Rock Your Baby
Hot on the heels of Rock the Boat by The Hues Corporation, George McCrae released this early disco track in 1974. This tune, which was written for McCrae by the the then unknown KC Casey and Richard Finch of KC and the Sunshine Band, went to the top of the charts in the US and the UK. Legend has it that the track was originally intended to be a instrumental, but Henry Stone of T.K. thought it needed a voice. The track called for a high pitched voice that the writers could not deliver and when McCrae showed up randomly, his falsetto was a perfect fit. The record came out before the invention of the 12" single, so the track was split up into two parts. One would assume that Francis Grasso and other DJs of the era used to extend the song by playing two copies of the 7". Also check out the early use of an early drum machine.
mp3: George McCrae - Rock Your Baby
mp3: George McCrae - Rock Your Baby (Part 2)
Posted by Joel Brüt | 4 comments
Labels: George McCrae, Proto Disco
July 17, 2008 at 8:51 AM
Interestingly, this is the track that Benny Anderson and Bjorn Ulvaeus tried to emulate the groove of in their penultimate dance track, Dancing Queen (1976).
July 20, 2008 at 8:00 AM
Some say that disco started with this excellent track by Mr. McCrae. I was told that his wife Gwen would sing the track at first, but she was ill, so she sent her husband instead. This story might be true, because the lyrics seem to be written for a woman ('take me in your arms and rock your baby'). Goold old George lives in Holland now and still sings this millionseller in (small) nightclubs.
August 7, 2012 at 4:00 PM
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August 7, 2012 at 4:02 PM
I had a nice talk with George McCrae recently (after I did a small interview with him on Haarlem105 radio), and he told me an interesting story on how the drum machine was recorded. It was a built-in drum machine in some old synth, and they actually put a microphone next to the synth's speaker to record it .... :-)