Kool & the Gang "Special Way"

Kool & the Gang last charted on the Hot 100 and Adult Contemporary Charts in 1987 with their ballad "Special Way".

Kool & the Gang "Celebration"

My grandmother played in a Polka band with my grandfather until his untimely death...while performing with my grandmother...on stage...at a local library. It happened in 1989 and took my grandmother a few years before she ever picked up her accordion again. Years later, she tried to get us grandchildren to follow in their footsteps and embrace music. No one really took the bait, but me. With no formal training, I taught myself how to play the keyboard by learning church hymns. I wasn't very good, but I tried. I used to "jam" with my grandmother on our respective Yamaha keyboards. Take a moment to visualize that. Done? Alrighty, then let's move on...

Our musical tastes didn't really intersect, but she did know the song "Celebration" from Kool & the Gang. Along with a handful of polka, we added the song to our repertoire. We weren't very good, but we tried. Eventually, I came to understand the two of us didn't sound "good" until my grandmother had about a dozen Miller Lites in her. For some reason that still escapes me, the two of us volunteered to perform during her church's annual carnival during the fall of 1992. The two of us played keyboards while one of the priests from the church who played the drums asked if he could perform a song or two with us. Like the a good Catholic, I've suppressed many memories from that fateful day and don't remember much other than grandma was sober and we didn't sound very good. At all. Oh, and my dad showed up and took a picture of us performing. Yes, buried somewhere in my basement is a photo of me wearing a pink Chicago Bears cap alongside the drummer/priest wearing an avocado green track suit while my grandmother fiddled with one of our amplifiers in the background. Forgive me Father for I have sinned...

Kool & the Gang "Stone Love"

Ebony Magazine once crowned Kool & the Gang the "hottest group of the '80s". The honor came with good reason: between 1980 and 1986, Kool & the Gang scored 14 Top 40 singles -- which was more than any other group or artist (yes, even Michael Jackson). Ebony's proclamation was a bit premature as Kool & the Gang's 1987 song "Stone Love" wound up being the R&B group's final Top 40 single.

Kool & The Gang "Cherish"

The biggest Adult Contemporary hit from the 1980s wasn't from Phil Collins, Elton John or even Billy Joel, but rather it came courtesy of R&B group Kool & The Gang. The group's ballad "Cherish" topped the Adult Contemporary for six weeks during the summer of 1985. Not only that, the catchy tune featured the sound of seagulls and waves crashing along the beach. Who wouldn't love that?

Kool & The Gang - "Too Hot"

I'd like to see the list of folks who were told they're too hot.  I mean...what an insult!  "Listen, I'm sorry, but you're just too attractive and this would never work."  What if you were the person who this person chose to date instead?  "Listen, Carrie, you're the one for me.  Meredith was just too hot." #firstworldproblems

Kenny G - "Forever in Love"

Saturday nights during my high school years meant working as a busboy at a local banquet hall in Schererville, Indiana.  The hall consisted of three decent-sized rooms that usually played host to wedding receptions.  My evening started at 5pm with my first task being to fill carafes with wine and place them on all the tables.  During this time, each disc jockeys would set up and test their equipment.  This usually involved each DJ putting a CD into the player, pressing "play" and letting it run for the next hour while they walked around the room to do sound checks.  More often than not, the CD was "Forever in Love" by Kenny G.  It became an ongoing joke among the busboys that just as every DJ played "Celebration" by Kool And The Gang or "We Are Family" by Sister Sledge, they were also required to play Kenny G's CD during weddings (especially during dinner).  One particular night, I remember someone at one of the tables asking fellow busboy, Nick, if he knew what kind of wine was in the carafe.  Nick paused and said, "Cheap?".  

Kool & The Gang - "Cherish"

Crickets chirping and birds singing are just a couple examples of nature turning up in songs that hit #1 on the Adult Contemporary chart, but let's not forget about a wave crashing ashore.  Thanks to the first three seconds of Kool & The Gang's "Cherish", that sound effect also found its way on the radio in 1985 and also found its way to #1.

Kool & The Gang - "Fresh"

"She's fresh...fresh.  Exciting.  She's so exciting to me.  She's fresh...fresh.  Exciting.  So inviting to me."