This R&B chart-topper may have been a fresh hit for Kool & the Gang, but it had been sitting on the shelf for a while. The group's lead singer, James "J.T." Taylor, borrowed the tune from the band he was in before joining the Gang. "But it was a totally different groove. When I played it for [drummer] George Brown, he changed it," Taylor told Billboard.
The album's producer, Jim Bonnefond, brought in songwriter Sandy Linzer to help with the lyrics. Linzer recalled: "They had a title, and they wanted a lyric about all the fresh things that were going on in the world. I just changed it to 'She's fresh,' wrote the lyrics to the verses, and submitted it."
Many consider this the origin of the slang term "fresh," meaning remarkably cool (or is that Kool?) and original. While the term started showing up in hip-hop songs a few years before - the earliest being Grandmaster Flash & The Furious Five's "It's Nasty (Genius of Love)" in 1981 ('m a man that's fresh, huh, a woman's pet) - this song existed prior to 1978 when Taylor first joined Kool & the Gang.
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