Jerome Smith (June 18, 1953 - July 28, 2000) – Queen of Clubs (1974)
KC and the Sunshine Band's exceptionally talented guitarist played on this superb funk jam which was their first real hit, feat. an uncredited George McCrae on vocals.
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Jerome Smith was the original guitarist for KC and the Sunshine Band and an unsung 70s funk guitar great who helped create their upbeat sound.
See our earlier post on Smith for an overview of his life and musical career.
One of the rare funk jams he played on during his days with the Ocean Liners was the superb instrumental “Foxy Funk” (1973) written by King Sporty and produced by Noel Williams.
The same year in 1973, TK Records employees and songwriters Harry Wayne Casey (KC) and Richard Finch founded KC and the Sunshine Junkanoo Band, so named since they originally used musicians from a Miami-based Junkanoo outfit. Smith and drummer Robert Johnson soon joined, who were both TK studio musicians at the time, and the group’s name was shortened to the Sunshine Band.
Smith played on the international #1 hit “Rock Your Baby” (1974) that Casey and Finch wrote for George McCrae. Later that year, the super funky jam “Queen Of Clubs” from KC and the Sunshine Band’s debut LP Do It Good became a #7 hit in the UK, featuring an uncredited McCrae on vocals.
It was their first record to chart and led the band to tour there in 1975, just as they were blowing up stateside with the two massive disco-funk singles from their self-titled second LP, “Get Down Tonight” and “That’s The Way (I Like It),” both of which went to #1 on the R&B and Billboard Hot 100 charts.
Twenty-five years later, KC and the Sunshine Band should have been traveling the world on reunion tours, basking in the 70s disco revival that gained speed in the late 90s thanks to films like Boogie Nights and 54. Instead, Smith was working construction. He died tragically on July 28, 2000 at age 47 in a West Palm Beach construction site accident when he was crushed by a bulldozer.
#soul #funk #disco #TKRecords #KC #JeromeSmith