Car Wash: Original Motion Picture Soundtrack [Original recording remastered, Soundtrack]

Norman Whitfield | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (September 24, 1996)
• Original Release Date: October 22, 1976
• Number of Discs: 1
• Format: Original recording remastered, Soundtrack
• Label: Mca
• ASIN: B000002P36
• Also Available in: Audio CD  |  Audio Cassette  |  Vinyl  |  MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (10 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #15,078 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com

If Car Wash looks and feels like a 97-minute music video, there's good reason for it. Lacking anything resembling a workable script, screenwriter Joel Schumacher (yes, him--funny how things don't change, isn't it?) enlisted Motown veteran Norman Whitfield to compose a batch of songs that would, in effect, "drive" the film. It's clear from the finished film that Schumacher never overcame his writer's block, but Whitfield more than met his end of the bargain, compiling a soundtrack that yielded three top 10 singles, and a musical oeuvre that Rose Royce is still milking to this day. Car Wash succeeds by way of its mass appeal. Whitfield forwent the parochial, if classic, Motown Sound, and incorporated elements of rock, disco, and blaxploitation-esque incidental music, resulting in a meaty--and marketable--party record. Whitfield casts Rose Royce as the new Sly and the Family Stone, and though they don't quite fill those shoes, it's a blast to hear them try. --Matt Hanks

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Most famous 7 hand claps in music history, September 18, 2008

By 

Andre Heeger (Germany) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Car Wash: Original Motion Picture Soundtrack (Audio CD)

Everybody knows this one song starting with the hand claps: CAR WASH.

It was from the first movie built around a soundtrack. And to me it's still one of the best soundtracks - if not THE best - ever.

Genius music producer Norman Whitfield in 1976 actually created a band for this - and what a band it was: Rose Royce. As they were filming the movie they used the real music as background for the shoots. That's why the cast is "in the groove" at all times.

The entire album is composed, arranged and produced by Norman Whitfield.

Just in case any of you don't know who he is.... The Temptations, Marvin Gaye, The Undisputed Truth, Gladys Knight and the Pips, Stevie Wonder, Rose Royce - just a few names of the many greats whose albums he produced.

Papa was a Rollin' Stone, I Heard It Through The Grapevine, Car Wash - his music is timeless.

Rose Royce is: Gwen Dickey vocals, Kenji Brown guitar, Lequeint Jobe bass, Victor Nix keys, Henry Garner drums, Kenny Copeland trumpet, Michael Moore sax, Terry Santiel congas

This cd has all the songs and instrumentals from the movie. Don't go for any best of's cause you'll be missing out on a ton of gems.

If this disc doesn't make you wiggle I don't know what will.

GET IT NOW!

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars In full bloom !, April 26, 2001

By 

Torquemada "dunlopilo" (Atlanta, Georgia USA / Madrid, Spain.) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Car Wash: Original Motion Picture Soundtrack (Audio CD)

If you have ever seen the film Car Wash, you will remember the importance of the soundtrack. I personally saw the film again on T.V. not too long ago, and when I found this cd was available, I simply ordered it (I had bought a long time ago the LP version, which only had 10 tracks).

This can be counted as one of the great soundtracks of that era, together with others such as "Superfly", "Shaft" or "Saturday Night Fever". The more recent "Jackie Brown" goes in the same direction actually. But, the originality of this one is that the whole soundtrack was apparently recorded BEFORE the shooting of the film (the songs were really playing while the film was shot, and the actors seem to have the time of their life), and that the band was made up by Norman Whitfield especially for this recording. The songs were so great and the band was so successful that it went on to record more albums and competed on the charts with CHIC. In fact, I can tell you the film was shown everywhere in Europe and that "Car wash" and the ballad "I wanna get next to you" were played all over the world... Not bad for what some would call a low budget film with a made up band playing in the background.

This really is a recommendable cd because of the story behind it, because of the sound (typical of that time), and because you have more than the two star tracks ("Zig Zag" and "Water" are super instrumentals, "Yoyo" is a lot of fun, the Ohio Players like "Born to love you" should have gotten the same recognition as the title track, and the musical scene - "Daddy rich/you gotta believe"- with Richard Pryor and the Pointer Sisters is extraordinary).

Car wash, ladies and gentlemen, a must have from a band and a producer (Norman Whitfield) in full bloom at that time !

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Childhood memories, December 13, 2004

By 

Andrew F. Wagner "saxophone genetics" (Pittsburgh, PA, USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Car Wash: Original Motion Picture Soundtrack (Audio CD)

This album gives me wonderful childhood memories. I remember being in my basement alteranting between the Car Wash soundtrack and C.W. McCall's _Black Bear Road_. (Talk about diversity as a 6-10 year old).

The funk and R&B beats are fantastic. The band, Rose Royce, was put together as an allstar band exemplifying this time period in music.

Thr grooves are unstoppable. You gotta love the simple yet complex vocal harmonies in "Zig Zag."

"Car Wash" may be sometimes overplayed on the radio and at sporting events, but it remains a staple of this era.

"Daddy Rich" is good only if you remember the movie and its plot. (I can't say that I do.)

"put Your Money Where Your Mouth Is" has an awesome horn riff...as do most of these tracks.

That's what made my saxophone playing in a horn section so much fun (playing songs like "Brickhouse" and "Jungle Boogie").

There are even powerful vocal songs and soulful belt-outs like in "I'm Going Down."

Gotta love the wa-wa guitar and horn parts in the instrumentals.

Enough of my babbling...just get it, listen, enjoy, and get your groove on.