Rock the Boat (1974)

Performer: The Hues Corporation                       Writer: Waldo Holmes
Highest US Chart Position: #1                             Label: RCA Records
Musicians: Fleming Williams, Bernard St. Clair Lee, H. Ann Kelly and Wally Holmes

One of the undeniable occurrences in popular music happened in 1974, when the complete shift from the sixties ethos took hold and the seventies era in music was unofficially ushered in. To understand that change one only has to look at The Hues Corporation. The group had formed in late 1969 and consisted of three singers, Wally Holmes, Bernard St. Clair Lee and Ann Kelly, and three musicians, Joey Rivera, Monti Lawston and Bob "Bullet" Bailey. Their style at that time, to say the least, was raw. Though they had opened shows for some big names touring through Southern California, their big brake came when composer Gene Page of the Blaxploitation film Blacula hired them to sing for the nightclub scenes in the film. They wound up performing three songs, all of which were written by Wally Holmes, and this led to a recording contract and an eventual number one record in “Rock the Boat” two years later. The footage of the group in Blacula is almost painful to watch as they are clearly still under the sway of Sly Stone and similar groups mired in sixties excess. But between then and their chart topper, the more elegant style of Motown began to assert itself as those acts began to re-enter the charts, ushering in the disco era just a year later.

The song begins on the downbeat with a heavy piano part by Joe Sample of the fusion group The Crusaders, supported by strings and horns, and the drumming of Hal Blaine and the percussion of Gary Coleman playing a medium tempo loping rhythm that borders on reggae. The three vocalists enter after four bars with the chorus, holding out the last note while a soaring strings part takes them into the first verse. Beneath the vocals of Fleming Williams is Larry Carlton on guitar and Wilton Felder on bass, both of whom were also members of the Crusaders. Kelly and Lee join in on something of a short bridge that extends one measure to 7/4, urged on by the strings and horns before the chorus comes around again, all of which is preceded by a two measure break on the high hats and floor toms. Williams takes the second verse again, with the drum and piano backing. After another bridge the group comes in on the final chorus with the horns blaring and the strings doing downward slides, tambourines shaking and Williams singing the unforgettable line, “Rock on wit cha bad self.” By the time Larry Carlton comes in with some blistering lead guitar work the vocals drop out completely and the record slowly fades out.

Just looking at the promotional film that was made for the song, the group has come a long way from their Blacula appearance and the ecstatic movements and faux-African costumes that accompanied it. By 1974 they have elegant yellow jumpsuits in the Motown mold, and while their dancing is still energetic, it’s much more controlled, a signal of the disco era they were helping to usher in. The song itself is incredibly catchy, with a wonderful melodic hook, as well as the vivid metaphor of love as a boat that needs to be handled with care lest it be overturned. While the album was recorded and released in late 1973, the song wasn’t released as a single until February of the following year and it stiffed, going nowhere. It wasn’t until it became a dance club hit in New York City that radio stations began playing it and it entered the charts at the end of May at number eighty-three, reaching number one just five weeks later. And the song would stay on the charts nearly three months more until the end of September. The B-side, “All Goin’ Down Together,” is a clavinet-driven slow groove with the trio mostly singing together, and the individual members taking brief solo turns. Songwriter Wally Holmes credits the success of the song to the distinctive beat conceived by producer Tom Sellers, as well as RCA exec David Kershenbaum who chose the song as a single after seeing the reaction to it at the group’s live shows. While “Rock the Boat” may not be the first disco song, it is easily the most memorable, and remains as distinctive today as it was in the summer of seventy-four.