Four CD set. With 12 UK Top 10 singles, 29 Top 40 hits and a combined 280 weeks (over five years!) in the UK charts Hot Chocolate are one of the most successful chart acts of all time. This box set features every A and B-side they issued on the seminal RAK Records label, all 36 singles. Hot Chocolate chalked up at least one hit single every year between 1970 and 1984, a rare achievement and they are among the Top 200 most successful UK chart artists of all time. Unlike many UK 'pop' acts of the day they scored chart success in the USA where 'Emma' (#3), 'Disco Queen' (#28), 'You Sexy Thing' (#3), 'So You Win Again' (#31), and 'Every 1's A Winner' (#6) were all Billboard Top 40 hits. 24 of these singles were also chart entries in Germany while eight of them went Top 20 in Australia, the band scoring hits across most of Europe as well.
The multidimensional Hot Chocolate incorporated strains of soul, rock, reggae, and disco into their sound and, during the '70s and early '80s, scored a dozen Top 10 hits in their native U.K. Formed by Errol Brown and Tony Wilson, the interracial band debuted in 1969 as Hot Chocolate Band with a cover of Plastic Ono Band's "Give Peace a Chance," issued on the Beatles' Apple Records. The band then forged a long-term alliance with producer Mickie Most and his RAK label, for which Brown and Wilson also wrote material for other artists. From 1970 through 1973, Hot Chocolate released seven singles. "Love Is Life" and "I Believe (In Love)" were Top 10 U.K. hits, as was "Brother Louie," a bleak tale regarding an interracial relationship. A cover version, shrewdly recorded by Stories, went to number one in the U.S.
The popularity of classic soul and 70s disco endures, and no wonder! There's little better to lift the spirit and get your feet moving. GREATEST EVER SOUL & DISCO is a fantastic collection of 80 tracks that hit the sweet spot. Classic late-70s disco by KC & The Sunshine Band, Sister Sledge, Chaka Khan, and The Trammps? All here. Soulful sounds from Aretha Franklin, Wilson Pickett, Randy Crawford and Candy Staton? Present and correct. Funky grooves by The Meters, Bootsy Collins and Earth Wind & Fire? Ah yeah! As Chic said, "these are the good times"!