Chaka (album)

Chaka
Studio album by Chaka Khan
Released October 12, 1978
Recorded 1977-1978
Genre Funk, Soul, Disco
Length 43:11
Label Warner Bros.
Producer Arif Mardin
Chaka Khan chronology

Street Player (with Rufus)
(1977)		 Chaka
(1978)		 Masterjam (with Rufus)
(1979)
Professional ratings
Review scores
Source Rating
Allmusic [1]
Robert Christgau B [2]

Chaka is the debut solo album by American R&B/funk singer Chaka Khan, released on the Warner Bros. Records label in 1978.

Overview

Still very much an integral part of Rufus, Chaka Khan set the charts on fire with her debut solo release. The first single was the R&B chart-topper "I'm Every Woman," an Ashford & Simpson track with Khan lighting up the lyric with her tantalizing vocals. Although Khan had much credibility from her association with Rufus, this album demonstrated that the dynamic vocalist could hold her own ground alone.
—Craig Lytle, Allmusic[3]

Two singles were released from Chaka, the first being her anthemic solo debut "I'm Every Woman", one of Khan's signature tunes alongside "Ain't Nobody" (1983) and "I Feel For You" (1984). The song has over the past three decades been re-released, remixed and covered a number of times, most notably by Whitney Houston in 1992 for the soundtrack album The Bodyguard, then featuring guest vocals by Khan herself and topping Billboard's Hot Dance Music/Club Play chart. A remix of Khan's original recording was also a Top Ten hit in the U.K. in 1989. The remix was included on the compilation Life is a Dance - The Remix Project, the title track of which was the second single release from the Chaka album in early 1979 (US R&B #40). The album also features the ballad "Roll Me Through the Rushes", never commercially released as a single but still receiving considerable airplay in 1979, as well as Khan's cover version of Stevie Wonder's "I Was Made To Love Her", re-titled "I Was Made to Love Him".

Following the release of the Chaka album Khan reunited with Rufus for the recording of 1979's Masterjam, produced by Quincy Jones. Her second solo album Naughty followed in 1980.

The Chaka album was re-released on CD in the United States by the Warner Music Group in 1998.[4]

Track listing

  1. "I'm Every Woman" (Nickolas Ashford, Valerie Simpson) - 4:05
  2. "Love Has Fallen on Me" (Lloyd Webber, Charles Stepney) - 4:52
  3. "Roll Me Through the Rushes" (David Lasley, Lana Marrano) - 4:42
  4. "Sleep on It" (Andrew Kastner, Larry John McNally) - 4:21
  5. "Life Is a Dance" (Gavin Christopher) - 4:20
  6. "We Got the Love" (George Benson) - 3:27 (duet with George Benson)
  7. "Some Love" (Keith Boyd, Chaka Khan, Traude Sapik, Mark Stevens) - 5:50
  8. "A Woman in a Man's World" (Andrew Kastner, Larry John McNally) - 3:56
  9. "The Message in the Middle of the Bottom" (Lalomie Washburn) - 4:15
  10. "I Was Made to Love Him" (Henry Cosby, Lula Mae Hardaway, Sylvia Moy, Stevie Wonder) - 3:23

Personnel

Production

References

  1. ↑ http://www.allmusic.com/album/r42218/review
  2. ↑ Christgau, Robert. "Chaka review". Robert Christgau.com. Retrieved 2011-10-09.
  3. ↑ Lytle, Craig. "Chaka (Review)". Allmusic.
  4. ↑ Discogs.com entry

External links