TK Album Discography
In August, 1973, the first single released on the label was "Blow Your Whistle"/"I'm Gonna Do Something
Good To You" [TK 1001]. It was actually credited to "KC and the Sunshine Junkanoo Band", which
mercifully was quickly shortened to "KC and the Sunshine Band" (what were those kids thinking??).
"Blow Your Whistle," a Harry Casey original, reached #27 on the Billboard R&B charts. That was
followed by "I Can Love"/"I Feel Like Lovin'" [TK 1002] by Willie & Barbara — they later showed
up on Clarence Reid's "Reid's World" label — which didn't chart. These two singles were the total
TK output for 1973. From this point, TK started an amazing and enviable string of successful records.
From TK 1003 to TK 1035, all but five singles made some kind of national chart, whether pop, R&B, or
Dance charts, and among those five numbers, three were unreleased! So out of 29 released singles, 27
made the charts! Other labels, eat your hearts out.
KC and the Sunshine Band was a nine-member disco dance band, complete with horn section. Members included Harry "KC" Casey (vocals, keyboards), Jerome Smith (guitar), Richard "Rick" Finch (bass), Robert Johnson (drums), Fermin Coytisolo (congas), and a horn section of Ronnie Smith, Denvil Liptrot, James Weaver, and Charles Williams. Their followup single, released in early 1974, was "Sound Your Funky Horn" [TK 1003], which made #27 on the R&B charts starting in February. TK then put out an album by the group, the label's first, called Do It Good [TK 500].
In the spring of
1974, Harry Casey and Rick Finch were writing disco songs when they came up with one they couldn't
sing like they wanted, because it was too high for KC. They gave the song, "Rock Your Baby" [TK 1004]
to label mate George McCrae, who sang it all the way to #1 on both the pop charts and the R&B charts
starting in June, 1974. Casey and Finch wrote a whole album of songs for McCrae, and it was issued as
TK's second album, Rock Your Baby by George McCrae [TK 501].
That summer, KC and the Sunshine band put out another single from their album, "Queen of Clubs" backed with "Do It Good" [TK 1005], and a curious thing happened. The single didn't sell much here in the US, but in the UK, it made it to #7! For a UK followup, they reached back to issue "Sound Your Funky Horn," and it made #17 starting in November, 1974.
Back in the US, the next record, TK 1006, was Lynn Williams' "Kisses, Kisses, Kisses"/"You Are the Greatest," which flopped. The only other non-charting single for TK before late 1979 was "You Don't Know"/"Oh, That's My Man" by Fire [TK 1012], released in the summer, 1975.
George McCrae started 1975 with his followup, "I Get Lifted" [TK 1007], which made #37 pop and #8 R&B. His other charters for the label included: "Look at You" [TK 1011, 5/75, #95 pop/#31 R&B], "I Ain't Lyin'" [TK 1014, 8/75, #31 R&B], "Honey I" [TK 1016, 1/76, #65 pop/#18 R&B], "Love In Motion" [TK 1021, 12/76, #4 Dance charts as TK-Disco 22, a 12" single], "Kiss Me (The Way I Like It)" [TK 1024, 11/77, #110 pop/#57 R&B/#14 Dance], "Let's Dance (People All Over the World)" [TK 1029, 6/78, #93 R&B], "I Want You Around Me" [TK 1032, 2/79, #91 R&B], and "Don't You Feel My Love" [TK 1034 reissued as Sunshine Sound 212, 8/79, #25 R&B].
KC and the Sunshine Band also had a chart record in January, 1975, with "I'm a Pushover" [TK 1008],
which reached #57 on the R&B charts. Their next record, however, released in the summer of 1975, was
a bombshell, a classic of the early disco years. "Get Down Tonight" [TK 1009], made #1 pop as well as
#1 on the R&B charts, and put KC and the Sunshine Band in the disco elite. Additional hits ensued:
"That's the Way (I Like It)" [TK 1015, 10/75, #1 pop/#1 R&B], a reissue of "Queen of Clubs" [TK 1005,
3/76, #66 pop/#25 R&B], "(Shake, Shake, Shake) Shake Your Booty" [TK 1019, 7/76, #1 pop/#1 R&B], "I
Like To Do It" [TK 1020, 12/76, #37 pop/#4 R&B], "I'm Your Boogie Man" [TK 1022, 2/77, #48 pop/#24
R&B], "Keep It Coming Love" [TK 1023, 7/77, #2 pop/#1 R&B], "Boogie Shoes" [TK 1025, 2/78, #35
pop/#29 R&B], "It's the Same Old Song" [TK 1028, 5/78, #35 pop/#30 R&B], "Do You Feel All Right" [TK
1030, 10/78, #63 pop/#62 R&B], "Who Do Ya Love" [TK 1031, 12/78, #68 pop/#88 R&B], "Do You
Wanna Go Party" [TK 1033, 5/79, #50 pop/#8 R&B], and "Please Don't Go" [TK 1035, 10/79], which
made #1 pop while the flip, "I Betcha Didn't Know That" made #25 R&B. Then, for the first time in years,
a KC and the Sunshine Band single failed to chart: "Let's Go Rock and Roll" [TK 1036]. A final single
was a Spanish version of "Please Don't Go" for the group's Spanish-speaking fans: "Por Favor No Te
Vayas" [TK 1037], and that was all. KC went solo, and recorded three more unsuccessful singles for TK,
then recorded some successful singles with Teri DeSario for Casablanca and Epic. After TK folded,
KC signed with Epic as a solo artist, but had no chart success. In 1983, he finally started his own label,
Meca, and bought his masters back from Epic and had a couple of chart hits on Meca.
Sandwiched among the KC and the Sunshine Band's singles were a few successful singles done by the band as instrumentals, credited just to "The Sunshine Band". These of course also included KC, but not as a vocalist, as he was their keyboardist. They were: "Shotgun Shuffle" [TK 1010, 9/75, #88 pop/#25 R&B], "Rock Your Baby," an instrumental version of the George McCrae hit they had written [TK 1018, 1/76, #70 R&B], and "Black Water Gold" [TK 1026, 4/78, #75 R&B].
By 1980, disco was winding down, and so was TK's chart success. Only three of the last dozen or so singles released made the charts. These included two James Brown sides, "Rapp Payback (Where Iz Moses)" [TK 1039, 11/80, #46 R&B], and "Stay With Me' [TK 1042, 4/81, #80 R&B]. Ironically, if TK could have stayed in business longer, they had the all-time king of parody records under contract (who knew?). The last charting single for TK was "Weird Al" Yankovic's second single, "Another One Rides the Bus" [TK 1043, 3/81, #104 pop]. By the end of 1981, TK was out of business, as Henry Stone put the label into bankruptcy. Stone sold the TK masters to Rhino Records in 1990.
The album numbering sequence started in 1974 with TK 500 and TK 501, then shifted in 1975 to the 600 series with TK 602, with the sequence of the last two digits remaining the same. The 1976 reissue of TK 500 was renumbered TK 600.
