It will have been laborious for any group to launch a extra appropriately-titled single in late 1977 than the Commodores did with “Too Hot Ta Trot.” After an applicable interval of dues-paying, the Alabama collective had been now within the type of their lives.
Two of the Motown group’s earlier 4 singles, “Easy” and “Just To Be Close To You,” had topped the Billboard R&B charts. With Lionel Richie’s ballads as a counterpoint to their funk origins, they had been masters of any tempo. The irresistible ballad “Easy” had been adopted by one other Prime 5 hit in each soul and pop codecs with the slinky “Brick House,” and now got here one other successful floorfiller.
Within the group’s democratic approach, the songwriting credit score for “Too Hot Ta Trot” went to all of them, itemizing Richie, Milan Williams, Ronald LaPread, Thomas McClary, Walter “Clyde” Orange and William King. It originated because the closing studio reduce on their then-new Reside! set, which was predicted by Billboard to be a “hot holiday item with both pop and soul crowds.”
It entered Sizzling Soul Singles at a daring No.51 on the December 24, 1977 chart, and rose swiftly to spend per week on the prime of that countdown in February 1978. The Commodores had their fourth R&B No.1, with one other across the nook in “Three Times A Lady,” and one other once more in 1979 with “Still.”
With disco fever at its top, “Too Hot Ta Trot” was a pure for the soundtrack of the film Thank God It’s Friday, which appeared the next spring. Starring disco queen Donna Summer season alongside Jeff Goldblum and Debra Winger, the movie received Summer season an Oscar for Greatest Unique Music with “Last Dance” and the accompanying album additionally featured Diana Ross, Cameo, Thelma Houston and different dance acts of the day comparable to Love & Kisses and Santa Esmeralda.
Take heed to the most effective of the Commodores on Apple Music and Spotify.
