Published on Aug 1, 1999
With the 1998 movie
Boogie Nights, I was reminded of the song of the same name,
by a funk/disco band called Heatwave. Their 1977 release,
Too Hot To Handle, defines the sound of pure late 70s
disco.
The opening title track is pure disco funk. “Boogie Nights” is
another great disco powered song. I used to have the 45, as this
song was a heavily played tune, both on radio and on my turntable.
One thing that is great, is learning that most singles are of a
longer version contained on the orginal album. This song is clocked
just over 5 minutes, and certain verses and different
instrumentation is discovered differently, if you are well familiar
with the single version.
“Super Soul Sister” is a funky Stevie Wonder-type sounding song
that starts out with synthesizers as in Wonder’s “Superstition”.
And it also reminds me in a way of another funky band named War and
their song called “The Cisco Kid”. Overall, it’s another good funky
tune.
Once again, we slow things down with “All You Do Is Dial,” a
song in the style of The Stylistics, with its high falsetto vocals
and harmonies. “Lay It On Me” is a medium tempo song, and the slow
souled “Sho’nuff Must Be Luv” are also songs in the vocal style of
The Stylistics.
Ending the album is “Beat Your Booty”. And with a title like
that, it cannot be a slowie, it has to be a disco-based tune. And
it is.
Heatwave’s
Too Hot To Handle defines the sound of funk and disco, the
sound of the late 1970s. It also has slow paced tunes in the style
of another popular sound of the 1970s, soul music. It’s an album
that you can dance to, both fast and slow. If you like disco, this
is an album you will enjoy. If not, well, we can assume that disco
is not in your music vocabulary. But disco cannot be overlooked, it
was one of many popular musical trends, as in classic rock,
alternative, and rap.
In any sense, Heatwave, as well as other disco talents, managed
to take the new music at the time, and record songs that would
become popular hits. The name Heatwave may not be as popular as
other well-known disco acts, but the song “Boogie Nights” does ring
a bell to many who were around in the 70s. In fact, thanks to the
movie
Boogie Nights, not only did this song get another look, it
just may get you to look at Heatwave’s music again – which is not a
bad idea.