KOOL & THE GANG’S "CELEBRATION"

CLASSIC TRACKS

KOOL & THE GANG’S “CELEBRATION”

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“Ultimately, after we got the basic tracks recorded, we’d spend one to two weeks just going through the tracks, fixing snares and kicks and hats and cymbals,” Bonnefond says. “And that was without the aid of a sampler, of course. We’d copy bits we needed onto a ¼-inch tape and then fly them back in time. And that wasn’t just for drums; we’d do that for whatever needed it. So, for example, if I had a chorus of ‘celebrate good times, come on!’ I’d copy it off the ¼-inch and we’d fly it into the choruses or whatever. We flew in a lot of things. In fact, the battle cry became, ‘Take it to the airport, Jim!’”

Following the replacement of assorted notes and even entire parts on the basics, other layers were added over a period of a few weeks, including various lead and rhythm guitar lines (usually recorded direct, as was the bass), horn parts (cut with a Neumann FET 47 on trombone, a U87 on trumpet, and RE-20 or Neumann 49 on sax) and lead and backup vocals (87s through 1176 compressors and the MCI console’s preamps). Bonnefond notes that singer James Taylor “was a real professional in the studio. He could drop in any time he felt like it and sound great—he didn’t have to only sing in the morning or late at night, or whatever. Sometimes he would try a vocal two or three different ways, and we’d work from that. He didn’t need any sweetening. Obviously, both the lead and background vocals were a very big part of those albums.

“In those days, there was a lot of trial and error in the studio, which was a fantastic way to go. I don’t think many people could afford to do that nowadays. Everybody got involved, and everybody had a chance to watch the song come to fruition from a thought or concept to a master that was ready to be played on the radio. And we would be working right up to the end; I think the octave Strat guitar part on ‘Celebration’ was something we put on the day of the mix. We felt the song needed something, so we added it then.” The mix was fairly straightforward: “It’s not too wet or effected,” Bonnefond says.

Because of the success of the Ladies Night album, radio was champing at the bit for new Kool & The Gang music when “Celebration” was released as a single in October 1980. It became a smash hit almost immediately, hitting Number One on both the pop and R&B charts and driving the Celebrate album well beyond Platinum. Bonnefond was thrilled, of course, but not completely surprised. “We knew it was a great song,” he says. “Kool & The Gang had some unwritten rules about their songs, which were to be positive, not negative, and be universal. ‘Ladies Night’—you can’t argue with that. ‘Celebrate’—you can’t argue with that. ‘Cherish’—same thing. They’re all positive, uplifting, universal things that won’t date. ‘Celebration’ just had a really good vibe to it. It charged ahead; it was that kind of song.

“Then, not that long after it came out, it was the time when the American hostages [being held in Iran] were freed, and it sort of became the theme song. Then there was the Super Bowl…So, right off the bat it got tons of exposure, and it just kept going. Now you hear it everywhere—at weddings, at baseball games; I hear it all the time. And for someone who wasn’t producing at the time and who has no points on it, I hear it too much!” he adds with a laugh.

The Celebrate album also produced hits in “Take it to the Top” and “Jones vs. Jones,” and there would be more chart successes for the Kool & The Gang-Deodato-Bonnefond team, but “Celebration” was a high water mark for everyone involved—one of those magical moments when everything came together just right. And there will still be people screaming out that chorus and shakin’ their boo-tays to that song long after all of us have gone to the great beyond.

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