Thursday, March 28, 2024

‘Let’s Get This Show On the Road’: Three Decisive Days that Birthed The No. 1 Hit ‘Boogie Oogie Oogie’ [EUR Video Throwback]

*When Janice-Marie Johnson said “Listen to my bass here” on A Taste of Honey’s “Boogie Oogie Oogie,” she really meant her bass.

The Los Angeles native and daughter of a musician father began singing and playing music as a small child, but didn’t pick up the bass guitar until college. She was singing in local jazz clubs and opening for such artists as jazz legend Miles Davis when she met keyboardist Percy Kibble during an audition for the Princess Cruise Lines. They decided to form a duo and named themselves after one of their favorite songs, Herb Alpert’s 1965 remake of the show tune “A Taste of Honey.”

Johnson and Kibble added guitarist/vocalist Carlita Dorhan and drummer Donald Ray Johnson to their band, and A Taste of Honey, began playing military bases around the U.S. and abroad. They eventually crossed paths the Mizell brothers. Producer Fonce Mizell was a former member of Motown’s songwriting/arranging/production crew The Corporation, the force behind The Jackson 5’s “I Want You Back,” “The Love You Save” and “ABC.” Larry Mizell found success with LTD of “Love Ballad” fame, among other acts.

One fateful day, A Taste of Honey took a gig playing at the wedding of Smokey Robinson’s bass player. There, they met the great Larkin Arnold, an entertainment attorney for Capitol Records who had been tapped to start the label’s first soul music division in 1970. His oversaw the signings of Peabo Bryson, Natalie Cole, Freda Payne, The Sylvers, Tavares and Nancy Wilson – and in the late seventies, A Taste of Honey.

Carlita Dorhan left the group by early 1976, and was replaced by guitarist/vocalist Hazel Payne. On another fateful day, the group was playing a gig at the airbase in San Bernardino, CA when Payne noticed that the crowd was not feeling them at all. She ad-libbed to the wallflowers, “If you’re thinking that you’re too cool to boogie, we’ve got news for you. Everyone here tonight must boogie and you are no exception to the rule.” Later that night, Johnson wrote down the lines, thinking they might make good lyrics some day.

On yet another fateful day, Johnson was warming up on her bass before a recording session unaware that the Mizells were recording her. The bass line she was toying with, coupled with Payne’s admonishing of the soldiers ended up giving A Taste of Honey its official debut single (released from their self-titled album on June 16, 1978), a platinum plaque indicating over 2 million copies of the single sold, a 1979 Grammy Award for Best New Artist and a three week run atop Billboard’s pop chart beginning on this day, September 9, in 1978.

A Taste of Honey – Boogie Oogie Oogie (Live) – 1978

With lyrics by Johnson and production by Fonce and Larry Mizell, “Boogie Oogie Oogie” b/w “World Spin,” also topped the soul and disco charts. It became an enduring R&B and pop classic as well as an indelible cornerstone of the disco era.  Johnson reportedly loathed the band being labeled as a “disco group,” but she eventually came to embrace the tag.

Also, it didn’t hurt that Larkin Arnold – with his legal background – made sure that when signing the group, Johnson and Payne owned their own publishing. It’s why Johnson has referred to “Boogie Oogie Oogie” as her “lifeline,” which just might be the understatement of the century.

In 2004 Payne and Janice–Marie Johnson reunited for the first time in over twenty years to perform on the PBS specials “Get Down Tonight: The Disco Explosion” and “My Music: Funky Soul Superstars.”

A Taste of Honey – Boogie Oogie Oogie (KC and the Sunshine Band Present: Get Down Tonight – The Disco Explosion Live) – 2004

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