Chaka Khan (born March 23, 1953) – Right Is Right (1974)
Chaka co-wrote this very funky overlooked jam for Rufus' classic third album Rufusized, the second LP the group released in 1974.
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Legendary singer/songwriter and musician Chaka Khan rose to fame as the lead singer of funk band Rufus in the early 70s, then went solo and became a dancefloor icon.
Yvette Marie Stevens was born and raised in Chicago, growing up in the Hyde Park neighborhood. Her grandfather introduced her to jazz at a young age, and at age 11, she formed a girl group called the Crystalettes. It included her younger sister Yvonne who years later became a singer under the stage name Taka Boom. Their brother Mark also became a musician, playing with the funk/soul group Aurra in the 1980s.
At age 13, she was given the name Chaka Adunne Aduffe Hodarhi Karifi by a Babalawo, or Yoruba high priest from West Africa. As a teenager, she attended civil rights rallies and joined the city’s chapter of the Black Panthers after becoming friends with legendary activist Fred Hampton in 1967.
Following Hampton’s assassination in 1969, she dropped out of high school and began performing around Chicago with various groups. She joined Lyfe for a brief period, a group formed by Chess songwriter and guitarist Cash McCall that her boyfriend at the time Hassan Khan was playing in. She married Khan in 1970.
After the tragic death of Chicago performer Baby Huey from a heroin overdose that same year, Khan was asked to join his former band The Babysitters as one of two replacement lead singers. The group was signed to Curtis Mayfield’s Curtom Records, but broke up in 1971 before recording anything with Khan.
In 1972, she replaced her close friend Paulette Williams as the singer of a new group called Rufus. They signed with ABC Records the next year and recorded their self-titled debut LP in Los Angeles.
Released in 1973, it was not successful. Undeterred, the band returned to the same studio to record their second album, and Rags To Rufus (1974) became a huge hit. It went gold on the strength of its hit singles “You Got The Love” (co-written by Khan with Ray Parker Jr.), and a song Stevie Wonder wrote for her, “Tell Me Something Good.”
Khan co-wrote the very funky, overlooked jam “Right Is Right“ for Rufus' classic third album Rufusized, the second LP the group released in 1974. Her co-writers were Rufus founding member Kevin Murphy, and new addition Tony Maiden, the guitarist who had joined the band while they were recording Rags To Rufus in Los Angeles.
When Rags To Rufus blew up, the band rushed back into the studio a few months later to record an immediate follow up. Rufusized was also a hit, going to #2 R&B and #7 on the Billboard 200 album charts.
Its lead single was “Once You Get Started,” co-written by Maiden. In the UK and several other countries, “Right Is Right” was featured on the B-side. But in the U.S., the B-side was the LP's title track, and “Right Is Right” remained an album-only cut.
Happy 70th Birthday to the great Chaka Khan!
More info:
“Craig Seymour meets Chaka Khan,” 2004 interview, audio on YouTube
"The making of Chaka Khan," by James Porter and Jake Austen, Chicago Reader, July 17, 2018
“Craig’s Pop Life Archive: Chaka Khan Edition,” by Craig Seymour, Craig’s Pop Life, March 2023
#soul #funk #Rufus #ChakaKhan
Thanks for featuring Chaka today. Listening to her was the best part of my day.