For reasons that remain unclear to this day, in the '80s Kool & The Gang took it upon themselves to make the jobs of wedding DJs the world over just a little bit easier. Don't know what to play at a wedding? Just pop in a Kool & The Gang Greatest Hits CD and you're all set.
"Celebration" may not only be heard at weddings, but also at birthdays, bar mitzvahs, Quinceaneras, and freed hostage welcoming parties (see: Iran Hostage Crisis, 1981). Personally, I will forever associate the song with Oakland A's home victories, but the tune can be applied to virtually any sporting event, aside from those held in Cleveland, where fans have nothing to celebrate.
Depending on at what point you play the video for "Get Down On It" at your reception, sickness may be unintentionally induced. As one YouTube user put it, "Guy who made the video had just found the 'ghosting' function and thought 'hey thats pretty cool!' "
Meanwhile, the video for "Fresh" was apparently a rare collaboration between Bob Fosse and Ridley Scott:
Imagine chewing on your steak, and then turning around to find that...Kool & The Gang have taken over your favorite all-night diner! "Hey, get that keyboard off the table, you're scratching the paint."
But the mother of all Kool & the Gang wedding reception songs has to be "Cherish." "Cherish" is to '80s wedding reception songs as "Just The Way You Are" is to '70s wedding reception songs. It is a wedding reception unto itself.
But see, what I like about "Cherish" is that it is not specifically about weddings, or even about romance. According to AMG, the band was recording in the Bahamas, and "while working along the beach, lead singer James 'J.T.' Taylor watched the band members' children happily at play and thought to himself 'how blessed we are. God has been good to us and we should cherish it.' " His falsetto at the 3:33 mark is so sweet, it almost makes me want to cherish something. Like my sarcasm.
The video is like a perfect four-minute distillation of every Time-Life "Romantic Classics" infomercial ever made, complete with seagulls, bonfires, and tiki torches. I warn you: the sheer wholesomeness of these images may cause blindness.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
3 comments:
I'm confused, in that Joanna video, is he singing to the waitress? The waitress who looks like she's old enough to be his mom? Is J.T. a gerontophile?
Oh come on, I'm pretty sure it's just supposed to be a sweet and wholesome tribute to a hard-working older woman who used to be a dancer at the Cotton Club and the guys are just letting her know they haven't forgotten her glory days, OK?
Also, here are some of my favorite YouTube comments from the "Cherish" video:
Didn't know Axel Foley can sing.
Did i just see 'Bud' from The Cosby show building a sandcastle?
It is amazing that the concept of the video is in line with the Yoruba (Western Nigeria) belief system of Yemoja and her daughters, the mermaids. They come at night to crawl the streets of Lagos and disappear at dawn... CHERISH!
black people use to make good music what wrong with them today :(
I'm black and I don't even know!
I'm Still Trying To Find Out Who Was The Lady Mermaid In Music Video "CHERISH" By KOOL & THE GANG!!
Post a Comment