They were deeply talented musicians and those Gwen Dickey vocals were nothing short of amazing. Her voice became an iconic part of the late seventies and into the early eighties.
There were really so many songs I could have chosen for this blog post. But I chose Still in Love because it's one of the best boogie tracks from 1982 and yet made no dent on the pop charts so Rose Royce is in no way remembered for this track in particular. It's a sizzler all the way through. Clinging to all the best elements of disco yet funkin' out in an early 80's way. Rose Royce was a band often able to refresh their sound but rarely able to take it up high on the charts. Though certainly they did a bit better on the R&B charts and ironically for an L.A. based band they found some decent success on the U.K. charts. In any case they were responsible for one of the definitive songs of the disco era with Car Wash. There is no mistaking that hand clap intro. that shot it straight up to number 1 in the U.S. and Canada and Top 5 in several others. Their songs were later covered by artists as prominent as Mary J. Blige and Madonna.
As an example of how huge Rose Royce were in the U.K. their greatest hits album released in 1980 actually made it to number 1, while in the States it didn't even chart. 1980 was of course the year that the word disco went out of style and suddenly anything with the label got the kiss of death. In Europe they were not quite as cruel to the genre and disco or what many called boogie still had a couple good years.
Christina Aguilera also re-made Car Wash but let's not go there.
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