Rufus featuring Chaka Khan (album)

Rufus featuring Chaka Khan is the gold-selling fourth studio album by the funk band Rufus and Chaka Khan, released on the ABC Records label in 1975. It remained on top of the R&B album chart for six consecutive weeks.

Rufus featuring Chaka Khan
Studio album by
Rufus featuring Chaka Khan
ReleasedNovember 18, 1975
RecordedMay–August 1975
StudioThe Record Plant
(Los Angeles, California)
Kendun Recorders
(Burbank, California)
Genre
Length38:46
LabelABC
ABCD-909
ProducerRufus
Rufus featuring Chaka Khan chronology
Rufusized
(1974)		 Rufus featuring Chaka Khan
(1975)		 Ask Rufus
(1977)
Singles from Rufus featuring Chaka Khan
  1. "Sweet Thing"
    Released: 1975
  2. "Dance Wit Me"
    Released: 1976
  3. "Jive Talkin'"
    Released: 1976
Professional ratings
Review scores
SourceRating
Allmusic [1]
Christgau's Record GuideB[2]
The Rolling Stone Album Guide[3]

History

By 1975, Rufus and lead front woman Chaka Khan had become one of the most popular bands in popular music. With their successful mixing of funk, rock, soul and jazz and the powerful vocals of 22-year-old Khan, the group had set themselves apart from similar groups such as The Isley Brothers and Earth, Wind & Fire. By the now, the group's billing had changed. While they were just known as Rufus on their first two releases, after the success of "Tell Me Something Good", the media (and Rufus' label at the time, ABC Records) had recognized that Khan was the attraction of the group.

Khan's popularity was starting to usurp that of her bandmates. For example, on the album's back cover and inner sleeve, Khan is featured with her trademark hair and outfits, sitting on a lips-decorated couch. On the cover, an animated cover of lips, which appeared to emulate Khan's, gave the impression that Khan was the dominant member of the group. Khan also handled all the talk in interviews for the group and she was given solo covers on magazines such as Jet and EBONY. As they entered the studio to record their fourth album, Khan and Rufus remained a collaborative group together. Unlike their three previous albums, they only recorded one cover version - The Bee Gees' "Jive Talkin'", while other songs were handled by group members and outside collaborators including, most notably, Gavin Christopher.

Tony Maiden, who had joined the group in mid-1974, also wrote more for the album. Khan brought lyrics for three compositions including what became one of Rufus' biggest hits, the ballad "Sweet Thing", which Khan and Maiden co-wrote together. After its release, Rufus Featuring Chaka Khan repeated the success of the band's previous two albums, going gold (later platinum) with sales of one million copies in the United States. By the end of the album's promotion, tensions had grown between Khan and group member Andre Fischer. Rufus Featuring Chaka Khan was the band's first album to top Billboard's R&B Albums chart and also reached #7 on Pop. The album included the singles "Sweet Thing", their second #1 hit on the R&B Singles chart and also #5 hit on Pop, "Dance Wit Me" (US R&B #5, US Pop #39) and the Bee Gees cover "Jive Talkin'" (US R&B #35). According to Billboard Magazine, "Rufus Featuring Chaka Khan" was the best selling R&B album of 1976 on the Year-End Charts.

Track listing
Side one
No.TitleWriter(s)Length
1."Fool's Paradise"Gavin Christopher4:41
2."Have a Good Time"Gavin Christopher3:20
3."Ooh I Like Your Loving"Bobby Watson, Tony Maiden, Chaka Khan3:39
4."Everybody Has an Aura"Gordon DeWitty3:48
5."Circles"Tony Dulaine3:56
Side two
No.TitleWriter(s)Length
6."Sweet Thing"Tony Maiden, Chaka Khan3:18
7."Dance Wit Me"Gavin Christopher3:57
8."Little Boy Blue"J. Farris5:02
9."On Time" (Instrumental)Chaka Khan, Tony Maiden, Bobby Watson, Kevin Murphy, André Fischer3:31
10."Jive Talkin'"Barry Gibb, Robin Gibb, Maurice Gibb3:33

Personnel

Production
  • Rufus – producers
  • Austin Godsey – engineer
  • John Calder, Peter Chaikin, Doug Rider – assistant engineers
  • Clare Fischer – string arrangements
  • Greg Adams – horn arrangements

Charts

Album

Chart (1975–76) Peak
[4]
U.S. Billboard Top LPs 7
U.S. Billboard Top Soul LPs 1

Singles

Year Single Peak chart positions
US
[4]		 US
R&B
[4]
1975 "Sweet Thing" 5 1
1976 "Dance Wit Me" 39 5
"Jive Talkin'" — 35

Later samples

and "Remind Me" by RBL Posse from the album "A Lesson to Be Learned"

See also
  • List of number-one R&B albums of 1976 (U.S.)

References
  1. Elias, Jason. "Rufus featuring Chaka Khan review". Allmusic. Retrieved 2011-10-11.
  2. Christgau, Robert (1981). "Consumer Guide '70s: R". Christgau's Record Guide: Rock Albums of the Seventies. Ticknor & Fields. ISBN 089919026X. Retrieved March 12, 2019 – via robertchristgau.com.
  3. Gersten, Russell (1983). "Rufus". In Marsh, Dave; Swenson, John (eds.). The New Rolling Stone Record Guide. Random House/Rolling Stone Press. p. 438. ISBN 0394721071.
  4. "US Charts > Rufus". Allmusic. Retrieved 2011-10-19.


This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.