THE 1000 BEST SONGS IN THE WORLD EVER.

506-Ohio Players-Fire.

1974-It has never charted in the UK.

Best Bit-At 1.43. Many 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, as ‘The Ohio Untouchables.’ There were five original members who have all since passed on, including Marshall ‘Rock’ Jones, (1941-2016) (bass guitar) Ralph ‘Pee Wee’ Middlebrooks, (1939-1997) (trumpet, and trombone) and Clarence ‘Satch’ Satchell, (1940-1995) (saxophone, flute, and percussion) all of whom played on this track, along with four others. In total there have been 21 different members come and go, and at the time of writing the group remain active. In their early days as ‘The Ohio Untouchables,’ they called the music that they played, ‘R&B with a little flair,’ and an early claim to fame was when gaining recognition as playing as the backing band for the American R&B vocal group ‘The Falcons,’ whose members included the future ‘Soul’ legends Eddie Floyd, (see also best songs 828) and Wilson Pickett (see also best songs 488.) After internal problems which caused the group to briefly break up in 1964, they regrouped, and by 1965 had renamed themselves ‘Ohio Players,’ reflecting its members’ self-perceptions as musicians, and as ladies’ men. The group disbanded again in 1970, then reformed with new personnel including, notably the multi-instrumentalist, and producer Walter ‘Junie’ Morrison, (1954-2017) who was largely responsible for writing and arranging the Ohio Players commercial breakthrough 1973 hit single, ‘Funky Worm,’ which reached Number 15 on the American Billboard Hot 100 singles chart. Walter ‘Junie’ Morrison recorded three studio Albums as an ‘Ohio Player,’ before leaving in 1974, prior to the recording of this song, to become a member, and musical director of Parliament-Funkadelic (see also best songs 612-340-143 and 26.)

The discography of the Ohio Players who transformed from a 1960’s ‘R&B’ group into a ‘Funk’ group by the early 1970’s, includes 16 studio Albums released between 1969-1988, and 36 singles released between 1967-1988, there are also 14 official compilation Albums, and one live Album available. In America on the Billboard Hot 100, eight of their singles have reached the top 40, with both ‘Fire,’ (1974) and ‘Love Rollercaoster,’ (1975) making the Number 1 spot, while in the UK, only ‘Who’d She Coo?’ (1976) has charted, when reaching Number 43.

‘Fire’ was the first of two singles released from the Ohio Players’ sixth studio Album of the same name from November 1974, the Album reached Number 1 on the American Billboard 200 Album chart. The songwriting credits, and the production of ‘Fire’ and it’s parent Album are credited to all seven members of the Ohio Players at that time. In 2005 the song was chosen as the theme music for the American reality competition cooking show ‘Hell’s Kitchen,’ which at the time of writing has run for 22 seasons, and 346 episodes.

Leroy ‘Sugarfoot’ Bonner, who wrote the lyrics for ‘Fire’ about getting ‘hot for a smokin’ woman,’ has said that his band mates came up with the title ‘Fire,’ and he took it from there. ‘They come with the names and I have to write to them. 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. To use all the effects one could use on a track like that, the fire engines and all that seemed very apropos to what was going on on the albums of that era. 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.’ Prior to the song becoming a hit, they had played the instrumental track to Stevie Wonder (see also best songs 920-843-834-682-570-503-366-205-152 and 65.) The Ohio Players drummer James ‘Diamond’ Williams has said, ‘He heard it and knew it was a smash. Just like before we even said any words on the track, we knew it was a smash. There was nothing that was going to stop this hit.’

As with many of the Ohio Players records, the ‘Fire’ Album cover is adorned with a beautiful female model wearing very little. Early on in their career the Ohio Players realised that they could boost Album sales by putting a sexy girl on the cover. James ‘Diamond’ Williams has said, ‘We thought if we put an attractive woman on the album cover that would draw attention. And maybe after drawing the attention, they’d take the album home and play it. It was just a concept where we were on the edge. We got with some ‘Playboy’ photographers and models in Chicago. The band would come up with these different ideas, and we went with it.’

‘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, do you feel it, girl, yeah.’