his Mas Que Nada at a small gig and there was a record label executive in the crowd - his first single was released the following week. In 1966 Mendes covered Mas Que Nada on his 8th album. The song quickly became his signature song and the album went Platinum thanks to this hit. In Brazil, Rolling Stone Magazine voted this the fifth greatest Brazilian song ever, and it's been covered too many times to count.