Digital Roundup: 14 Funky Additions to Rhino’s Digital Catalog in 2014

As 2014 comes to a close, we’re slowing down with our digital releases – don’t worry, we’ll pick back up again in 2015 – but since we’ve kept you coming back Wednesday after Wednesday for our weekly Digital Roundup, we thought we’d round up a list of our some of our favorite and funkiest albums to be added to our digital catalog this year, just in case they slipped by you when they were originally introduced.

Faze-O, Breakin’ the Funk: If you’ve never before entered into the land of Faze-O, they spent the late ‘70s bringing their brand of funk straight out of Dayton, Ohio, and to keep their music infused with as much of their home state as possible, they generally spent their time in the studio with the Ohio Players’ Clarence Satchell manning the production board. Although best known for their 1977 debut, Riding High, thanks to its oft-sampled title track, their third and final full-length effort is easily just as fun and funky.

Claudia Lennear, Phew: Although she’s only released a single solo album in her 40+ years as a singer, if you’ve seen the documentary 20 Feet from Stardom, then you know that Claudia Lennear has been plenty busy behind the scenes, working with Delaney and Bonnie, Humble Pie, and Ike and Tina Turner, hitting the road with Joe Cocker for his famed Mad Dogs and Englishmen tour, serving as one of Leon Russell’s Shelter People, and appearing at the unforgettable Concert for Bangla Desh. Oh, right, and she also apparently helped inspired both the Rolling Stones’ “Brown Sugar” and David Bowie’s “Lady Grinning Soul.” After you listen to Phew, though, you’ll wish she’d spent more time making her own music.

Willie Hutch, In Tune: He wasn’t what you’d call a ‘70s R&B superstar, but Willie Hutch earned more than a dozen hits on the Billboard R&B chart – including his brilliant theme song for the Pam Grier classic, Foxy Brown – and when he was of a mind to, he could most definitely bring the funk. In Tune, one of two albums Hutch released on the short-lived Warner Brothers subsidiary label, Whitfield Records, was his last album to make the R&B charts, and it’s probably no coincidence that it was the last album he released before he decided to go full disco in an effort to earn more sales…and, boy, did that plan fail. In Tune, though, is pretty great, and it’s an underrated item in Hutch’s catalog that’s worthy of reappraisal.

Bootsy Collins, The One Giveth, The Count Taketh Away: If you’re familiar at all with the world of funk, then you already know the man, the myth, and the #1 Funkateer known as Bootsy Collins. This early ’80s effort is neither the best item in his back catalog nor his worst, but like virtually everything Bootsy’s recorded over the years, it’s a whole lot of fun.

Godmoma, Here: Speaking of Bootsy Collins, this one-off album by the trio of Cynthia Girty, Carolyn Myles, and Tony Walker was produced by the aforementioned master of funk, with additional musical contributions from Catfish Collins, Maceo Parker, Sly Stone, and Fred Wesley. That the end result is both decidedly danceable and downright funky perhaps goes without saying, but we figured we’d say it anyway.

Curtis Mayfield, Take It to the Streets: The late, great Mr. Mayfield may have done his most iconic work as a solo artist during the ‘70s – Superfly, anyone? – but even on his lesser efforts, he always managed to deliver a few tracks which made them worth spinning. This was his last proper studio album prior to the accident which paralyzed him from the neck down, and although he managed to fight back and record one more album in his lifetime (1997’s New World Order), the fact that Take It to the Streets closed with as great a track as “I Mo Get U Sucka” made it all the more depressing that he wasn’t able to immediately follow it with another effort, because, man, that song was classic Curtis Mayfield.

Rick James, Kickin’: Recorded in 1988 and 1989 but ultimately shelved, Rick James’ lost album was finally found and delivered to our digital catalog this summer in conjunction with the release of his autobiography, Glow. It may not be on the level of Super Freak, but if you’re a fan of the man at all, it’s really just great to be able to hear him kickin’ it again.

Force M.D.’s, Touch and Go: If you tend to listen only to what’s on the pop charts, then you may only know the Force M.D.’s for their classic ballad, “Tender Love,” but the group continued onward beyond that hit, ultimately finding their greatest success a few years later with “Love is a House,” which provided them with their first #1 R&B hit. If this is news to you, then you should definitely give Touch a go.

Skyy, Start of a Romance: It’s hard to believe that, by the time Skyy released this album, they’d been around for a full decade, but it’s true: this was actually their ninth studio effort. The group rarely crossed over to the pop charts, and the one time they did only saw them hitting #26 (with “Call Me”), but from a singles standpoint, this album was their greatest success, earning them two #1 R&B hits, including the title track and “Real Love.”

Ronnie Dyson, Phase 2: You might know him more for his work in the musical Hair – he’s the one whose voice you hear singing the lines, “When the moon is in the seventh house / And Jupiter aligns with Mars” – than for his solo career, but he was a pretty big deal on the R&B charts in the ‘70s, earning hits with songs like “One Man Band (Plays All Alone)” and “The More You Do It.” In the early ‘80s, success was more elusive, but he still did some solid work, including this album, his first for Atlantic subsidiary Cotillion Records.

Eddie Kendricks, Love Keys: Okay, so he never made as much of an impact as a solo artist as he did when he was fronting the Temptations. That voice was still something spectacular, and while his lone album for Atlantic Records didn’t chart, the album’s first single, “(Oh I) Need Your Loving” gave him a well-deserved –if all too minor – R&B hit, hitting #41 in 1981.

KC, Space Cadet: Solo Flight: Well, what can we say about this album? You know Harry Casey’s career as frontman for the Sunshine Band, but you probably don’t know Space Cadet, since it wasn’t even remotely a commercial success. It’s a fascinating listen, though, and it’s certainly easy to dance to.

Montana, I Love Music: It seems like Montana is a group, but it’s really more the work of the legendary Vince Montana, late of MFSB and the Salsoul Orchestra. It’s a straight-up disco affair, but just try to keep your toes from tapping and your ass from shaking.

Paul Kelly, Stand on the Positive Side: Not the Australian singer-songwriter, but the R&B crooner who had his biggest hit with “Stealing in the Name of the Lord” and found significant success as a songwriter with “Personally,” which was a hit for Jackie Moore, Karla Bonoff, and Ronnie McDowell. This was the last of his albums for Warner Brothers in the ‘70s, and it ultimately turned out to be the last album he’d release for a decade and a half, but in listening to it, you’ll wonder why he ever went away.