Celebrate! is the twelfth studio album by American band Kool & the Gang. Released on September 29, 1980, the album reached No. 1 on the US R&B chart and #10 on the Billboard 200. The album produced perhaps Kool & the Gang's most recognizable hit song, the No. 1 chart-topper, "Celebration", which still receives heavy play today over four decades later.
Contents
Critical reception
Dennis Hunt of the Los Angeles Times called Celebrate! "the band's mostly excellent new album." Robert Christgau of The Village Voice said, "It says something for these funk pioneers that unlike James Brown, George Clinton, and the Ohio Players they've adapted painlessly, nay profitably, to disco: a number-one single leads their Deodato-produced album into the top ten. What it says is that their funk was as bland as you suspected." Amy Hanson of AllMusic found that "Celebrate itself marked the end of an era for Kool & the Gang, as the band would slip even farther from their funk roots and adopted dance grooves into the realms of smooth soul. But what a way to go!" Philip Hall of Record Mirror said, "Kool's Gang play penthouse-suite disco music. Every song gives off an air of easy affluence. There's no soul sound on this album just plenty of precise modern dance music. Though I admire Kool & The Gang for the way they effortlessly create light and airy dance rhythms, the overall feel of the album left me feeling untouched. This is highly efficient, automated disco music designed to keep the night clubbers of the world happy."
Personnel
Bass – Robert "Kool" Bell
Lead guitar – Charles Smith
Keyboards, saxophone, backing vocals – Ronald Bell
Drums, percussion, backing vocals – George Brown
Lead and backing vocals – James "J.T." Taylor
Alto saxophone – Dennis Thomas
Trumpet, backing vocals – Robert Mickens
Keyboards, backing vocals – Earl Toon, Jr.
Keyboards – Kevin Bell
Additional keyboards – Adam Epolito
Backing vocals – Cedric Toon, Meekaeel Muhammad, Robert Bell, Coffee, Something Sweet
Orchestra arranger and conductor – Eumir Deodato
Production
Recording engineer – Jim Bonnefond
Assistant engineers – Bobby Cohen, Clif Hodsdon, Jeff Kawalex, Joe DeAngelis, Jullian Robertson, Kenny Robb
Mixing – Eumir Deodato, Jim Bonnefond, Gabe Vigorito
Mastering – Tom Coyne
Producer – Eumir Deodato
Associate producer – Kool & the Gang
CD mastering – Joe Gastwirt
CD remastering – Joe Gastwirt