Commodores shaking it down on New Year’s Eve

When I was growing up in the South, I knew some rednecks who were turned on to "black music" because they loved the Commodores. The Commodores soothed the savage redneck.

The Commodores were quite familiar with rednecks. They were from Alabama. And before they were famous, they were a cover band, singing "Wichita Lineman" and Three Dog Night songs to rednecks.

"We played a few bars that had chicken coop wire around the stage, like that scene in 'The Blues Brothers,' " says singer and writer Walter "Clyde" Orange, who performs with the band at 8: 30 p.m. Saturday at Eastside Cannery.

"Before the night was over, people were loving the Commodores," he says.

It was Jackson 5 fans who were meaner to the Commodores when the band opened for them.

"Those kids were throwing rocks and bottles. They didn't want to see nobody but the Jacksons," Orange says.

Fortunately, the Commodores began building their own fan base in the mid-1970s with the funky hit "Machine Gun" and the ballad "Just to Be Close to You."

In 1977 came "Brick House," the national anthem of boobies, and their most enduring hit.

"Brick House" almost didn't get released in 1977. Their producer James Carmichael had asked the Commodores to write a song in the vein of the Ohio Players' superfunky "Fire."

So the Commodores went to their Tuskegee, Ala., studio and came up with the music (but not the lyrics) to "Brick House."

When the band took a vote to see which songs they wanted for the next album, "Brick House" didn't make the cut.

Orange was crushed.

"I was the only funkster" in the R&B group, and it was the only superfunky tune on their plate that year, he says.

He took home a cassette recording of the melody and wrote most of the lyrics to "Brick House" after listening to his CB radio.

"CB radios are what was happenin' at the time," Orange explains.

Then he snuck into the studio and sang the demo for "Brick House."

("She's mighty mighty, just lettin' it all hang out ...")

It finally made the cut.

"Brick House" was a defining song about boobies. It inspired women to flash the band. One time in England, a group of women went to a concert and competed to see who was the best brick house.

The winner of that contest gave them her all.

"She came out in a fur coat," Orange recalls. "She was smokin'. She took that cotton-pickin' coat off, and she didn't have a stitch of clothes on -- butt naked!"

Soon after that, movie producers asked the Commodores to go to the set of a movie in production, a post-"Saturday Night Fever" disco film called "Thank God It's Friday."

When they got there, producers told the Commodores to write a song by 6 p.m. that day.

"Six? It's 2 o'clock now!" Orange recalls the band saying.

That's right. The band spent the next four hours writing "Too Hot Ta Trot," which went on to become a No. 1 Soul Singles Billboard hit in 1978.

While Orange sang the funky hits, Lionel Richie sang the ballads "Still," "Sail On," "Easy" and "Three Times a Lady." Richie skyrocketed to fame with his Diana Ross duet, "Endless Love."

Richie's success convinced him to leave the Commodores in 1982 to release a good song ("Stuck On You") amid a herd of terrible songs that would be mocked mercilessly ("Hello," "Say You, Say Me," "Dancing On the Ceiling").

But Orange had one more ace up his sleeve. In 1985, he co-wrote "Nightshift," a tribute to Marvin Gaye, who had been killed by his father in 1984.

"Nightshift" won the Grammy for best vocal R&B performance by a group. When Orange got out of his chair at the Grammys, Ella Fitzgerald was nearby.

"I stood up, looked over, she nodded to me, and said, 'It's about time,' " Orange says. "Tears were in my eyes. I will never forget that."

Like any group that has survived for four decades, the Commodores have weathered many storms. The departure of Richie and other band mates. Deaths. Struggles with their record label.

"There's always got to be some (expletive) somewhere. (Expletive) makes you stronger. We're rolling on," Orange says.

They will always have their hits ("blessings from the Lord," Orange calls them). They're working on a new album with Carmichael. (Orange has a song in mind called "Full Figured Woman.")

And "Brick House" is still a national anthem for boobies.

"Yes it is!" Orange says. "There is no antidote for it. And if you find one, please keep it a secret."

Doug Elfman's column appears Tuesdays, Thursdays and Fridays. Email him at delfman@reviewjournal.com. He blogs at reviewjournal.com/elfman.