After a tentative industrial begin with their self-titled 1973 debut, the Chicago soul and funk A-listers who made up Rufus hit their stride. Their subsequent three albums all went high ten on each the soul and pop charts, as their lead singer constructed a status that demanded they name the fourth LP Rufus That includes Chaka Khan.
On February 21, 1976, that album gave them a brand new R&B No.1 with “Sweet Thing,” which turned the group’s second gold single. What they didn’t discover out till a lot later is that the observe was additionally massively influential on Nile Rodgers as he crafted the sound of a Nineteen Eighties David Bowie smash. Extra of that to come back.
Rufus already had 4 main soul hits to their title, with “Tell Me Something Good,” “You Got The Love,” “Once You Get Started,” and “Please Pardon Me (You Remind Me Of A Friend).” All however the final crossed over to pop in an enormous means, and all of them exhibited a streetwise musicianship that offers the band a novel place in R&B historical past.
Rufus That includes Chaka Khan hit file shops to nice anticipation in November 1975, and followers wouldn’t be upset. In recognition of their ever-growing studio experience, the album was the primary to be produced solely by the band themselves. It featured an admirable array of unique materials, earlier than ending with a mid-tempo remake of the Bee Gees’ “Jive Talkin,’” simply three months after the unique had revived the Gibb brothers’ profession by hovering to No.1 within the US.
The Rufus album included three songs by fellow Chicagoan and writer-artist Gavin Christopher, whose inventory was excessive after his “Once You Get Started” had turn into a smash for them earlier that yr. However the calling card for the LP, as its opening single, was a co-write by Khan and bandmate Tony Maiden.
“Sweet Thing” was a cultured, swaying piece of soul that Rufus devotees, and R&B followers typically, merely couldn’t resist – and neither may the pop viewers. It rose to the R&B summit and went all the way in which to No.5 on the Billboard Sizzling 100. Later in 1976, “Dance Wit Me” adopted it from the album into the soul Prime 5, earlier than that “Jive Talkin’” cowl turned the LP’s third and ultimate single.
The story of “Sweet Thing” has an interesting hyperlink with a Nineteen Eighties traditional. Quickly after it was successful, a formative model of soon-to-be disco heroes Stylish was forming in New York because the Large Apple Band, that includes each Nile Rodgers and his future co-writer and producer Bernard Edwards in addition to Tony Thompson and Bobby Cotter. They quickly began to include a canopy of “Sweet Thing” into their reside set, as seen in a grainy video that Rodgers posted in 2011.
The track’s distinctive riff stayed in Rodgers’ thoughts, and when he was co-producing Bowie’s Let’s Dance album of 1983, its inspiration can be invaluable. As Nile later wrote on his weblog: “When working with David Bowie on ‘China Girl,’ I performed a modified model of the guitar riff from ‘Sweet Thing’ on it.
Take heed to the Funky Stuff playlist.
“Typically,” Rodgers continued, “when I write singles I put a hook at the start of the song. I was inspired by this Rufus guitar riff because I thought it had an Asian sound. I played the riff right at the start of ‘China Girl’ before the band comes in. To my surprise David loved it, and that was indeed a Sweet Thing.”
Purchase or stream “Sweet Thing” on Rufus That includes Chaka Khan.
