Lorraine Chandler (April 29, 1946 – January 2, 2020) – This Ain't Just Another Dance Song (1977)

Chandler co-wrote this rare disco funk jam with her longtime songwriting and production partner Funk Brother Jack Ashford for his Hotel Sheet LP.

Lorraine Chandler started out as a singer and became one of the first Black women working professionally as songwriter/producers, in collaboration with Motown Funk Brother Jack Ashford.

Born Ermastine Lewis and raised in Detroit, she was neighbors with Funk Brother Eddie “Bongo” Brown, and a family friend of original Temptations member Otis Williams.

Funk Brother percussionist (and last surviving member of the fabled Motown backing band) Jack Ashford signed her to his production company Pied Piper Productions as a singer and songwriter in the mid-60s. This led to a songwriting and production partnership that lasted for the next decade.

Her first single was released in 1966, the upbeat soul gem “What Can I Do,” co-written by Ashford and arranger Mike Terry. It became a regional hit, and was picked up by RCA for national distribution, but failed to chart. The same fate awaited her follow up single, the magnificent soul/funk jam “I Can’t Hold On,” which she co-wrote with Ashford and future Rare Earth guitarist Ray Monette.

For Ashford’s 1977 LP Hotel Sheet, he and Chandler co-wrote the rare disco funk jam “This Ain't Just Another Dance Song.” It remains little known today, although it contains a very funky break starting at 1:49 that begs to be sampled.

Hotel Sheet featured a backing band with several Funk Brothers, including Melvin “Wah Wah Watson” Ragin and Robert White on guitars, Eddie “Bongo” Brown on percussion, and Earl Van Dyke on keyboards. Also on board were Jerry Knight of Raydio on bass (who later formed Ollie & Jerry), Four Tops musical director George Rountree on keyboards, and strings and horns credited to the “Detroit Symphony” and “Detroit horn section.”

Released on Magic Disc Records, a start-up disco record label in Los Angeles launched that same year in 1977, the album never charted and copies today are in high demand on Discogs. But it wasn't for lack of promotional effort, as the records came shrinkwrapped with a promo plastic "Jack Ashford's Original Hotel Sheet" plate.

#soul #funk #disco #JackAshford #Lorraine Chandler