Quote Originally Posted by Dan Druff View Post
Kool and the Gang has existed for 60 years (!!), a trivia question almost nobody would get right if asked.

They've had a ton of member changes over that span (as you'd expect), and somehow have only produced one #1 hit, despite a lot of albums spanning from 1969 to 2023.

"Celebration" is their best known song, and their only #1. But I don't think it's their best song, nor their best hit. "Fresh" was one of four hits from their 1984 album "Emergency", the other hits being "Emergency", "Misled", and "Cherish". But it was extremely catchy, and holds up very well 40 years later.

The very weird music video looks like something where a copious amount of drugs were consumed on-set, most likely cocaine.

I heard this song come on the radio about a week ago, and I noticed I liked it better now than when it played on the radio when I was 12. It got to #9 on the charts in late 1984.


They founding brothers were born in my town. They moved to NJ fairly young but have a bunch of family here and play still often. One of those bands with revolving members. Kool is the older brother. The younger brother died a few years ago. Their old man was a professional boxer, and wherever they trained or lived in Jersey, they became friends with Miles Davis.

The city here is obviously almost entirely black. So you don't exactly want to attend one of their shows in downtown Youngstown without your gun. They played last summer. I don't recall any shootings like their shows used to bring out. The young bangers likely don't know who they are.