A record-store clerk, a Junkanoo band and five number ones

The man behind KC and the Sunshine Band was a record store employee. Harry Wayne Casey worked part-time at TK Records in Hialeah, Florida, when he formed the group in 1973. The initial name, KC & The Sunshine Junkanoo Band, came from the fact that he used studio musicians from TK together with a local group, the Miami Junkanoo Band. The finished name joined his initials, KC, to the Sunshine State.

Casey found a creative partner in the bassist and engineer Richard Finch, and guitarist Jerome Smith and drummer Robert Johnson joined them. Their first singles, “Blow Your Whistle” and “Sound Your Funky Horn”, did well on the R&B chart and overseas. While working on demos, Casey wrote “Rock Your Baby” for George McCrae, which became a number one hit in 51 countries in mid-1974. The band's own “Queen of Clubs” reached number seven in Britain, and they toured there in 1975.

Then the hits arrived in a stream. “Get Down Tonight” topped the Billboard Hot 100 in August 1975, and “That's the Way (I Like It)” followed that November. The 1976 album Part 3 delivered two more chart-toppers, “I'm Your Boogie Man” and “(Shake, Shake, Shake) Shake Your Booty”, with “Keep It Comin' Love” peaking at number two the next year. “Boogie Shoes” belongs to the same bright catalogue. The group also drew two Grammy nominations at the 1976 ceremony.

Their fifth number one, “Please Don't Go”, spent a week at the top in January 1980, making it the first Billboard number one of the 1980s. With disco fading and new wave exploding, the group joined Epic Records after TK Records went bankrupt, and Casey scored a duet with Teri DeSario, “Yes, I'm Ready”, which reached number two. The rise and turn of the decade is neatly captured in that one run of songs. A band that began with a few studio musicians and a record clerk's ear left music made to move people.