Ship Ahoy

Ship Ahoy is an album by Philadelphia soul group The O'Jays, released in 1973 on Philadelphia International Records. The album was a critical and commercial success, entering Billboard on November 10, and reaching No. 11. It reached No. 1 on the "Black Albums" chart and launched two hit singles, "For the Love of Money" and "Put Your Hands Together." Conceived as a theme album built around the title track, Ship Ahoy includes socially relevant tracks and love songs under a cover that is itself notable for its serious subject matter. The album, which achieved RIAA platinum certification in 1992 for over 1 million copies sold, has been reissued multiple times, including in a 2003 edition with a bonus track. Ship Ahoy was the highest selling R&B album on the Billboard Year-End chart for 1974. Songs and music The songs on Ship Ahoy balance the romantic with the politically and socially conscious. In its review of the 2003 re-issue, Rolling Stone noted that the album's "main achievement was proving that it was indeed possible to be thoughtful and articulate without losing your funk." The album's lead single was "Put Your Hands Together," a song urging cooperation and optimistic prayer for "a better day to come." Rickey Vincent, author of Funk: The Music, the People, and the Rhythm of the One, describes the song as "fairly standard musically", "with a strong gospel feel." The second single, "For the Love of Money," is a protest against materialism with a groove that Rolling Stone described as "downright orgiastic". The song was written around a bass line composed by Anthony Jackson, which in 2005 Bass Player Magazine described as "landmark." Bass Player went on to note that the song has "become one of the most recycled singles ever, sampled continually by rappers, and appearing on over 75 compilation CDs, numerous movie soundtracks, and, most recently, the theme for TV's The Apprentice." The album's title song, "Ship Ahoy," was built around the theme of African captives being transported in a slave ship as part of the Middle Passage of the Atlantic slave trade. It had originally been penned by Gamble and Huff for inclusion in the soundtrack to Shaft in Africa, but the producers decided instead to give it to the O'Jays as part of a concept album centered around slavery.