ALL IN A NIGHT'S WORK
Release Date: 1982
Famous Tracks: Give It Up (original version), Don't Run (Come Back to Me) (with Teri DeSario)
CD Availability: Original CD is available as an import; various tracks appear on Canadian cds
Becky Rating: 6.5 suns (out of 10)

LEARNING TO WALK AGAIN

One assumption I had going into this KC and the Sunshine Band album review project was that All in a Night's Work wasn't a very good album. Upon another listen, I realized that isn't true. Most of this album is nothing like the Sunshine Sound we remember from the '70s; but just the fact that it was recorded and released is nothing short of a miracle.

In early 1982, KC was driving near his home in Florida when his car was hit head-on. He suffered nerve damage that left one side of his body completely paralyzed for nearly six months, and was in a great deal of pain for several years afterward. Confined to a wheelchair, KC had to learn to walk, dance, and play the piano over again.

Following his recovery, KC went into the studio with old friends Rick Finch, Fermin Goytisolo, Jimmy 'Bo' Horne, and Beverly Champion, and some other musicians, and recorded All in a Night's Work. This is a pleasant '80s-pop album of mostly up-tempo songs, which was unjustly ignored at the time of release. I remember seeing it in record stores, but by this time funk and arena rock were king, and there didn't seem to be any room left for KC and the Sunshine Band.

That's a shame, as there are some very good songs on this album. The standout tracks include:

• "On the One," co-written by KC, Beverly Champion, and Jimmy "Bo" Horne, which wouldn't have been out of place on Part 3. The horns and percussion take you back to the old Sunshine Sound. It's my favorite song on the album.
• "Do It," (here we go again!) a song that is much better than its title sounds. It was co-written by KC and two outside songwriters whose names I don't recognize. The same two guys (without KC) wrote "When You Dance to the Music," a lesser song that illustrates the difference KC makes.
• "(You Said) You'd Gimme Some More," perhaps inspired by the melody of the verses in the Beatles' "I Am the Walrus." It's an exercise in minimalist composition rivaled only by the neo-classical music of Phillip Glass, but Oh heck, why mince words? The melody consists of two friggin' notes repeated over and over and over and over and over. It sounds like a cellphone ringtone or a European police siren or a chirping bird. Still, somehow, with the total arrangement, it works. Once again, the KC difference.
• "Party With Your Body," a fun song with great percussion that's a little dated because of the Jazzercise reference. Listen for the squeaks too!
• "Don't Run (Come Back to Me), a very sweet duet with Teri DeSario that probably could have been a hit at the time.
• "It's Too Hard to Say Goodbye," which has the very great distinction of being the song that plays on my computer when it shuts down.

Finally, there's "Give It Up," the mandatory "too-fast" song which became KC's first Number 1 song in Great Britain, where this album was much more popular than in the United States. It also hit big in Ireland, not surprisingly for something recorded by a Casey. In the United States, however, the song wouldn't hit until the release of KC Ten, but more about that later.

(As a side note, a reviewer - not me - once compared the opening of "Give It Up" to the opening of George Harrison's "What Is Life." Yeah, I can hear it a little. Do you? Interesting that both songs spotlighted horns, too.)

All in a Night's Work is an enjoyable album in the Wings/Plastic Ono Band/Ratdog sense - it's not the great music KC made with his band in the '70s, but it's still enjoyable in its own right. It does, to its credit, sound like 1982, and the up-tempo songs are for the most part still danceable and listenable.

(c) 2002 Becky Banfield for Dos Gardenias Productions