Customer Reviews

Car Wash: Original Motion Picture Soundtrack

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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!

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 !

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.

love this plus that movie still a fan this brings back good memories every song on here jams and mostly it's instrumentals but hey I'm an old school funk fan and plus original funkadelics eddie hazel, and billy bass nelson held the whole groove down that's why this soundtrack is helluva funkdafied fire a classic every song on here is a classic and far from disco which sadly is a category rose royce fell under in later years.

did you ever work a hard job for little pay? love someone you just couldn't reach? well this music comes from a film that will take you home. rose royce really hits t on the mark. my review is as much about the film car wash as it is the music. you may have to be over 40 to understand, but if you have ever been there, hated it, but wouoldn't trade the experience for any $$ this is the music and film for you

I received this product as agreed. The condition was indeed excellent as stated. I am pleased with the result.

It doesn't matter if you haven't seen the movie. The actual motion picture was done after the sound track. An amazing assembling of inspired top notch musicians is the base for one of the best pop music studio recordings ever. A high energy disco, soul and funk groove will guarantee you an amazing listening experience - and if you feel like, dancing as well. Enjoy it!

You have probably heard the main title "Car Wash" which has quite recently appeared on a Disney Cartoon.
The whole CD brings not only the fun of the balck music of the early seventies, it also gives you a good example of how to explore the guitar pedal effects.
Besides the funky rhythm you will also recognize the brass presence in most of the songs so creating a typical atmosphere of those years which still shows energy and fun even thirty-something years after.
This is a musical history lesson for the young listeners and musicians.

A.Carlos

Norman WHitfield was a Musical Genius Period.together with Rose Royce they Created a Great Party Vibe that Pre-Dated The Bee Gees Saturday Night Fever Run.I wanna Get Next to You is a Great Slow jam. I'm Going Down is still the song.and Of COurse The Title Track that Bumps to this day.even The Pointer Sisters get Funky on You Gotta Believe.

Well if there's one phrase I can use to sum up this album,very likely some of the first funk music I ever heard in my life is that it represents transitions more than anything. The culture of the blacksploitation films that produced soundtracks such as Shaft and Superfly (1972 Film) was slowly but surely giving way to the disco-dance movie soundtrack that would culminate on Saturday Night Fever. This film itself is the key because it's still very much in the blacksploitation era mode with a working class,socially relevant theme only without the heavy action content. The cinematic grooves of earlier in the decade were giving way to a style of danceable funk built around that. This style of dance-funk would eventually be known by many as disco music-made for a type of dancing. The music is important too because it's not only the birth of a whole style of cinematic funk but of a band also. Story goes that Motown's Norman Whitfield wanted to start his record label. So he recruited a band called Total Concept Unlimited,which would eventually be fronted by Gwen Dickey. By this time the'd become Rose Royce. And the rest,as they say,was history.

The title song,if Rose Royce never did anything else would put the band in history. It's string filled dance-funk would really set the stage for the last half of the 70's. Lequeint "Duke" Jobe's bassline on the bridge of the song just about typifies "disco bass" that people like Bernard Edwards would later streamline. But here it leaps right out at you in classic funk style. The band pull out more bubbling bassy funk with "Daddy Rich","Born To Love You","Put Your Money Where Your Mouth Is" and the more midtempo funk of "Keep On Keepin On" as well as equally percolating instruments on the order of "Zig Zag","Yo Yo","6 0'Clock DJ" and especially the elongated "Sunrise" with it's high bass and/or guitar line playing a moody Oriental type melody. Another thing besides Rose Royce's hard edged,gurgling reverbed funk sound was the fact they could create ballads equally as melodic and well crafted as their grooves. "You're On My Mind" and "I'm Going Down' are two of the finest soul/funk ballads ever offered by anyone-very much out of the Curtis Mayfield/Aretha Franklin school. The later was so powerful it became a hit again for Mary J Blige again in 1994.

Another wonderful element of this is not all songs were sung by Gwen Dickey. "You Gotta Believe" was sung with funky fire by The Pointer Sisters and is easily equal in power to the Rose Royce tunes,if not more so. There's also a 5+ minute piece of dialog from Richard Pryor as "Daddy Rich",pretaining to the worship and occasional doubt of his preacher/hustler character. It reminds you how easily,how thin the line often is between religious leader and con artist. Lionel Richie once said on VH1 that this project,from film to soundtrack was "dead on the times". Maybe he was mainly referring to the surface of it all. But he was more right than he may have even known. Still very much the politisized culture they'd been early on,the black community by the mid 70's were already looking for someone new to lead their revolution. And culturally,as well as muscically this album reflects that on just about every possible end. The best part is it's never bogged down by that either. It stays with it's grooves and very individual musical flavors. And lets everyone know this new revolution happening was going to take place on the dance floor. That is a huge part of why,even to this day people such as myself are still highly entertained and sometimes even amazed by it's strengths.