Song:Car Wash
Album:The Very Best Of Rose Royce
Car Wash topped the Billboard Hot 100 in 1976 and was the biggest hit for Rose Royce. They had some other hits mostly on the R & B charts but most folks will be most familiar with Car Wash and the film it was in. Most of the group was from Los Angeles formed by trumpeter and singer Kenny Copeland and drummer Henry Garner. Other members were Terry Santiel on congas, Duke Jobe on bass, Michael Moore on sax, Kenji Brown on guitar, Freddie Dunn on trumpet and Michael Nash on keyboards. They were known as Total Concept Unlimited when they became the backup band for Motown great Edwin Starr in 1973. Starr introduced them to legendary Motown producer Norman Whitfield. Whitfield had left Motown and was looking for talent for his new label Whitfield Records set up at Warner Bros. He used them on Yvonne Fair's album and they became the backup band for The Undisputed Truth. While in Florida, Undisputed Truth leader Joe Harris spotted a singer named Gwen Dickey and told Whitfield about her. He flew her to Los Angeles for an audition. He renamed her Rose Norwalt and put her together with TCU. Meanwhile, Whitfield had signed to produce the soundtrack for Michael Schultz's new film Car Wash. He didn't really want to do it but Universal was paying him a lot of money. He decided to rename TCU Rose Royce and the soundtrack was their debut album. The music and the film were big hits. They had some other hits but nothing as big as Car Wash. You can get all their hits on this comp.Things started to go south for Rose Royce when Gwen Dickey left in 1980 and they switched from Warners to Epic. She now lives in England. Here's Rose Royce performing Car Wash on Don Kirshner's Rock Concert 1977.
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