Boogie Fever

A family group with nine members (all with the last name "Sylver"), The Sylvers later charted with the songs "Hot Line" (#3) and "High School Dance" (#17). They also appeared in the 1979 film The Fish That Saved Pittsburgh. For a better look at the disco goodness they were pushing out in 1976, check out the Showcase album cover.

You could play an interesting game called "Which song title containing the word 'boogie' from the '70s could make us all blush now?" There's Kool & the Gang's "Jungle Boogie," or perhaps "Boogie Shoes" by KC & The Sunshine Band, and let's not forget Taste of Honey's "Boogie Oogie Oogie." So "Boogie Fever" doesn't sound too bad by comparison, after all... right? The Sylvers were well-suited to their time; but their time just happened to be an alternate dimension when we look back on it now. For all of that, they really put their all into the show - note the brass section and disco-style piano work on this piece. Hey, listen to it again, it's catchy. What else did club dancers demand? Come to that, what more do they demand now?

Interesting history in the lyrics: The first verse describes a scene at the drive-in movie. Drive-ins were a very big deal back then, but the speaker they're describing were these big, clunky metal things on a wire hung on a pole beside each space. You'd drive up, roll down (not button down) your window and hook the speaker over your window on both sides - instant stereo-car! Also great fun when people drove off without remembering to put the speaker back, resulting in a lot of uprooted speaker poles being dragged to the exit.