Raise the Rufus: Chaka Khan 70

Chaka Khan - Tell Me Something Good

I'm still archiving the drive, but I'm stopping by to celebrate another birthday icon.

Surely one of the most identifiable and beloved female vocalists of this era, she's going septuagenarian today and I just had to put something up.

As everyone not living on Neptune knows, she first came to prominence in a popular 1970s funk band called Rufus, who had chart-topping smash hits with her out front.

At the close of that decade she went solo, and the hits came even more frequently... some even turned into generational anthems along the way.

This led to her ascent to the rarified icon status she still enjoys, decades later.

There isn't much else to say except that this woman is so deep, she had a #1 hit across all charts, where the hook was essentially a dude intoning -- not even singing! -- her name.

To honor the inimitable Chaka Khan, we're time machining it back to London's famed Hammersmith Odeon, at the start of 1985.

Chaka Khan

Hammersmith Odeon 

London, UK

1.28-30.1985

01 What Cha' Gonna Do for Me

02 Everlasting Love

03 Tell Me Something Good

04 Through the Fire

05 Eye to Eye

06 A Night In Tunisia

07 We Can Work It Out

08 I'm a Woman (I'm a Backbone)

09 Ain't Nobody

Total time: 49:04

Chaka Khan - vocals & percussion

Jeffrey Johnson - guitar 

Snuffy Walden - guitar

Jimmy Haslip - bass

Lisa Fisher, Sandra St. Victor & Brenda White - vocals 

Armand Grimaldi - drums & percussion

Michael Ruff - keyboards & vocals

Tony Patler - keyboards

"7UP Music Machine" preFM reel

retracked & edited by EN, March 2023
297 MB FLAC/direct link

I have a couple more things planned for later this month as we move into Spring, after I finishing archiving.

But before I did that, I wanted to drop in and leave this show here, as a token of appreciation for our birthday lady's big 7-0, seeing as how she's every woman and all!--J.