Johnnie Wilder Jr. (July 3, 1949 – May 13, 2006) – Ain’t No Half Steppin’ (1976)

The first single from Heatwave's debut album Too Hot To Handle was this funky, upbeat jam featuring the group's co-founder Wilder on lead vocals.

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Johnnie Wilder Jr. was the co-founder and co-lead singer of British R&B/funk band Heatwave. The group rose to the top of the charts in the late seventies but their members, including Wilder, were haunted by multiple tragedies along the way.

Born in Dayton, Ohio, Wilder served in the U.S. Army during the early seventies and was stationed in West Germany, where he sang with several R&B groups. After being discharged, he moved to London. He met British keyboardist and songwriter Rod Temperton after Wilder placed an ad in the paper seeking other musicians to form a band.

Other original members of their international lineup included Wilder’s brother Keith on co-lead vocals, Mario Mantese from Switzerland on bass, Jamaican-American Eric Johns on guitar, and Ernest “Bilbo” Berger from Czechoslovakia on drums. The group first performed around London as “Chicago‘s Heatwave,” refining their disco-funk sound and energetic stage routines. After signing with UK label GTO Records in 1976, they started recording their debut album Too Hot To Handle with producer Barry Blue.

The first of the tragedies to befall the group’s members occurred when Jesse Whitten, a rhythm guitarist playing on the recording sessions, was stabbed to death before the album was done. He was replaced by British rhythm guitarist Roy Carter, who later became a full-fledged Heatwave member.

All tracks on Too Hot To Handle were written by Rod Temperton, whose genius songwriting talents were evident from the start. It was released on June 15, 1976 in the UK. The album’s debut single was the funky, upbeat jam “Ain’t No Half Steppin’,” featuring Wilder on lead vocals.

It was later re-issued as the B-side of the album’s fifth and final single, the superb love song “Always And Forever.”

On its initial release, “Ain’t No Half Steppin’” did not make an impact on the charts. Years later it was sampled for De La Soul’s classic hip hop track “Ego Trippin' (Pt. 2)” off their Buhloone Mind State LP, released in 1993.

The single’s original B-side was the rare, superb (non-LP) jam “Special Offer,” which was not released again in any format until 2015 when it appeared as a bonus track on a remastered, expanded CD edition of Too Hot To Handle.

Heatwave’s next single was “Super Soul Sister,” b/w the slow jam “Turn Out the Lamplight,” another non-LP track. This single also went nowhere.

But the album’s third single more than made up for it, when “Boogie Nights” entered the UK charts on March 5, 1977 and peaked at #2. Featuring Keith Wilder on lead vocals, it also went to #2 in the U.S. on the Billboard Hot 100 when it was released there in June, a month after Too Hot To Handle was issued in America on Epic Records. It was kept from the top spot by Debby Boone’s “You Light Up My Life,” which spent ten weeks atop the U.S. charts that year.

“Boogie Nights” put Heatwave on the map, and became one of the best known songs of the mainstream disco era. It went platinum and was featured in two films released the following year in 1978 - Eyes of Laura Mars, starring Faye Dunaway, and The Stud, starring Jackie Collins, which was based on her sister Jackie’s 1969 novel and had an all-disco soundtrack.

Their next single was the album’s phenomenal title track, with “Always And Forever” close behind in December, 1977. The latter hit #2 R&B, and also went platinum, although it only reached #18 on the Hot 100.

Heatwave recorded their second LP Central Heating in late 1976 and early 1977, again produced by Barry Blue. It was released in the UK in April, 1977 and in the U.S. the following year, on March 31, 1978.

The album’s hit single was “The Groove Line,” which hit #3 R&B, #7 on the Hot 100, and #12 on the U.K. charts. But it also featured several other great cuts, including the funky jam “Send Out For Sunshine,” “The Star Of A Story” (which was later memorably covered by George Benson for his Give Me The Night LP, produced by Quincy Jones), and the upbeat, infectious “Party Poops.”

Central Heating’s masterpiece was arguably one of the two tracks written by Wilder, the epic slow jam “Mind Blowing Decisions.” It was released as the album’s second single and also issued as an extended 12” version.

Eric Johns left the band after Central Heating was completed, followed by Rod Temperton, who nonetheless continued to write for the group. Temperton was soon recruited by Quincy Jones to write songs for some of the artists he was producing, including the Brothers Johnson, George Benson, and most famously, Michael Jackson.

The next tragedy to befall Heatwave occurred when bassist Mario Mantese was stabbed by this then-girlfriend after they returned home from a party at Elton John’s house. When he woke up from a coma months later, he was blind, mute, and paralyzed. Mantese was replaced by bassist Derek Bramble.

In early 1979, Wilder was on a trip back to Dayton, Ohio visiting his family and friends. On February 24th, a van smashed into Wilder’s car. The accident put him in the hospital for a year and left him paralyzed from the neck down.

Despite this heartbreaking turn of events, Wilder kept writing songs and recording albums with the group. His premature death in 2006 at age 56 was due to complications from his paralysis.

Further info:

Keith Wilder interview by Turk Logan, The Funk Chronicles, April 1, 2015.

“Heatwave: The Band That Wouldn’t Die,” by Del, 5 Magazine, April 14, 2015.

#soul #funk #disco #Heatwave #JohnnieWilderJr.