Name: Oh! What a Night
Brand: Prism Leisure Corporation (UK)
SKU: 1384075
Price: 39.95 USD
Availability: InStock

Oh! What a Night

Rating

Album: Oh! What a Night
#	Song Title	Time
1)	Oh What a Night
2)	Annie I'm Not Your Daddy
3)	I'm a Wonderful Thing Baby
4)	Stool Pigeon
5)	Love Train
6)	Don't Take My Coconuts
7)	If You Wanna Be Happy
8)	My Male Curiosity
9)	Midsummer Madness
10)	(No More) Casual Sex
11)	Thank You For Letting Me Be Myself
12)	Good Ol' Days
13)	It's Automatic
14)	Annie I'm Not Your Daddy (Reprise)

Album: Oh! What a Night
#	Song Title	Time
1)	Oh What a Night
2)	Annie I'm Not Your Daddy
3)	I'm a Wonderful Thing Baby
4)	Stool Pigeon
5)	Love Train
6)	Don't Take My Coconuts
7)	If You Wanna Be Happy
8)	My Male Curiosity
9)	Midsummer Madness
10)	(No More) Casual Sex
11)	Thank You For Letting Me Be Myself
12)	Good Ol' Days
13)	It's Automatic
14)	Annie I'm Not Your Daddy (Reprise)

Performer Notes

Coming out of New york City in the 1980s, the frantic funk and Latin flavored tunes of Kid Creole and his Coconuts gained mainstream acceptance. OH WHAT A NIGHT contains some of their biggest hits among its 14 tracks.
It must be noted up front that this album is not the original London cast recording of the musical Oh! What a Night starring August "Kid Creole" Darnell that played in the West End in 1999. Rather, it is a live album recorded in the U.K. in 1998. But from the sound of things, Darnell was working up to his theatrical production while on tour, since here he mixes some of his band's biggest British hits ("Annie, I'm Not Your Daddy," "I'm a Wonderful Thing, Baby," "Stool Pigeon") with hit dance songs of the 1970s that were used in the musical, which was set in New York in that decade (the Four Seasons' "December, 1963 [Oh, What a Night]," the O'Jays' "Love Train," Sly & the Family Stone's "Thank You [Falettinme Be Mice Elf Again]," Wild Cherry's "Play That Funky Music"). He and the band perform both sets of numbers enthusiastically, but the inclusion of the '70s hits of others makes this less than an ideal Kid Creole & the Coconuts live album. Much of the wit of the band's original songs is subsumed in the party atmosphere, as Darnell leads the musicians through their paces in a manner that specifically recalls James Brown. A great deal is lost to begin with in a live performance rendered only in its aural form (the group really needs to be seen to be appreciated), and turning the show into a '70s disco hits act lessens the impact further. But there is still plenty of enjoyable music here, especially for those who have followed Kid Creole & the Coconuts this far. ~ William Ruhlmann