S.O.D. "Car Wash" by Rose Royce

9/28/2015     How about a fun song to start the week. You might remember a film by the same name in 1976.  The soundtrack was the band's debut album and from it there first single, "Car Wash."  In 1977 it won a Grammy for the Best Score Soundtrack Album and the single topped the charts in the U.S. and Canada and charted well in 10 other countries.  Because of the handclapping at the start of the song, it is one of the most sampled tunes in history.  

     It was written and produced by Norman Whitfield who has worked with many R&B groups, especially The Temptations and is responsible for some of their hits and for  producing 8 of their albums.  The story goes that Whitfield was inspired while playing basketball and wrote the first lyrics down on a paper bag from a fried chicken eatery.  Guitarist Kenji Brown describes the car wash business on the movie set as a place where "everything is always cool and the boss don't mind sometimes if you act a fool".  

     Christine Aguilera along with Missy Elliott did a notable version in 2004 where they can be seen as animated fish on the music video.  A strange version of the song was done in 1977 by the cast of the Brady Bunch Variety Hour based on "The Wonderful Wizard of Oz." Perhaps a little more tasteful is a version performed by Andy Caine and the Easy Virtue Orchestra which is done in the style of swing for the soundtrack of the 2008 dramedy, "Easy Virtue," set in the 1920s partially in Monaco, Monte Carlo, Europe.  Rose Royce has been active since 1973 to present day, have released 14 albums and 30 singles.