Track Listing

1. Celebration
2. Get Down On It
3. Fresh
4. Too Hot
5. Take My Heart (You Can Have It If You Want It)
6. Let's Go Dancin' (Ohh La, La La)
7. Misled
8. Cherish
9. Ladies Night
10. Steppin' Out
11. Joanna
12. (When You Say You Love Somebody) In The Heart
13. Take It To The Top
14. Tonight
15. No Show
16. Straight Ahead
17. Stone Love

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #5388 in Music
• Released on: 1996-09-09
• Number of discs: 1
• Dimensions: .23 pounds
• Running time: 76 minutes

CD Description
Though Kool & the Gang was a fine hardcore funk outfit in the 1970s, the group decided, by the close of that decade, toreinvent their sound for pop radio. The result--a combination of slick production, R&B vocals, and the band's already well-honed grooves--made Kool & the Gang one of the biggest-selling and most beloved pop acts of the '80s. CELEBRATION: THE BEST OF KOOL & THE GANG collects 17 of the band's singlesfrom this era, most of which will be immediately familiar to anyone even remotely familiar with '80s pop radio.
The Gang wrote numerous high-polish dance grooves featuring a heavy backbeat, staccato horn charts, and infectious vocal choruses that seem custom-built for group sing-alongs. The international smash "Celebration" is one such song (has there been more definitive party anthem?), as is the hard-grooving "Ladies Night", and the groove imperative "Get Down on It". The Gang also scored with their mid-tempo R&B ("Joanna"), funk-tinged soul ("Fresh"), and swelling ballads in the Adult Contemporary mode ("Cherish"). These showcase the Gang's superior vocalists (check out James "J.T". Taylor's butter-smooth croon on "Too Hot", for example). Those seeking a comprehensive collection of Kool & the Gang's '80s hits need look nofurther than this excellent compilation.

Customer Reviews

a top best of
During the eighties Kool & The Gang were third behind Duran Duran and Huey Lewis And The News as the band with the most hits in America and with one look at the track list of their greatest hits album you can see how this was possible. The band were one of the funkiest around in the eighties and their funk tracks like "Celebration", "Get Down On It", "Fresh" "Too Hot" and "(Ooh La LA La) Let's Go Dancin' " are still played at many parties today and were some of the biggest dance hits of the eighties and will probably still get your toes tapping if you hear them today. Despite the fact that they could get up and party, the band also made some classic slow jams such as the brilliant tracks "Joanna" and "Cherish" which are two of the smoothest love songs that you will ever hear. Overall it's a collection of some of the best r and b music of all time and is a must have for any collection.

Sell Out Pop
During the 1970's Kool & The Gang were one of THE funk bands - heavy bass lines, loud 'fatback' drumming, jazzy horns, whistles but NO singing!

Great songs included Funky Music, Hollywood Swinging (which had a few vocals) Jungle Boogie etc etc.

Then they acquired a singer (James 'JT' Taylor) & released the pop drivel on this album.

Standout tracks?

Celebration: just about OK, still quite funky

And thats it:

Massive hits include:

Cherish: sentimental pop twaddle
Ladies Night: inane disco pap
Joanna:sentimental pop twaddle

Which just shows that sometimes you have to choose between great music & great pay cheques!

Great Party Music
A rather different sound to their more instrumental efforts earlier in the 70's. Many pop anthems here, including Ladies Night and Celebration. Go on, strut your funky stuff !!!