THE 1000 BEST SONGS IN THE WORLD EVER.

506-Ohio Players-Fire.

1974-Has never charted in the UK.

Best Bit-At 1.43. All of the Ohio Players Album sleeves had pictures of scantily clad ‘Playboy’ girls on the cover, but that wasn’t the reason why this, then 13 year old boy, bought all of their records.

The Ohio Players were formed in 1959, in Dayton, Ohio, United States, originally calling themselves the ‘Ohio Untouchables.’ There were five co-founders of the group, all who have now died, initially playing what they called ‘R&B with a little flair.’ In their early days they gained recognition as playing as the backing band for ‘The Falcons,’ whose members included the future Soul legends Eddie Floyd (see also best songs 828) and Wilson Pickett (see also best songs 488.) The Ohio Players underwent many personal changes, and by 1971 had become a ‘Funk’ band, they remain active having had 30 different group members come and go. They have released 16 studio Albums between 1969-1988, and achieved eight Billboard top 40 singles, two of which reached Number 1, ‘Fire’ in 1974, and ‘Love Rollercoaster’ in 1975. In the UK their only charting single was ‘Who’d She Coo?’ which reached Number 43 in 1976.

‘Fire’ was the title track of the Ohio Players sixth studio Album of the same name, with all the then seven members of the band given song writing credits, they are also all credited as the songs producers. Leroy Roosevelt ‘Sugafoot’ Bonner (1943-2013) who wrote the lyrics has said,’We were in the studio making tracks, and all of a sudden it leaped out. If the music is good, it doesn’t take long to get inspired. The inclusion of the telltale fire truck sirens was a no brainer. Other people were using babies crying and kids singing and street sounds. A lot of people were using sound effects of various natures, so we thought about that also.’

‘Well I can tell by your game, you’re gonna start a flame, love, baby baby. I’m not gon’ choke from the smoke, got me tightenin’ up my stroke.’