2. Chaka Khan
Again, I was a bit underground, always looking for the slightly less obvious tune by someone where everyone was playing their biggest tracks. I love Chaka Khan’s voice anyway, unmistakeable. She really means it when she sings any record, but on this one in particular she really, really belts it out, with those “aaahh… AHHH….” bits in the chorus. You think, ‘Woah is she going to go there?’ and yes, she does! The band behind her are going for it, too, the energy and the power of it is unbelievable. Then they make a total change partway through where it’s a different song, but somehow the same song. This one’s a bit electronic too, lots of synths, especially that bassline which is played by someone obviously really great on the keyboard. Absolute genius, this record, it deserves a lot more love, the standout Chaka Khan track for me. And this is the kind of singing that we loved in house and early rave – look at Ce Ce Penniston, Robin S, Jocelyn Brown, they were properly putting it out there. I’m not sure the singers on dance records are stepping out and going "right, that’s my tune" so much now, it’s more "here’s my little TikTok dance…" We need more divas out there!
