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| Crown Heights Affair |
| Contemporaries of Brooklyn buddies B.T. Express, the eight-member Crown Heights Affair even took their name from the specific section of the borough which was their stomping ground. The Crown Heights Affair exemplifies the R&B/funk-oriented approach to dance music of 1970's Brooklyn bands.
The Crown Heights Affair had its origins in 1967 when the main nucleus of the group, known initially as New Day Express, emerged from two other local groups. The groups first recording experience came with RCA Records, with whom they signed in 1973. With a line-up that consisted of leader William Anderson, Arnold 'Muki' Wilson, Ray Rock, and Phillip Thomas, all original members, alongside Stan Johnson, Darryl Gibbs, James Baynard and Julius Dilligard Jr., the group recorded one album for RCA which spawned three singles. While "Super Rod," their first single did generate plenty of local New York airplay and sales, RCA was initially unable to give the group the kind of national exposure it warranted. Their second single, 1974's "Leave The Kids Alone" made some chart noise but by the time RCA released a third single, "Special Kind Of Woman," the group was on it's way to a new label, De-Lite. The New York label had been home to Kool & The Gang since 1969 and the popular jazz/R&B/funk performers had been De-Lite's main moneymakers through the early 1970's. The arrival of Crown Heights Affair in the summer of 1975 gave the label another best-selling act. The group handed DeLite an instant Top 5 R&B and Top 50 Pop smash with the now classic "Dreaming A Dream," the first single from their debut album. Between leaving RCA and joining De-Lite, the group underwent personnel changes with brothers Bert and Raymond Reid replacing Gibbs and Dilligard. All keyboard chores were handled by Howie Young, while Tyrone Demmons temporarily replaced James Baynard for the group's De-Lite debut. Like the three albums that followed, production for "Dreaming A Dream" was handled by the group and the team of Frieda Nerangis and Britt Britton, the groups co-managers who also co-wrote six of the eight tracks. The change in record labels also brought an immediate change in fortunes. While it didn't achieve the lofty chart status of it's predecessor, the group's second 12" single, "Every Beat Of My Heart" was another piece of disco magic that kept the Crown Heights Affair busy. De-Lite issued a third 12" single, "Foxy Lady" in the early months of 1976, and in an "interesting" marketing ploy repackaged the group's first album gave it a new catalogue number and released it as "Foxy Lady." The group began work on a new album in 1976 and "Do It Your Way" emerged as a seven track disco bonanza. The first 12" single from it, "Dancin," was a blatant rip-off of Isaac Haye's award-winning "Theme From Shaft." Six months later the 12" single of "Do It The French Way" (not, we can assume, a tribute to the art of cooking!) was released with less success than it's predecessor. By 1978 De-Lite had undergone it's own changes, with distribution switched to Polygram in time for the group's third legitimate album release. With the release of "Dream World" the group, who had added percussionist Skip Boardley to its line-up, was pretty much pidgeon-holed as a "disco band." Lead vocalist Phil Thomas noted in a 1978 interview: "It wasn't by design but we have been put there...it's not that we don't like it but we don't want to be labeled as a 'disco' group as such. It has a tendency to limit our marketability and we would really like to broaden our scope. Maybe we'll include more ballads as we develop...." That may have been an admirable aim on the group's part but the reality was that Crown Heights Affair was seen as major purveyors of infectious 'disco music'. With echoes of Earth, Wind And Fire, "Say A Prayer For Two" was the first single from "Dream World." It was as much a 'disco' favorite as any of the group's previous recordings as was the flipside "Galaxy Of Love." Released in 1979 "Dance Lady Dance," also the title cut from the group's fourth album, emerged as their only chart hit for the year. Sensing that a change in direction was needed, Crown Heights Affair opted to work with producer Bert DeCoteaux. DeCoteaux had already racked up considerable success with Ben E. King and Sister Sledge among others. And longtime mentor Donnie Linton became the group's new manager at this point. In 1980 the band (now minus keyboardist Howie Young) had high hopes for their album "Sure Shot." Likely due to the gradual change in the way the public and radio stations were reacting to 'disco,' the album achieved minimal success. The first promotional-only 12" single released was however an instant club smash and remains a classic to this day, "You Gave Me Love" is still a highly sought after collector's item. The second promotional-only release, of the title track however didn't fair as well. As a result of the lack of response generated by the album, the band took a two-year hiatus during which time William Anderson and Raymond Reid emerged as independent producers in their own right. In the early 1980's they worked with a host of acts including Unlimited Touch, France Joli, Amii Stewart and Enchantment while still remaining intergral members of Crown Heights Affair. With Bert Reid pursuing production work on his own, the remaining seven members went back into the studio in 1982. The result was, "Think Positive," which spawned one hit in the form of "Somebody Tell Me What To Do." The album was musically sound but failed to restore the group to it's mid-1970's glory. Fortunately while success waned in America, success in the U.K. sustained them through the 1980's. The group did some recording for U.K. independent labels which met with good club reaction without achieving chart status. Although they haven't been active as a group in sometime, they remain popular, thanks to the many compact disc compilations released in the 1990's. They are fondly remembered as disco pioneers that made some of the funkiest dance music in the 1970's and early 1980's. |
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