DO IT GOOD
Release Date: 1974
Famous Tracks: Blow Your Whistle, Sound Your Funky Horn, Queen of Clubs
CD Availability: Full CD is available as an import only various tracks show up on US compilations
Becky Rating: 8 Suns (out of 10)

"A BAAAAD RECORD!"

And they're off! Just a few years after several front office employees and studio musicians at Miami's TK Records got together to play their mix of rock, soul, Bahamian, and Cuban music, this unjustly forgotten album was released. The world was introduced to KC and the Sunshine Band.

Not since the Beatles' Please Please Me and the Grateful Dead's Grateful Dead had there been a debut album as explosive as Do It Good. Every song is up-tempo and full of high energy horns and percussion. Harry "KC" Casey's keyboard playing soard above the rhythm section, and his raw and enthusiastic vocals propel the songs along. Just as important are the contributions of bassist Rick Finch and percussionist Fermin Goytisolo. On "Sound Your Funky Horn" they throw more percussion instruments into the mix than even they could count.

The lyrics are mostly straightforward love songs, with little of the boogie/party songs we'll see on the next two albums. My favorite line (well, second favorite, for those of you who know me well) is the opening couplet: "Baby, turn it loose! Let me have it! Give it to me!" It always makes me imagine a young KC fighting with his sister over who gets to play with the dog.

I also have a soft spot in my heart for "Queen of Clubs," a song that races along at a slightly faster tempo than the rest of the album. With less-skilled musicians, this could sound like a train wreck; the Sunshine crew does a bangup job and never lets it get out of control. The high-pitched scream on the chorus is provided by George McCrae.

The band members each contribute a love for and a background with all kinds of different music, and it shows on every song on Do It Good. The title cut, also the album opener, directly quotes Manu Dibango's 1973 African jazz hit "Soul Makossa." "All My Love" is reminiscent of the Grass Roots' "I'd Wait A Million Years," and "Baby I Want Your Lovin'" has always reminded me of late-'60s blue-eyed soul. "Blow Your Whistle" was famously inspired by Bahamian Junkanoo music (I believe this is the first song KC ever recorded). A friend suggested to me that the accompaniment of "I Need a Little Lovin" sounds like the Sesame Street theme, particularly under the saxophone part. Hey, I bet even Oscar the Grouch would have loved this album. There really isn't one unsatisfactory song on it.

Do It Good is a solid album of enthusiastic R&B songs that sets the foundation for KCSB's further '70s recordings. The album sold modestly upon release, but "Queen of Clubs" was a Top Ten hit in Great Britain. It tends to be overlooked in this country, mostly because the next two releases were so huge AND because it's not out on its own CD. It doesn't deserve to be forgotten, though. In the slang of the time, to quote one of the anonymous background voices in "Blow Your Whistle," it's a baaaaaaaad record!

(c) 2002 Becky Banfield for Dos Gardenias Productions