Average White Band

Cupid’s in Fashion is the ninth album by the Average White Band (also AWB) a Scottish funk and R&B band. It was released in 1982 on the RCA label and peaked at #49 in the R&B album charts.

Average White Band are widely and rightly regarded as one of the best ever soul and funk bands. Although probably best known for their global hit, the US #1 single ‘Pick Up The Pieces’, this extensive anthology delves back into their musical history, from the early sessions in 1971, right up to the most recent studio album released this millennium. ‘All The Pieces…’ features the band’s entire catalogue of recorded material on a 19CD box set, which includes all of the original studio albums (and ‘spoilers’ ‘Put It Where You Want It’ and ‘Volume VIII’) in mini-vinyl replica wallets, alternate versions and selected mixes, in this 172-track collection…

Benny and Us resulted from a chance meeting in Miami between Ben E. King and the Average White Band, who were vacationing there just when King was starting work on a new album. The finished LP yielded two hit singles and became King's best-selling LP, rising to number 33. The sound is soulful and funky, very bright and passionate - the upbeat, relentlessly catchy "Get It Up for Love" and the soaring, horn and string driven "A Star in the Ghetto" made respectable showings on the R&B charts, and a good portion of the rest ("The Message," "What Is Soul") is pretty powerful stuff as well. "Imagine" is so busy and so self-consciously earnest that it's difficult to enjoy, but King is so good in the moments when he is on target, that it's hard to skip this track, even if it is the weakest number here…

AWB's artistic winning streak continued with its outstanding fourth album, Soul Searching. Interestingly, this wasn't an album that enjoyed a great deal of publicity or that contained a lot of major hits. In fact, its biggest single, the dreamy "Queen of My Soul," only made it to number 21 on Billboard's R&B albums chart. But thanks to the devoted following AWB had acquired since signing with Atlantic in 1974, Soul Searching went gold. Indeed, AWB aficionados were quite receptive to first-rate material ranging from the invigorating "I'm the One" to the hauntingly romantic "A Love of Your Own." By zeroing in on their strengths - hard-hitting funk and delightfully melodic soul - AWB saw to it that Soul Searching was every bit as rewarding as its predecessors.

In the informative liner notes that he wrote for Rhino's early-'90s reissue of Cut the Cake, writer A. Scott Galloway explains that this excellent album was recorded under less-than-ideal circumstances. The Average White Band's original drummer, Robbie McIntosh, died of a heroin overdose in 1974, and the surviving members were still in mourning when they started working on their third album, Cut the Cake (which originally came out on LP in 1975). Steve Ferrone, a black drummer from London, England, was hired as a replacement - ironically, he became the first black member of a Scottish soul/funk band that had a very African-American sound and a largely African-American following…

Show Your Hand was where it all began for the Average White Band, which turned out to be one of the hottest funk/soul outfits of the mid- to late '70s. But when MCA released this debut LP in 1973, the band's commercial success was still a year away - it wasn't until they joined the Atlantic roster in 1974 that they exploded commercially. Show Your Hand, in fact, was among 1973's neglected R&B releases. In retrospect, it's easy to point the finger at MCA and say, "You dropped the ball; this album should have done better." Atlantic successfully broke AWB in 1974, so why weren't MCA's promotions and marketing people able to accomplish that the previous year? But in all fairness to MCA, breaking AWB was a challenge - imagine trying to convince '70s soul stations that a white band from Scotland played first-class funk and soul…

Like Earth, Wind & Fire and the Ohio Players, the Average White Band demonstrated that even the mightiest of funk bands can experience a creative and commercial decline. 1978's Warmer Communications was the last AWB album that went gold; by the time they came out with 1979's uneven Feel No Fret, AWB's popularity had decreased. That isn't to say that nothing they recorded after the '70s has merit; 1997's Soul Tattoo found AWB providing a decent and satisfying, if less than essential, CD 17 years after the '70s ended. Nonetheless, many AWB fans agree that Warmer Communications was the Scottish band's last truly excellent album. This 1978 LP didn't have a blockbuster single like "Cut the Cake" or "Pick Up the Pieces"; the funky single "Your Love Is a Miracle" only made it to number 33 on Billboard's R&B singles chart…

After debuting with 1973's excellent but neglected Show Your Hand (later reissued as Put It Where You Want It), the Average White Band switched from MCA to Atlantic and hit big with this self-titled gem. Upon first hearing gutsy, Tower of Power-influenced funk like "Person to Person" and the instrumental "Pick Up the Pieces" (a number one R&B hit), many soul fans were shocked to learn that not only were the bandmembers white - they were whites from Scotland. Like Teena Marie five years later, AWB embraced soul and funk with so much conviction that it was clear this was anything but an "average" white band. This album is full of treasures that weren't big hits but should have been - including the addictive "You Got It," the ominous "There's Always Someone Waiting," and a gutsy remake of the Isley Brothers' "Work to Do."

Widely and rightly regarded as one of the best ever soul and funk bands, the now legendary Average White Band tore-up the rule book and conquered the US, UK and International charts with a series of soul and disco hits between 1974 and 1980. AWB’s repertoire has been a source of inspiration and influence for many R&B acts and they are one of the most sampled bands in history, remaining relevant today, continuing to reach new generations of younger audiences. Snoop Dogg, Fatboy Slim, Ice Cube, Puff Daddy, TLC, Rick Ross, will.i.am and Mark Ronson amongst countless others, have all borrowed sections of their grooves. Cover To Cover / Soul To Soul, is a collection showcasing their take on classic recordings, both Soul and otherwise and demonstrates why they were totally embraced as an authentic R&B band in the USA. Cover To Cover…. also includes for the first time on vinyl, their 2017 recording of The Isley Brothers ‘Harvest For The World’, which was produced by and features Chris Jasper. Average White Band remain highly influential and this collection, shows why they have remained so powerfully important.