Stacy Lattisaw (born November 25, 1966) – Dynamite! (1980)

Co-written and produced by Narada Michael Walden, this phenomenal disco-funk jam from her second album shot to #1 on U.S. dance charts.

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Stacy Lattisaw is an R&B singer whose 1979 debut LP was released when she was only twelve years old, and became the youngest artist in music history to reach #1 on dance charts with her 1980 singles “Dynamite!” and “Jump To The Beat.”

Lattisaw was born in Washington, D.C., where her father worked for the U.S. Government Printing Office. Interviewed in 1980, her mother Saundra explained how Stacy found her voice:

“I used to sing around the house, and when Stacy was six or so, she started singing along. Before I knew it, she was outsinging me. When she was about ten, her sister asked her to sing at her high school homecoming, and she said she didn’t want to. I said, ‘Will you sing if I pay you $5?’ You know, she got up there and sang and made that $5!”

After that she began winning local talent shows, and in 1978 opened a free National Park Service concert by Ramsey Lewis. Her father taped her set, and the city’s Recreation Department official who had organized the show played the tape for singer/songwriter and producer Frederick Knight, whose Juana Records label was nationally distributed by TK Records. Knight immediately offered her a contract and wrote a song for her, titled “Ring My Bell,” which was originally about teenagers talking on the phone.

When a family lawyer rejected Knight’s proposed contract and instead called his friend, the president of Atlantic subsidiary Cotillion Records, Lattisaw ended up signing with Cotillion. Anita Ward recorded “Ring My Bell” instead for Juana Records, and it went to #1 in 1979 on both the R&B charts and Billboard Hot 100.

Cotillion paired her with D.C.-based producer Van McCoy, who produced her debut album Young and in Love, released on June 13, 1979 when Lattisaw was only twelve. It was one of the last productions he completed before his death that July. The LP’s title track was a remake of a song he originally wrote for Ruby & the Romantics in 1964, which was covered by Motown group the Marvelettes in 1967 and hit #9 R&B. Lattisaw’s cover, which was also released as an extended 12” disco version, only reached #91 on the R&B charts. The album itself did not chart.

After McCoy’s untimely death at age 39, Lattisaw began working with another multi-talented producer and songwriter, Narada Michael Walden. He wrote or co-wrote every song on her second album Let Me Be Your Angel, released in 1980. Its first single was the phenomenal disco-funk jam “Dynamite,” which blew up immediately and went to #1 on U.S. dance charts, also landing at #8 R&B.

At that time, she was the youngest artist to ever have a #1 dance hit. The track was co-written by Walden and songwriter Jeri “Bunny” Hull. It featured T.M. Stevens on bass, Corrado Rustici on guitar, Walden on drums, Frank Martin on keyboards, and the Seawind Horns. The B-side to “Dynamite!” was the laid back cut “Dreaming,” notable for featuring Chic co-founders Nile Rodgers and Bernard Edwards on guitar and bass, respectively, a rare instance of them playing on a non-Chic Organization record during the disco era.

When the album’s stellar opening cut also went to #1 on dance charts, it was released as a UK-only single in May, 1980. “Jump To The Beat” was co-written by Walden and his wife Lisa Walden, and was backed by the same lineup as “Dynamite!” Like the rest of the LP, it featured backing vocalists Carla Vaughn, Judy Jones, and L.A. session regular Jim Gilstrap.

Walden also produced her third album With You, released in 1981. He co-wrote the funky opening cut “Feel My Love Tonight” with a total of six other songwriters, including Randy Jackson and Allee Willis (who co-wrote “September” for Earth, Wind & Fire). It featured Patrick Cowley on synthesizer, one of the final productions he worked on in the year before his death. Issued as the album’s third and final single, it peaked at #71 R&B.

Songwriter brothers Preston and Alan Glass had recently begun working with Walden, and co-wrote what was arguably the album’s best track, the stellar disco-funk jam “Spotlight.” It featured Randy Jackson on bass and Sheila E. on percussion and cowbell, and backing vocals by The Stacettes, aka Jim Gilstrap, Dee Dee Dickerson, Ngoh Spencer, and Vicki Randle. Shockingly, it was not released as a single or even a B-side.

Happy Birthday to the great Stacy Lattisaw.

Further info:

“Only 13, and a bit reluctant, she approaches stardom,” by Leah Latimer, Philadelphia Inquirer (Washington Post Service), August 12, 1980.

“Gospel Roots Fuel Stacy Lattisaw's Powerful Voice,” Chicago Tribune, May 4, 1990.

“Interview: Stacy Lattisaw — Not The Same Girl Anymore,” Seattle Post-Intelligencer, April 26, 2011.

“Stacy Lattisaw: Before there was Brandy, there was Stacy,” D.C. Spotlight, August 11, 2011.

#disco #funk #StacyLattisaw