Light of Worlds

Light of Worlds is the seventh album released by Kool & the Gang, released on January 1, 1974. It was later remastered by Polygram and was a second success for the band, reaching the R&B Charts at #16 and the Pop Charts at #63. It was a landmark in the funk/jazz fusion genre of the 1970s.

Light of the Worlds was by far Kool & the Gang's most spiritual and sophisticated work, produced in the wake of the success of their previous album, Wild and Peaceful. While it was their seventh album of new material, the Gang considered Light of the Worlds their ninth LP (counting two compilations), and therefore consciously chose nine songs for the album, to represent the nine planets in the solar system. The album contains rock-inspired funk set to jazz-informed playing with afrobeat influences and a tinge of analogue synthesizing.

"Summer Madness" is considered to be the album's highlight, incorporating smooth melodies and a mesmerizing synthesizer. It was later released as a single, with a follow up titled "Winter Sadness" to the Gang's Spirit of the Boogie a year later. A remake of "Summer Madness" was released on the Gang's 1993 album Unite titled "WKOOL/Summer".

Track listing

Singles

Personnel

• Khalis Bayyan - Synthesizer, Bass, Percussion, Piano, Arranger, Piano (Electric), Sax (Tenor), Vocals, Clavinet, Kalimba, Mellotron
• Robert "Kool" Bell - Bass, Vocals
• George "Funky" Brown - Percussion, Drums, Gong
• Robert "Spike" Mickens - Trumpet, Arranger, Flugelhorn
• Claydes Charles Smith - Guitar, Percussion, Arranger, Conductor, Vibraphone
• Ricky West - Piano, Arranger
• Dennis "D.T." Thomas - Arranger, Sax (Alto)

Additional personnel

• Herb Lane - Vocals
• Alton Taylor - Vocals
• Penni Phynjuar Saunders - Vocals
• Richard Shade - Vocals (background)
• Kenneth Banks - Vocals (background)
• Al Pazant - Trumpet
• Ed Pazant - Sax (Alto), Oboe
• Bob Clearmountain - Engineer
• Godfrey Diamond - Engineer
• Harvey Goldberg - Engineer
• Alec Head - Engineer
• Gary N. Mayo - Digital Remastering
• Mitchell Kanner - Cover Design
• Cleveland "Clevie" Browne - Liner Notes
• David Lartaud - Photography

Use of "Summer Madness"

From this album, the song "Summer Madness" has been used in various features, such as:

• The 1976 film Rocky (uncredited)
• A cover version on Mary J. Blige's 1998 live album The Tour.
• The 1991 song "Summertime", via a sample by DJ Jazzy Jeff & The Fresh Prince
• Sampled on song by Gang Starr for "DJ Premier In Deep Concentration".
• The 1994 song by H-Town for the Above the Rim soundtrack which was written and produced by DeVante Swing of the platinum-selling R&B group Jodeci.
• Mad Skillz's "Get Your Groove On" samples "Summer Madness" on his 1996 debut From Where???
• Rap group Lost Boyz used a direct sample of the song for the intro to their 1996 debut Legal Drug Money
• Aaliyah's "A Girl Like You" Featuring Naughty By Nature frontman Treach samples "Summer Madness" on her sophomore 1996 album One in a Million.
• Erykah Badu's song Certainly [Flipped It Mix] samples "Summer Madness." (From her 1997 album Baduizm)
• The 1997 song "Incident at Gate 7" by Thievery Corporation on their debut album Sounds from the Thievery Hi-Fi samples the opening keyboard riff.
• The 1998 song "You Ain't a Killer", by Big Pun on his debut album Capital Punishment.
• The 1999 song "Boy You Knock Me Out" via sample by Tatyana Ali feat Will Smith. Also contains a version of the lyrics from the aforementioned Summertime that used the same sample.
• The 2001 film Baby Boy
• The 2002 videogame Grand Theft Auto: Vice City. It's played on the Fever 105 radio channel
• The 2004 film You Got Served.
• A 2006 Nike shoe commercial featuring LeBron James' "The LeBrons"
• The 2006 Tony Hawk's Project 8 Soundtrack
• Bob Baldwin released a cover on his album Lookin' Back (2009).
• Shy FX & T Power sampled the song on their album, Set It Off, on the track Don't Give A Damn.

Notes

References

External links

• Light of Worlds at Discogs