Product Overview
George McCrae – Rock Your Baby / You Can Have It All, Sing A Happy Song, I Get Lifted, I Can't Leave You Alone, I Ain't Lyin', Look At You / Disky Audio CD 1997 / DC882762
UPC 0724348827623
Product Details:
"Rock Your Baby" is the debut single by George McCrae. Written and produced by Harry Wayne Casey and Richard Finch of KC and the Sunshine Band, "Rock Your Baby" was one of the landmark recordings of early disco music. A massive international hit, the song reached number one on the Billboard Hot 100 singles chart in the United States, spending two weeks at the top in July 1974, number one on the R&B singles chart, and repeating the feat on the UK Singles Chart, spending three weeks at the top of the chart in July 1974. Having sold 11 million copies, it is one of the fewer than 40 all-time singles to have sold 10 million (or more) physical copies worldwide.
The backing track for the record was recorded in 45 minutes as a demo and featured guitarist Jerome Smith of KC and the Sunshine Band, with Casey on keyboards and Finch on bass and drums. It was also one of the first records to use a drum machine, an early Roland rhythm machine. The track was not originally intended for McCrae but he happened to be in the studio, added a vocal and the resulting combination of infectious rhythm and falsetto vocals made it a hit. Music critic Robert Christgau has described the song as "irresistibly Memphis-cum-disco-with-a-hook".
The chord progression of John Lennon's number-one single "Whatever Gets You thru the Night", released a few months later, bears a great resemblance to the one found in "Rock Your Baby".[citation needed] Lennon later admitted to using the song as an inspiration. ABBA's Benny Andersson and Björn Ulvaeus have also cited the song as an inspiration for the backing track of their 1976 smash hit "Dancing Queen". The song was covered by indie rock band The House of Love for the 1992 compilation album Ruby Trax. In the same year, the British dance group KWS' cover of "Rock Your Baby" reached number eight in the UK Singles Chart.
Tracklist:
| 1 | Rock Your Baby
Written-By – H.W. Casey/R.Finch |
3:21 |
| 2 | I Can't Leave You Alone (I Keep Holdin' On)
Written-By – H.W. Casey/R.Finch |
3:09 |
| 3 | I Get Lifted
Written-By – H.W. Casey/R.Finch |
2:47 |
| 4 | Look At You
Written-By – H.W. Casey/R.Finch |
4:55 |
| 5 | I Ain't Lyin'
Written-By – H.W. Casey/R.Finch |
3:54 |
| 6 | Honey I (I'll Live My Life For You)
Written-By – H.W. Casey/R.Finch |
3:55 |
| 7 | Kiss Me (The Way I Like It)
Written-By – S.Kari |
3:08 |
| 8 | Let's Dance (People Over The World)
Written-By – George McCrae, H.W. Casey/R.Finch |
5:21 |
| 9 | I Need Somebody Like You
Written-By – H.W. Casey/R.Finch |
3:26 |
| 10 | You Can Have It All
Written-By – H.W. Casey/R.Finch |
2:55 |
| 11 | Sing A Happy Song
Written-By – H.W. Casey/R.Finch |
2:04 |
| 12 |
It's Been So Long
Written-By – H.W. Casey/R.Finch |
2:41 |
| 13 | You Got My Heart
Written-By – H.W. Casey/R.Finch |
2:55 |
| 14 | Make It Right
Written-By – H.W. Casey/R.Finch |
2:45 |
Song-list:
1. Rock Your Baby
2. I Can't Leave You Alone
3. I Get Lifted
4. Look At You
5. I Ain't Lyin'
6. Honey (I'll Live My Life For You)
7. Kiss Me (The Way I Like It)
8. Let's Dance (People All Over The World)
9. I Need Somebody Like You
10. You Can Have It All
11. Sing A Happy Song
12. It's Been So Long
13. You Got My Heart
14. Make It Right
More Details:
- Coordinator [Album Co-ordinator] – Sherry Smith
- Drums – Robert Johnson (3)
- Drums, Bass – Richard Finch
- Guitar – Jerome Smith, Phillip Wright
- Keyboards – H. W. Casey
- Photography By – Redferns
- Producer, Arranged By – H. W. Casey & Richard Finch
About the Artist:
George Warren McCrae, Jr. (born October 19, 1944) is an American soul and disco singer, most famous for his 1974 hit "Rock Your Baby".
McCrae was the second of nine children, born in West Palm Beach, Florida. He formed his own singing group, the Jivin' Jets, before joining the United States Navy in 1963. He married Gwen McCrae (nee Mosley) in 1963. Four years later, he reformed the group, with his wife Gwen joining the line-up, but soon afterwards they decided to work as a duo, recording for Henry Stone's Alston record label. Gwen then won a solo contract, with George acting as her manager as well as doing some singing on sessions and in clubs in Palm Beach.
He was about to return to college to study law enforcement, when Richard Finch and Harry Wayne Casey of KC and the Sunshine Band invited him to sing the lyrics for a song that they had recorded for the band, but could not reach the high notes that were required for the song. The original intention was that Gwen, his wife, should record it, but she was late for the session and George recorded alone. It suited his high-pitched voice to the extent that the song, "Rock Your Baby", became one of the first hits of the disco era in 1974, selling an estimated eleven million copies worldwide, topping the charts in the U.S. and the UK. The song was so successful that Rolling Stone magazine voted it the No. 1 song of the year in 1974. McCrae received a Grammy Award nomination for Best Male R&B Vocalist the following year.
Two further single releases, "I Can't Leave You Alone" and "It's Been So Long" also reached the UK Singles Chart Top 10. He recorded several further albums for TK, including George McCrae (1975) and Diamond Touch (1976), and also continued to record with, and manage, his wife until their divorce in 1976. They had two daughters together, Sophia and Leah.
While he continued to record albums including We Did It! and his second self-titled album George McCrae (both 1978), his commercial popularity slipped as the decade progressed. He married a second time, moved to Canada, and entered a period of semi-retirement, leaving TK at the end of the 1970s. With his second wife, he had another daughter, Jennifer McCray.
He returned with the album One Step Closer to Love in 1984, the title track from which entered the charts in Britain, Canada and Holland. In 1988, he had a daughter, Marcella, with his then-girlfriend, Rosanna Molignini. He moved to the village Munstergeleen in the Netherlands and remarried again, to Dutch model Yvonne Bergsma, in 1989. They have a son, Shaka.
His later albums found some success in Europe, and he continued to perform regularly there. By the 2000s, he shared his time between homes in Florida, Aruba, and the Netherlands. In 2016 George McCrae released a new concept album called LOVE that was produced by the Dutch producer / composer Roger Heijster. The album was recorded without sequencing using only vintage instruments. Leah and Sophia McCrae, George's two daughters from his first marriage to Gwen McCrae, provide the backing vocals for this album. The album was album of the week in Germany and the single "Sexy Woman" was # 1 in Mallorca. George keeps on performing live and in December 2017 George performed at the BBC Hootenanny show with Jools Holland.
