100 Greatest Songs of the 70’s #72 KC And The Sunshine Band – That’s The Way (I Like It)

Released: 1975

Working on the obscure TK Records label (Taken from the studio of the same name based in Miami) comprised of session musicians and fronted Harry Wayne Casey, KC And The Sunshine Band were selling plenty of records in Britain – Queen of Clubs, Sound Your Funky Horn and Get Down tonight were variously hits in 1973 and ’74 respectively – before they unleashed what would become one of disco’s signature numbers on the world.

Raised in a family whom most of played an instrument of some sort, Casey’s musical upbringing had largely been undertaken in church. After getting a job in TK’s distribution warehouse he eventually managed to persuade those in the studio to give him a chance as a performer. Joined by guitarist Jerome Smith, drummer Robert Johnson and bassist Richard Finch they set to work, with Casey also finding the time to write George McCrae’s Rock Your Baby.

That’s The Way (I Like It) might have expressed the same sentiment, but the beast with two (Or more) backs wasn’t just some vague notion here; with soulful whoops and a brass section keeping time, ambiguity was for some other Joe. Now in full effect as KC, here tropical soul met libidinous funk, the former church boy leading everyone on a mass get down, an invention that became without knowing it, the sound of a banger in both the past and present meanings of the word.