Watching now....

I'ma need someone to youtube this for me, because I no longer have TVOne because I switched to Dish Network.

Just seen the midnight repeat. Norman did them wrong, when he made that "chickens in suits" comment. These guys were against Gwen from the start and Norman fed on that.

Real good episode. Unfortunate that their was so much
tension between the band,Gwen,and Norman.

Didn't know there were 76 takes of "Car Wash" and they went with the first take

Totally unnecessary episode and not even very good. Same old drama, nothing new. Now the interesting ep will be next week's Sylvester one.

I always thought it was cool that their "debut album" was a movie soundtrack How many bands/artists get to start their career with a movie soundtrack?

SoulAlive said:

I've never really thought about it in that way, but you are soooo right.

as along as it was a hit.....

TD3 said:

Did you know that,originally,producer Norman Whitfield was gonna use The Temptations for the soundtrack? The job went to Rose Royce instead.

SoulAlive said:

I knew that and in hindsight, thank goodness they choose Rose Royce.

SoulAlive said:

I can hear Eddie Kendricks laying down a killer vocal on "I want to next next to you!!"

NORMAN WAS AN ASS!!!! GENIUS, BUT AN ASS!

tricky2 said:

Eddie wasn't no longer in the group when Norman presented them the idea, and I think the project (the film) was created in 1974 when Norman was still working with the group. Rose Royce was actually background musicians for Motown, I'm surprised they didn't cover that period.

Timmy84 said:

Thanks, I didn't know that. I'm also pissed that they didn't acknowledge the other members of band. Why did they just focus on the four? Did they all die?
They could have at least said their names. Kenji Brown was listed as a lead vocalist, he was never mentioned.

tricky2 said:

That was another problem, they didn't even mention ALL the members' names. And to be honest the ONLY one that everyone knows is Gwen Dickey (or as she went by during her tenure with them, Rose Norwalt). Seriously it was as if Rose Royce was just a leftover biography. I didn't learn nothing really new from them. Maybe Sylvester would be different. The Bar-Kays' story and Stacy Lattisaw's may be just as boring.

Timmy84 said:

The only one i'm looking forward to seeing out this batch is Sylvester

And these are the artist that we can vote on for the next batch



What music artist would you most like to see in the next season of "Unsung"

A. George Clinton
B. Tammi Terrell
C. Fat Boys
D. Angela Winbush
E. Grand Master Flash
F. Stephanie Mills
G. Cameo
H. En Vogue
I. Teddy Pendergrass
J. Big Daddy Kane

banks said:

George? Grand Master Flash? En Vogue? (PEOPLE KNOW THEM! )

Ain't like I'm gonna learn anything different.

I WOULD LOVE TO SEE TAMMI AND ANGELA MORE THAN ANYONE ELSE ON THE LIST!

And they still ain't include the Marvelettes and Mary Wells.

As for the Fat Boys, you GOT to be kidding me.
[Edited 3/23/10 9:22am]

I want to see the Marvelettes, Switch, Tammi Terrell, the Sylvers, Angela Bofill, Mary Jane Girls, Vanity 6, Slave and the Ohio Players

My Picks...

Angela Bofill
AWB
The Brother's Johnson
Con Funk Shun
Brenda Russell
Heatwave
L.T.D
Micheal Henderson
Sister Sledge
Cheryl Lynn
Evelyn Champagne King
Kashif
Patti Austin
Ray Parker & Raydio
Slave / Steve Arringron

Heatwave would be a great one, given the drama in the group and Rod Temperton's songwriting success.

Founder members Johnnie Wilder and his brother Keith Wilder were American servicemen based in West Germany when they first began performing, and upon their discharge from the U.S. Army, the duo stayed in Germany. The brothers sang in nightclubs and taverns with an assortment of bands while still enlisted. By mid-year, the duo decided to relocate to the United Kingdom to link up with songwriter/keyboardist Rod Temperton.

Touring the London nightclub circuit during the mid-1970s allowed Heatwave to refine their sound, adding a funk groove to disco beats. The group signed to GTO Records in 1976. They were paired in the studio with GTO house producer/session guitarist Barry Blue and rhythm guitarist Jesse Whitten. Rhythm guitarist Roy Carter replaced Whitten after Whitten was stabbed to death in his hometown of Chicago, Illinois. They began creating their first album Too Hot to Handle in the fall of 1976.

Their first single, "Boogie Nights" from their debut album, scored number two on the British popular music charts in January, and also became a number 2 success in America in November. The group's debut album, Too Hot to Handle, was released in the spring of 1977, giving Heatwave a number eleven success in the U.S. - reaching number five on the R&B charts, while the next single, the soul ballad "Always and Forever", closed out the year with a number two U.S. R&B success and #18 pop success in December.

Continuing to use Barry Blue's production skills, Heatwave released their second album Central Heating in April 1978. Lead single "The Groove Line," reached number seven in the charts.

During the late 1970s the band changed. At first Eric Johns quit the band and Billy Jones was his replacement as guitarist. Then Rod Temperton quit the band. Although Temperton would continue writing new songs for Heatwave, he soon became better-known for his songwriting for other artists, penning award-winning songs for some of funk's biggest names, including Rufus and The Brothers Johnson. He also wrote for Herbie Hancock and Quincy Jones, but his most famous partnership remains the one forged with Michael Jackson, writing three songs for his 1979 Epic debut Off The Wall - "Rock With You," "Off The Wall" and "Burn This Disco Out", and three songs for the 1982 Thriller LP, including the title track.
Despite these changes Heatwave were about to return to the studio, only to suffer a tragedy: Mantese was stabbed leaving a gala in London by an unknown person. The knife hit him in the heart and for several minutes, he was clinically dead. When, after several months, he awoke from coma, he was blind, mute and paralysed in his entire body. Mantese was replaced by bassist Derek Bramble. Adding keyboardist Calvin Duke to the group, and now working with new producer Phil Ramone, Heatwave cut Hot Property, released in May 1979.
During the spring of 1979, lead-vocalist and songwriter Johnnie Wilder, Jr., also suffered injuries in an auto accident while visiting family and friends in Dayton, Ohio. Although he survived, the accident left him paralyzed from the neck down and unable to continue performing with the group. After the accident, Johnnie remained a co-producer of the group, along with Blue.

Determined to continue working with the band he had nurtured since the very beginning, Wilder participated with studio work and, during 1980, Heatwave recorded the Candles LP, with Temperton again providing the songs, except stand out track "All I Am", written by Blue's former writing partner Lynsey De Paul. The group recruited James Dean "J.D." Nicholas to handle vocals in concert.
Heatwave's popularity was on the wane though, as the November single "Gangsters of the Groove" proved to be their last popular music success, scoring number twenty-one in the U.S., and number twenty in the United Kingdom early in the New Year. But the album peaked at a mere number seventy-one in the United States in December 1980.

Heatwave's 1982 LP, Current, marked yet another new era for the band, as they returned to producer Blue. The album managed only number 156 on the U.S. Billboard 200, although it scored the band a number twenty-one success on the R&B charts, where Heatwave continued to be a strong presence. A Rod Temperton penned single, "Lettin' It Loose," proved a minor success during August.

Rod Temperton Bioiography

As Temperton remembers music was in his bones from an early age; " My father wasn't the kind of person who'd read you a story before you went off to sleep - he used to put a transistor radio in the crib, right on the pillow, and I'd go to sleep listening to Radio Luxemburg and I think that had an influence." [3] Temperton attended the De Aston School in Market Rasen and he formed a group for the school's music competitions. He was a drummer at this time. " I'd get in the living room with my snare drum and my cymbal and play along to the Test Card, which was all kinds of music they'd be playing continuously." On leaving school he started working in the office of a frozen food company in Grimsby. He soon became a full-time musician however, a keyboard player now, and played in several dance bands, and this took him to Worms in Germany. In 1972 Temperton and guitarist Bernd Springer formed a soul cover band called Sundown Carousel. With Temperton on an old Hammond organ the band performed in clubs and GI bars in cities such as Mannheim.[citation needed] In 1974 he answered an advert in Melody Maker placed by Johnnie Wilder, Jr. and so became a member of the popular funk/disco band, Heatwave which Wilder was putting together at the time. "He was the first British guy that I had ever met personally. He spoke kind of funny but he had a good sense of humour and he was a very friendly guy. After meeting him and then seeing him play I kind of determined he was a good enough player and entertainer and I just knew he would fit in the group", said Wilder.[4] Temperton played tunes he had been composing to Johnny Wider, Jr. : "I was very interested because we were doing a lot of cover tunes - we weren't doing a lot of original material - I was really interested." The songs provided material for 1976's Too Hot to Handle including "Boogie Nights", which broke the band in Britain and the United States, and the memorable ballad, "Always and Forever" - both tracks were million-sellers in the U.S.[5]
Temperton's work attracted the attention of Quincy Jones, and he asked his engineer Bruce Swedien to check out the Heatwave album. " Holy cow! I simply loved Rod's musical feeling - everything about it - Rod's arrangements, his tunes , his songs - was exceedingly hip," recalled Swedien. Despite the slick American sound Temperton's working surroundings were still far from glamorous . Alan Kirk, a Yorkshire musician with Jimmy James and the Vagabonds who toured with Heatwave in the mid 1970s remembered; " The Always and Forever track was written on a Wurlitzer piano at the side of a pile of smelly washing - sorry to disappoint all the romantics." And producer Barry Blue recalled; "He had a very small flat, so everything had to be done within one room and he had piles of washing, and had the T.V. on top of the organ. It was a nightmare..he had trams running outside..but he made it, he just absorbed himself in the music and Rod seemed to come up with these amazing songs." [6] In 1977 Heatwave followed up the success of their first L.P. with their second, Central Heating, Barry Blue again producing, and Temperton behind the majority of the songs. It included Groove Line, another huge selling hit single with the by now familiar Heatwave sound and Rod Temperton hook. In 1978 Temperton decided to concentrate on writing and left Heatwave though he continued to write for the band.
In the early 1980s Temperton left Germany and moved to Beverly Hills, California.[7]
In 1979, he was recruited by Quincy Jones to write for what became Michael Jackson's first solo album in four years, and his first full-fledged solo release for Epic Records, entitled Off The Wall. Temperton wrote three songs for the album, including Rock with You which became the second US #1 single from the album. In 1982, Temperton wrote three songs, including the title track, for Jackson's next LP, Thriller, which became the biggest-selling album of all time.
Temperton was nominated for an Oscar for a song on the soundtrack of the film, The Color Purple, as the co-writer of the song "Miss Celie's Blues".[8]
[edit]Songwriting credits

Temperton wrote/co-wrote for the following singers/bands:[9][10]
Michael Jackson: "Rock with You", "Off the Wall", "Burn This Disco Out", "Baby Be Mine", "The Lady in My Life", "Thriller", "Someone in the Dark", "Hot Street".
Heatwave: "Boogie Nights", "Always and Forever", "The Groove Line", "Gangsters of the Groove", "Lettin' It Loose", "Keep Tomorrow for Me", "Party Suite"
James Ingram & Michael McDonald: "Yah Mo B There".
Tamia: "You Put a Move on My Heart".
Rufus: "Masterjam", "Live In Me".
The Brothers Johnson: "Stomp!" and "Treasure" "Light up the Night", "All About The Heaven".
Donna Summer: "Love Is in Control (Finger on the Trigger)", "Livin' In America" and "Love Is Just A Breath Away".
Quincy Jones: "The Dude", "Razzamatazz", "Somethin' Special", "Turn On The Action", "The Secret Garden" and "Back On The Block", "You Put a Move on My Heart" and "Q's Jook Joint".
Herbie Hancock: "Lite Me Up", "Getting To The Good Part", "Motor Mouth".
Aretha Franklin: "Livin' In The Streets".
Jeffrey Osborne: "We Belong To Love" (which Temperton also produced).
Bob James: "Sign Of The Times" and "The Steamin' Feelin'".
The Manhattan Transfer: "Mystery", "The Spice Of Life", from their Bodies and Souls album.
George Benson: Give Me the Night LP, including "Love x Love", "Turn Out the Lamplight" and the title track.
James Ingram: It's Your Night LP.
Anita Baker: "Mystery" from her Rapture album.
Patti Austin: Every Home Should Have One LP; "Do You Love Me?", "The Genie", "Baby, Come To Me" (with James Ingram).
Second Image: "Lights Out" on Strange Reflections
Michael McDonald: "Sweet Freedom".
Stephanie Mills: "Time of Your Life" and "Hold On to Midnight".
Karen Carpenter: "Lovelines" and "If We Try".
LL Cool J featuring Boyz II Men: "Hey Lover".
Mica Paris: "Love Keeps Coming Back", "Two in a Million", & "You Put A Move On My Heart".
Mýa: "Man in my Life".
Klymaxx: "Man-Size Love".
C+C Music Factory: "Share That Beat of Love".
Angie Stone: "Lovers' Ghetto" from her Stone Love album.
Mariah Carey: "I'm That Chick" (which sampled Michael Jackson's "Off the Wall") from her E=MC² album.
[Edited 3/23/10 9:32am]
[Edited 3/23/10 14:29pm]

Hell, I liked it

Who knew there was tension in the group before this program and such?

Very interesting


I liked all of em'

Does Gwen have an accent?

funkpill said:

sounds like she does

banks said:

She's been living in London for the past 10/15 yrs. They mentioned that at the end.
[Edited 3/23/10 9:47am]

Yeah she's been UK-based for a long time.

tricky2 said:

But that accent sounds somewhat West Indian...

banks said:

yea, by way of Biloxi Mississippi....

tricky2 said:

funkpill said:

Yes it was a real good episode. I didn't know about tension
between the band and Gwen. I also was digging through some of
my vinyl and just realized i have a copy of In Full Bloom. I had
a relative give me some old vinyl lp's a couple of years ago and i
didn't realize Rose Royce was in there. Here's the bonus. There's
another vinyl album inside the cover. It's the Temptations Sky's the Limit
album produced by none other than Norman Whitfield. It appears to be in
good damn condition. I can't wait to give these albums a listen later. It
has Just My Imagination,Smiling Faces Sometimes,and Gonna Keep on Tryin(Til
I win Your Love). I'll watch the Sylvester episode next week although not
a fan. I can't wait for the two in April with Stacy Lattisaw and the BarKays.