IFLTS: 'I Don't Know If It's Right,' Evelyn "Champagne" King

'I Don't Know If It's Right,' Evelyn "Champagne" King
From 1977's 'Smooth Talk'

Back in the late '70s, when both Evelyn "Champagne" King and I were teenagers, you had to take sides -- at least in New York you did. The Bronx-born, Philly-raised King chose R&B/disco, I went the punk/New Wave route. But joining one tribe didn't take me out of earshot of what the other was up to, not in my NYC hometown. Fortunately, I could encounter soul and dance music in thumping, rhythmic abundance by just strolling down a Manhattan street, or even as the soundtrack for my home life courtesy of my siblings' radio choice, the local black-music stations WWRL and WBLS. That's when and how Miss King -- famous for pure disco like 1977's 'Shame' as well as more R&B-grounded fare like 1981's sublime 'Love Come Down' and the song I'm using this space to profess my freakin' love for -- became a guilty pleasure whom I later regarded as an unqualified pleasure.

The teenage divaette sings the Shinola out of 'I Don't Know If It's Right,' tricking it out with R&B vocal turns that a mere 17-year-old -- too young to legally drink the champagne in her own name -- shouldn't even possess, let alone master. And she brings it clean and hard, from the moment the needle hits the record's lip till it tracks around and around the inner groove: Try to resist, for example, the chorus' hook, where she melisma-fies the word "right," giving it 12 syllables while spanning a sick range of notes. She shows off her agile pipes and mature phrasing unfalteringly throughout the song, making a strong grab for that crown resting pretty on Chaka Khan's head, all atop a production that is 99 and 44/100% pure groove. Deservedly a hit single in 1979, it tided me over until New Wave and dance music somehow became kissin' cousins in the early '80s.

For sale or trade: one "Disco Sucks" T-shirt, size medium, only slightly worn.

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