Get Off

"Get Off" stands out as one of the most lascivious hits of the disco era, right up there with Donna Summer's "Love To Love You Baby." Sure, the title is ambiguous, but we have a pretty good idea of what they mean in lines like, "Love me wild and love me crazy, so we can get off." Foxy was a Miami-based band stocked with young Latin guys who did very well with the ladies. They had a gig at a club in Ocean City, Maryland, where the owner, a guy named Pete, really hated the latest disco chant, which went something like: Ooo-ha ooo-ha ooo-ha ooo-ha... Well, Foxy did that chant in their set, and when they were done, Pete told them to never do it again, threatening to throw them into Sinepuxent Bay if they did. Foxy frontman Ish Ledesma didn't like this guy, so the next day, he and another band member, Carl Driggs, smoked a "big joint" and wrote the song "Get Off," with an exaggerated version of the chant right at the start of the song. It was specifically designed to annoy Pete the owner. After the marijuana smoke cleared, Driggs realized it would be a bad idea to antagonize the guy at the club giving them gigs, but Ledesma couldn't resist. When they returned to play at the club, they behaved themselves during the first song, then Ledesma called for "Get Off." They didn't even finish the chant before a team of bouncers forcibly ejected them. Foxy was the house band at Miami's TK Records, where KC & The Sunshine Band emerged. The studio's owner, Henry Stone, agreed that the song was worth recording, so they cut it and released it as the first single from their second album, which they also titled "Get Off." The song was a hit, but so saucy that it couldn't get airplay on many pop stations. It reached #9 on the Hot 100 but was a #1 R&B hit for two weeks, giving the group some sweet revenge. In 2006, Ish Ledesma had a few drinks and told this full, glorious story in a video he posted on YouTube.

Four of the five members of Foxy left Cuba and arrived in Miami in 1959. Percussionist Richie Puente is the son of Tito Puente. The group had one more hit - "Hot Number," which went to #21 as the follow-up single - and broke up in 1980. When "Get Off" was hot, they opened for both The Jacksons and Sister Sledge. Ledesma went on to form a band called Oxo.

The female backing vocals were supplied by a Miami-based trio called Wildflower. Foxy brought them in when they realized the chant was too high for their falsettos.