Search - Evelyn Champagne King :: I'm in Love

Old school (Part I)

Olukayode Balogun | Leeds, England | 04/26/2008

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Evelyn "Champagne" King shimmied onto the music scene at a time when someone like her was desperately needed. It was 1978 and disco was at its peak, with people like Chic, The Village People, Sylvester, Gloria Gaynor, Bee Gees and the queen of them all Donna Summer, raising the roof at places like Studio 54. Following the mega-success of Saturday Night Fever or, more pertinently, its music soundtrack, disco seemed unconquerable.



Naturally, there was big money to be made and producers were said to be literally trawling the streets looking for the next big thing. Disco was a very producer-driven music form and if a producer could put together a good melody and a generic disco beat, all he needed was someone with a good voice and he (or she) would almost definitely be guaranteed a club hit, if not a pop one.



The fable I heard was that King was working as a cleaner at a recording studio when a producer heard her singing to herself while she worked. It's said he practically threw her in front of a microphone and asked her to sing on top of a previously prepared piece of music. The rest is history. King's first single "Shame" was an instant hit and for me especially, it was marked apart from (and above) the rest of what was going on at the time by that crazy sax solo and her breezy vocals, which sailed over the beats when the popular thing to do was to sing directly on top of them. She sounded fresh, she sounded free and she made it to #9 on the Billboard Hot 100, scoring her first (and only) US top 10 hit with her debut single. A remarkable achievement.



There was another single ("I Don't Know If It's Right") and an album (Smooth Talk) but I never met anyone personally who took any notice of them. She didn't fare any better with any of her follow-up albums, ("Music Box" in 1979, "Call On Me" in 1980), mainly, I would argue, due to the fact that the 70s disco craze was giving way to the synthesizer-influenced dance craze of the 80s.



King quickly adapted though and in 1981, this firecracker of an album came out. She had dropped the "Champagne" from her name and it was almost as if she was launching her career all over again. In terms of production, the album was split right down the middle, with Morrie Brown taking care of half ("I'm In Love", "If You Want My Lovin'", "Don't Hide Our Love" & "Spirit of the Dancer") and Willlie Lester & Rodney Brown the other half. Morrie Brown was new to me but Lester and the other Mr Brown had found success the previous year - and huge favour with me - with their discovery Bobby Thurston and his album You Got What It Takes, which featured the smash hit "Check Out The Groove". It made the top 10 here in the UK and is still one of my favourite songs from the 80s even now.



The album "I'm In Love" was groundbreaking in the sense that synthesizers had never been used as heavily as Brown was using them here (or more accurately, as his assistant producers Kashif and Lawrence Jones were using them). "I'm In Love" and "If You Want My Lovin'" are still great fun, sing-along tunes; "Spirit of the Dancer" is an explosive, percussive number with a brilliant percussion break performed by Bashiri and a synthesizer solo (performed by Kashif) that used to amaze my younger brother and I back in the day, with its call and answer coming from both the left and right speakers on our dad's stereogram.



"Don't Hide Our Love" is a beautifully plaintive ballad and Kings gives it all she's got. Kashif provides very useful background vocals. I used to love singing along to this one and actually believed back then that I might make a good singer. LOL. Oh, to be 18 again.



The other side of the album so to speak, is no less brilliant. Lester and Brown go for a more organic, deep bass-influenced, funky r&b sound with lots of jazzy horns and one of my favourites of theirs is the infectious dance tune "What Are You Waiting For", with its very clever two-octave bass line, played by Jerry Wilder. My other much-loved tune is the closing ballad, "The Best Is Yet To Come".



And King wasn't kidding. The lead single "I'm In Love", was a top 40 pop hit and a #1 R&B smash. The second single, "Don't Hide Our Love", made it to #6 on the R&B charts. The album made #28 on the Billboard Top 200 (#6 on the R&B album chart). A brilliant job by all concerned.



King is no Aretha Franklin or Chaka Khan but she does have a great voice. A voice that is fun to listen to and more importantly, as far as I'm concerned, to sing along to. Credit must also go to the producers who also wrote and arranged practically all the songs - and what great songs they are. I simply adore this album and still have my vinyl copy from 1981. I've looked after it incredibly well and am dreading letting it go. But, as I now have it on CD - on Japanese import, no less - I guess the time has come.



Incredibly though, (see my review below) King's follow-on album was just as popular as this one, if not more so..."

Boy Oh Boy-Am I Glad This Is In Print!

Andre' S Grindle | Bangor,ME. | 07/16/2003

(5 out of 5 stars)

"I have all my Evelyn "Chanpange" King on vinyl and this is one of my favorites.There are a number of fantastic
mid and down-tempo soul cuts here,my favorite being "The Other
Side Of Love" but the real power of this are it's first two cuts-
the tital song and "If You Want My Lovin'" and the B-sides equally frenetic "Spirit Of A Dancer" which prove not only how well King handles the decades newest dance trends after disco but
how powerful her singing continues to become."I Can't Take It" is
a solid funk number that displays all these qualities to fine
effect.From the young cleaning girl-turned-diva of the late 70's
"Smooth Talk"-era to this it is quite a journey for the budding
performer and it only gets better from here!"

A good comeback

rodog63jr | bronx, N.Y.C. N.Y. USA | 05/06/2002

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Evelyn King came back strong with this album. I'm in love, Don't hide our love are the standout tracks on this album."