Songoftheday 7/25/14 - I need a taxi, she's so hot fresh in the serious love reaction...

Kool & The Gang - "Emergency"
from the album Emergency (1984)
Billboard Hot 100 peak: #18 (two weeks)
Weeks in the Top-40: 8

Today's Song of the Day comes from a R&B/pop band from New Jersey that were enjoying a huge success with their 16th studio album, Kool & The Gang. The first three singles from the set became top-10 pop hits in the U.S. - "Misled", "Fresh", and their signature ballad "Cherish". For their fourth release from the set (surprising since the record only had eight tracks) the band released the title track, written and produced by the band, and got them back on the dance floor...

"Emergency" became the band's fourth top-20 pop hit in America from the album in December of 1985. It also climbed up to #7 on Billboard's R&B chart (their sixth consecutive top-10) and popped in at #41 on their dance club play chart. Internationally, while the single went top-40 in Ireland, it was more of a minor hit in England (#50), Canada, and Germany. However, it remains one of my faves of the group, successfully fusing their post-disco funk with a rock edge paved by Jackson and Prince.

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Here's the band performing live in 1987...

...and finally, without lead singer J.T. Taylor at Glastonbury in 2011..

Up tomorrow: a bar-band reprises its affair with a boxer.