■ 09 January 2012 | 2:32 PM
Oh What ... Wow!: The Feel-Good Soul of Sister Sledge
If things hadn't turned around by the end of the decade, Sister Sledge planned to call it a day.
The Philadelphia sisters – Debbie, Joni, Kim and Kathy – had spent most of the ’70s looking for a sound. This was the era when labels spent several years grooming talent, and Atlantic Records had tried a little bit of everything to break the teenage group.
Bubblegum pop reminiscent of the Jackson 5 (1973’s “Mama Never Told Me”) didn’t work. Philly Soul with echoes of the Three Degrees (1974’s “Love Don’t Go Through No Changes on Me”) gave Sister Sledge its first chart hit. But the ho-hum record petered out at No. 31. Other singles – 1976’s “Cream of the Crop” and 1977’s “Blockbuster Boy” – boasted interesting touches of early disco. But, again, the sisters could only do so much with lackluster songs.
Meanwhile, they toured the globe, opening for major acts like The Spinners, and regularly performed at chitlin circuit joints like Club Harlem in Atlantic City. In between shows and recording dates, each Sledge earned a degree from Temple University. They were ready to break up and start their own lives, when in 1978 Atlantic paired them with Nile Rogers and Bernard Edwards of Chic. A year before, Chic had scaled the charts with the quintessential disco hit, “Dance, Dance, Dance (Yowsah, Yowsah, Yowsah).” The group’s signature style – campy, ironic lyrics awash with dramatic strings and underpinned by Bernard’s aggressive bass, interlocked with Nile’s brash guitar – was hot.
They tailored the Chic sound for Sister Sledge on We Are Family, the quartet’s breakthrough released in January 1979. The album featured two of the era’s best hits: “He’s the Greatest Dancer” and the title track. Both cuts topped the R&B chart. The latter became an anthem for everybody from gay groups to the Pittsburgh Pirates and sailed all the way to No. 2 on the pop chart. The album went platinum.
We Are Family was the first outside production for Chic – well, the first for which Nile and Bernard received credit. And it is one of the best albums to spring out of disco, an era known for mammoth singles, not impressive long players. As was the case with previous Sister Sledge releases, the timing for the album was on and off. An undeniable disco pulse carries the set. It was The Sound of 1979. But We Are Family isn’t really a disco album, not in the way early Donna Summer and Gloria Gaynor LPs are. Beyond the two monster singles, We Are Family is a solid sophisticated R&B album, glinting with Philly Soul and breezy pop.
Kathy, the youngest sister, is the most distinct vocalist. Her animated, breathless approach on “He’s the Greatest Dancer” erases the self-conscious campiness that marred some of Chic’s songs. “We Are Family” would have been insufferable in the hands of a lesser singer. But Kathy’s raspy, impassioned vocal invigorates the song. The feel-good vibe, shadowed by Debbie, Kim, Joni and a young backing vocalist by the name of Luther Vandross, is downright infectious.
“You’re a Friend to Me,” a swaying midtempo number with a delicious string arrangement, echoes Sister Sledge’s gospel roots. “Easier to Love” hints at the airy, slightly tropical accent Chic brought to the group’s follow-up album, 1980’s Love Somebody Today.
But Sister Sledge failed to repeat the success of We Are Family. Soon after the album hit big, a racist and homophobic “Disco Sucks” movement gained momentum in mainstream pop. Sister Sledge's subsequent records were dismissed by the same DJs who spun “He’s the Greatest Dancer” day in and out.
Despite a few R&B hits in the early ‘80s, Sister Sledge faded. After 12 years in 1985, Atlantic finally dropped the group from its roster. We Are Family is the only surefire smash the sisters produced in all that time, and it still feels good.
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