THE 1000 BEST SONGS IN THE WORLD EVER.

227-Rodney Franklin-The Groove.

1980-Number 7 single.

Best Bit-At 2.02. I remember the very short lived dance craze ‘The Freeze’ which accompanied this song. It was devised by the British Disc Jockey Chris Hill, with the idea being that every time that the music stops those that are on the dance floor have to freeze (the song has 11 breaks.) Needless to say it never caught on, but I hear that there is another very similar game normally played by children called musical statues.

Rodney Franklin was born on September 16th, 1958, in Berkeley, California, United States, he is a Jazz Pianist, and composer. In 1972 at the age of 14 as part of a Funk/Jazz band called ‘In One Piece,’ he made his first three recordings, but it wasn’t until 2003 that one of those tracks was made available. Prior to signing with ‘CBS Records’ in 1978, he had already worked with the American Jazz trumpeter Freddie Hubbard, (1938-2008) and the American Jazz singer Marlena Shaw (see also best songs 98.) Rodney Franklin has released 13 studio Albums between 1978-1998, with the first eight released through ‘CBS,’ and the other five being issued after he signed with ‘BMG Records’ in 1988. He has also released 14 singles between 1978-1988, with this song being his only chart hit in the UK, while in America on the Billboard Hot 100 he has never charted.

‘The Groove’ was released as a single in 1980, being taken from Rodney Franklin’s second studio Album ‘You’ll Never Know,’ which was released earlier on in the same year. ‘The Groove’ was written by Rodney Franklin, and produced by Paul Buckmaster, (1946-2017) who had worked with many of the worlds top artists as an orchestral arranger, including David Bowie (1947-2016) (see also best songs 807-440-334-302-209-186-118-47-31 and 5) on his 1969 Album ‘David Bowie,’ which has become more commonly known as ‘Space Oddity.’

‘The Groove’ can be filed under the genre of ‘Jazz Funk,’ which is a sub-genre of Jazz music reliant on a strong beat with electronic instruments. In the late 1970’s, and early 1980’s Jazz Funk was mainly associated with American bands, but the genre was also growing in Britain where the music papers dubbed it ‘Brit Funk,’ and it was DJ’s such as the aforementioned Chris Hill who would heavily promote it in his role at the influential ‘Ensign Records’ label. Among the ‘Brit Funk’ bands signed to ‘Ensign Records’ to taste chart success in the UK were ‘Beggar and Co,’ who reached Number 15 with (‘Somebody) Help Me Out’ in 1981, and ‘Light of the World,’ whose biggest hit was ‘I’m So Happy’ in 1980, which reached Number 35. Incidentally Chris Hill is the same Chris Hill who had two novelty Christmas hits, with ‘Renta Santa,’ in 1975 (UK Number 10) and ‘Bionic Santa’ in 1976 (also UK Number 10.)