NEW YORK – You can call the music of Kool & the Gang funky or R&B, soulful or disco, pop or dance. What you cannot call it is partisan.
When Iowa’s delegation at this summer’s Democratic National Convention in Chicago announced its vote for the Harris-Walz ticket, they played “Celebration.” That was the same song picked a few weeks earlier when Donald Trump reached the number of delegates he needed to win the Republican nomination in Milwaukee.
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“The Democrats and Republicans, they’re both using ‘Celebration,’” Robert “Kool” Bell, bass guitarist and co-founder of Kool & the Gang marveled recently. “Our music is for everybody.”
After fueling so many other people's political and non-political parties, it will be time for Kool & the Gang to finally celebrate when they are inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame next month in Cleveland.
“It feels wonderful, man, after all these years,” says Bell, who was born in Youngstown, Ohio. “When we first started, we didn’t know where we were going, but we loved what we were doing.”
Bell is the only living member of the original lineup, following a cluster of recent deaths, including drummer and songwriter George Brown in 2023, saxophonist, flutist and percussionist Dennis Thomas in 2021 and Bell’s composer brother, Ronald, in 2020.
“That is a bittersweet sort of feeling,” said Bell, who noted the original lineup in the early '60s was nicknamed “The Magnificent Seven.” "And now there’s only one left — and that’s me."
The opening of the Hall of Fame door for Kool & the Gang coincided with a change in hall leadership in 2023 that led to invites for key legacy acts like Foreigner, Peter Frampton and Cher.
On Oct. 19, they’ll join Mary J. Blige, A Tribe Called Quest, Ozzy Osbourne, Dave Matthews Band, the late Jimmy Buffett, MC5, Dionne Warwick, Alexis Korner, the late John Mayall and Big Mama Thornton in the class of ’24.
Rock, pop and hip-hop royalty will be on hand to help usher them in, including Busta Rhymes, Dr. Dre, James Taylor, Demi Lovato, Dua Lipa, Jelly Roll, Keith Urban, Ella Mai and Kenny Chesney.
Kool & the Gang had 12 Top 10 hits on the Billboard Hot 100 including the 1980 chart-topper “Celebration” as well as “Cherish,” “Get Down On It,” “Ladies Night” and “Joanna.” They've been eligible for the hall since 1994.
They won seven American Music Awards and were included on the Grammy-winning soundtrack for “Saturday Night Fever” and Quentin Tarantino’s “Pulp Fiction.” Several members — including Bell — were asked to sing on the mega-selling 1984 charity single “Do They Know It’s Christmas?”
Kool & the Gang never let go of its grip on pool parties, weddings and cookouts. The group’s “Misled” was featured in Netflix’s “Leave the World Behind” in 2023, and their music was played during this year’s NFL playoffs and Super Bowl.
The induction coincides this fall with the release of Brown's posthumous album, “Where I'm Coming From,” a 16-track collection that shows off the drummer as a versatile multi-instrumentalist who explored Brazilian rhythms, country, cool jazz, romantic ballads and pure dance — proof that members of the Gang had lots to offer.
“I wish George was here and the rest of the original members because they well deserve this recognition,” says his wife, Hahn Brown. “These gentlemen of the band itself needs to be recognized for their body of work and the changes they made in the music industry."
The band began in 1964 with brothers Kool and Ronald “Khalis” Bell, along with high school friends Dennis “D.T.” Thomas, Brown, Robert “Spike” Mickens, Ricky West and Charles Smith in Jersey City, New Jersey. They grew from jazz roots in the 1960s to become one of the major groups of the 1970s and ’80s, blending jazz, funk, R&B and pop.
A pivotal moment came when the group hired James “JT” Taylor as lead singer in 1979, fueling most of their ‘80s hits. The first song he recorded was “Ladies’ Night,” a tune Bell conceived of while hanging out at Studio 54 and Regine’s in Manhattan.
“I came back, I said, 'I got a great idea for a title.' So my brother said, ‘What?’ I said, ‘Ladies’ Night.' He said, ‘Wow, they got one of those all over the world.’ And that was his first song.”
The group was honored with a BET Soul Train Lifetime Achievement Award in 2014 and inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame four years later. During the very last space shuttle mission in 2011, one of the wake-up songs was “Celebration.”
That party-time juggernaut was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame in 2016 and added to the Library of Congress’ National Recording Registry in 2020.
Kool & the Gang have been sampled by everybody from A Tribe Called Quest, Eric B. & Rakim, Ice Cube, Kid Rock and TLC. They can be heard in DJ Jazzy Jeff and the Fresh Prince’s “Summertime,” Jhené Aiko’s “Summer 2020,” Madonna’s “Erotica” and Public Enemy’s “Welcome to the Terrordome.”
Last year, Kool & the Gang released a new album, “People Just Wanna Have Fun,” with the first single the infectious, happy “Let’s Party,” featuring vocals from Sha Sha Jones.
Joining Bell in the current Kool & the Gang lineup are trumpet player and singer Michael Ray; guitarist and lead singer Shawn McQuiller; and saxophonist, keyboardist and music director Curtis Williams.
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Mark Kennedy is at http://twitter.com/KennedyTwits