January 3, 2025 —– Chart #279
Hello Music Friends,
Hey folks, welcome to another edition of Chart of the Week. We start the year off with a rocker from 1971. “I Just Want to Celebrate” is a song recorded by American rock band Rare Earth. It was the lead single on their 1971 album One World and was the band’s fifth single overall. The song was among the most popular hits of the 1970s. Joe Viglione at Allmusic noted that without its inclusion on One World, “the album would’ve been an instant bargain-bin candidate”. It reached #7 on the pop charts and was Rare Earth’s final top 10 single, as well as peaking at #30 on the Best Selling Soul Singles chart. It was the opening song on their live album, Rare Earth in Concert, released later that year; and, in later years was included on various live and best-of compilations.
Rare Earth is an American rock band from Detroit, Michigan. According to Louder, “Rare Earth’s music straddles genres and defies categorization, slipping seamlessly between the two seemingly disparate worlds of classic rock and R&B.” The band was signed to Motown’s subsidiary label Rare Earth. Although not the first white band signed to Motown, Rare Earth was the first successful act signed by Motown that consisted only of white members.
The group formed in 1960 as the Sunliners and changed its name to Rare Earth in 1968.[7] The band felt the name “Rare Earth” was more in keeping with the names other bands were adopting, such as Iron Butterfly, more “with it”.
After recording an unsuccessful debut album, Dream/Answers, on the Verve label in 1968, the group was signed to Motown in 1969. The band was one of the first acts signed to a new Motown imprint that would be dedicated to white rock acts; many of the subsidiary’s newly signed acts played blues-oriented and progressive rock styles, including Rare Earth themselves. The record company did not have a name for the new label yet and the band jokingly suggested Motown call the label “Rare Earth”. To the band’s surprise, Motown decided to do just that.
The main personnel in the group were Gil Bridges, saxophone, flute, vocals; Peter Hoorelbeke (aka Peter Rivera), lead vocals, drums; John Parrish (aka John Persh), bass guitar, trombone, vocals; Rod Richards (born Rod Cox), guitar, vocals; and Kenny James (born Ken Folcik), keyboards. The group’s recording style was hard-driving. In late 1969, Edward “Eddie” Guzman (congas and assorted percussive instruments) was added to the group.
Rare Earth had a number of top 40 hits in 1970–71, including remakes of the Temptations’ “(I Know) I’m Losing You” and “Get Ready”. Each was more successful than the Temptations original, with “Get Ready” being their biggest hit, peaking at number 4 on the US Billboard Hot 100 chart. This disc sold over one million copies and received a gold record awarded by the Recording Industry Association of America. The group gained a bit of notoriety when it was mentioned dismissively in Gil Scott-Heron’s 1970 poem, “The Revolution Will Not Be Televised”, which included the line, “The theme song [to the revolution] will not be written by Jim Webb, Francis Scott Key, nor sung by Glen Campbell, Tom Jones, Johnny Cash, Engelbert Humperdinck, or the Rare Earth.”
The group’s hits from late 1970 to early 1972 were “Born to Wander” (number 17), “I Just Want to Celebrate” (number 7), and “Hey, Big Brother” (number 19). There were no significant hits thereafter. Nevertheless, the band continued to record into the 1990s. Well folks, that’s three more hits than I have had so let’s keep things in perspective.
This is not a campfire song, but if you are in a band and you have a few singers, give this one a try. Your audience will love it!
Keep Rockin’,
Stan Bradshaw