― Billy Dods (Billy Dods), Thursday, 4 March 2004 09:58 (twenty years ago) link
Yeah, the entire song calls her Emiline most often, but they title it Emma.
― mark grout (mark grout), Thursday, 4 March 2004 10:08 (twenty years ago) link
― Tico Tico (Tico Tico), Thursday, 4 March 2004 10:10 (twenty years ago) link
"Emmeline? Emma? Emily? no don't tell me... Erica? .."
― mark grout (mark grout), Thursday, 4 March 2004 10:14 (twenty years ago) link
Dods OTM abt Errol.
― Dr. C (Dr. C), Thursday, 4 March 2004 10:18 (twenty years ago) link
― mark grout (mark grout), Thursday, 4 March 2004 10:22 (twenty years ago) link
I quite like "So You Win Again" actually, though it stands out far less as an interesting record than the two above. Quite workaday, but decent 70s pop I'd say.
Agree more with Dr C than RC on "You To Me Are Everything"; as well as the chorus itself, one of the greatest after-chorus bits as well, after the first... Not quite one of my few favourites on the fantastic "Pure Groove" compilations, but IMO it is excellent. The intro reminds me a bit of Odyssey's "Native New Yorker", which in its long version is one of the most sublime pieces of urban(e) disco I've ever heard.
Dud: 'You Sexy Thing'; wouldn't be if the next term I heard it was the first. But really, its ubiquity has been grating. It's not a great song IMO either. "Every One's A Winner" is much better, and I need to listen to it again...
― Tom May (Tom May), Thursday, 4 March 2004 11:58 (twenty years ago) link
Never liked their 70s stuff, but they did a lot of classy singles in the 80s. Love "No Doubt About It", "It Started With a Kiss" and "What Kind Of Boy You're Looking For Girl"
― Geir Hongro (GeirHong), Thursday, 4 March 2004 12:00 (twenty years ago) link
― mark grout (mark grout), Thursday, 4 March 2004 12:33 (twenty years ago) link
― Dr. C (Dr. C), Thursday, 4 March 2004 13:30 (twenty years ago) link
― Tico Tico (Tico Tico), Thursday, 4 March 2004 13:35 (twenty years ago) link
― Geir Hongro (GeirHong), Thursday, 4 March 2004 14:42 (twenty years ago) link
― Dr. C (Dr. C), Thursday, 4 March 2004 15:39 (twenty years ago) link
― Canada Briggs (Canada Briggs), Thursday, 4 March 2004 18:18 (twenty years ago) link
― Anthony Miccio (Anthony Miccio), Thursday, 4 March 2004 18:20 (twenty years ago) link
Wow, I came in here to say that was my fave Hot Choccie record. But I liked "I'll Put You Together Again" too so my taste is obviously suspect.
I saw Errol Brown coming out of the toilet of a bar in Soho once. I was surprised how short he was.
Anyway, totally classic.
― LondonLee (LondonLee), Thursday, 4 March 2004 19:11 (twenty years ago) link
seeing as Hot Chocolate were huge in Germany, i suspect Geir may well be right (although, being British, the only one of those songs i know is the one about a brother called Louie ...)
― robin carmody (robin carmody), Thursday, 4 March 2004 23:41 (twenty years ago) link
― robin carmody (robin carmody), Thursday, 4 March 2004 23:42 (twenty years ago) link
― Emma williams (Emma williams), Friday, 5 March 2004 00:07 (twenty years ago) link
― Mr Mime (Andrew Thames), Friday, 5 March 2004 01:42 (twenty years ago) link
― gaseous (gaseous), Tuesday, 11 July 2006 03:48 (seventeen years ago) link
Night Ride is my favourite train-themed disco song. and that is saying a lot.
― ☪, Tuesday, 4 December 2007 00:40 (sixteen years ago) link
i seem to be hearing a bit of hot chocolate when i'm out these days, including rub n tug deploying 'heaven's in the backseat of my cadillac' last night to pretty devastating effect. still trying to work out if it was an edit or not, because it kicked a lot harder than i remember!
― haitch, Saturday, 24 May 2008 10:29 (fifteen years ago) link
let me take you thayyyyyyyyyyyyere
YEAH YEAH
― haitch, Saturday, 24 May 2008 10:58 (fifteen years ago) link
I always played Hot Chocolate when DJing -- pretty much every time. Usually "Brother Louie" into, say, Earthquake's version of "Emma" (into "Sister Havana" by Urge Overkill, since they also covered "Emma"), or maybe Hot Chocolate's "Emma" original into the Stories' version of "Brother Louie". Or something like that. But yeah, "Heaven's In The Back Seat Of My Cadillac" too sometimes. Or "Rumours." XIV Greatest Hits (RAK Germany, 1977) is awesome. Don't really know their individual albums, though.
― xhuxk, Saturday, 24 May 2008 12:24 (fifteen years ago) link
(They were always good for playing immmediately after Junior or Linx, too, if I wanted to get a little Brit-soul-conceptual for the people. Not that the people every really noticed, or anything.)
― xhuxk, Saturday, 24 May 2008 12:26 (fifteen years ago) link
My first EVAH single was Girl Crazy. I still think they are TOPS.
I don't care about the colour of her hair. I don't care about the colour of her skin that she's wrapped in. All I want is a personality that's righth for me.
Words to live by. The song still makes me happy as fuck every time I hear it or sing it to myself.
― stevienixed, Saturday, 24 May 2008 13:03 (fifteen years ago) link
xhuxk, do you beat match all this stuff???
― Kevin John Bozelka, Saturday, 24 May 2008 19:09 (fifteen years ago) link
'cadillac' is amazing.
― or something, Saturday, 24 May 2008 19:51 (fifteen years ago) link
do you beat match all this stuff???
Hells no. (Well, by my ears maybe. I just play stuff that would sound good next to each other. That's hard enough as is, without adding numbers to it.)
― xhuxk, Saturday, 24 May 2008 20:15 (fifteen years ago) link
i was obsessed with the s/t second hot chocolate album last year. so amazing. and so varied. "hello america", "dollar sign", "call the police". "you sexy thing" might have been the smash, but the whole thing is great. i need their first album and some of the later stuff. such a cool group. i might have to dig out my every 1's a winner 12 inch today.
― scott seward, Saturday, 24 May 2008 20:52 (fifteen years ago) link
Anyone here ever play out Every 1's a Winner? I did the other night and (thankfully) people loved it... It was a big slow down but it's got that monster guitar riff that gets everyone in a dancing mood. In fact, I'd say that Hot Chocolate is a pretty good music-slower-downer-but-party-keepin-on-going pick.
― altair nouveau, Saturday, 24 May 2008 21:26 (fifteen years ago) link
there is a machine in my office kitchen space that makes this (and other things i haven't delved into)i am trying it for the first timei feel like i am taking a break on a cold day of ice skatingbut i am just taking a break from being super busy not ice skating
― terminator boyfriend (rrrobyn), Friday, 26 September 2008 20:03 (fifteen years ago) link
"Every 1's a Winner" is sounding REALLY good right now.
― figuratively, but in a very real way (amateurist), Monday, 11 January 2010 21:50 (fourteen years ago) link
actually this cafe has been playing a pretty smoking mix of disco and late soul.
― figuratively, but in a very real way (amateurist), Monday, 11 January 2010 21:51 (fourteen years ago) link
what do you think of this version of it?http://www.robotsinheat.com/trax/EveryonesAWinner.mp3
― jaxon, Monday, 11 January 2010 22:19 (fourteen years ago) link
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bbZHSDsK2DM&feature=g-high-u
― hail dayton (brownie), Friday, 17 August 2012 16:11 (eleven years ago) link
Not a thread I expected to be posting on ...
But if I love this:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vcq4s6GfM9s
Heard first via this:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bo7i_pHEWNg
what do I listen to next?
― djh, Friday, 11 October 2013 22:06 (ten years ago) link
just work your way through the 70s records and see how you like them imo. 1st album is front-to-back amazing and loads of great stuff after. Saw them live recently and errol brown has not aged a day
― swmp thing (wins), Friday, 11 October 2013 22:14 (ten years ago) link
I love the tune "You Sexy Thing". I got to know it as back in the 90s there was a surf/punk rock band in Bloomington called Speed Luxury that played that song all the time. I might have heard the Hot Chocolate tune as a kid and it became a more ubiquitous tune later on with advertising and being used in movies, but I got to know it from hearing Speed Luxury's cover live.
― earlnash, Friday, 11 October 2013 23:41 (ten years ago) link
Ta.
― djh, Sunday, 13 October 2013 19:26 (ten years ago) link
Yeah the first album is their best album. I also really love Everyone's a winner which is great all the way through. I find most of their other albums a bit uneven but there are some gems hidden away on them. I recently got their 20 Hottest Hits compilation which is well worth getting as they had a bunch of great singles not on their albums which are all on there.
― Kitchen Person, Sunday, 13 October 2013 20:24 (ten years ago) link
Then Play Long reaches to the sensational and somewhat scary world of Hot Chocolate: http://nobilliards.blogspot.co.uk/2014/10/hot-chocolate-very-best-of-hot-chocolate.html
― agincourtgirl, Thursday, 9 October 2014 13:10 (nine years ago) link
Aw man. Errol Brown has passed.
http://www.bbc.com/news/entertainment-arts-32613573
― Ned Raggett, Wednesday, 6 May 2015 15:41 (nine years ago) link
never thought it would come to this :(
― yeovil knievel (NickB), Wednesday, 6 May 2015 16:03 (nine years ago) link
these guys ruled
― da croupier, Wednesday, 6 May 2015 16:43 (nine years ago) link
They certainly did... RIP Errol :(((((((
― Cram Session in Goniometry (Tom D.), Wednesday, 6 May 2015 16:46 (nine years ago) link
Mindless boogie 'til we drop, don't stop :(
Probably listen to "Put Your Love In Me" the most these days, but I cherish the memory of caning the Revenge Rework of "Cadillac" at a house party before going out to see the touring Horse Meat Disco - who promptly played the same at the peak of their set, much to the delight of our crew.
RIP.
― etc, Wednesday, 6 May 2015 17:02 (nine years ago) link
RIP. Such an underrated group and singer.
― Kitchen Person, Wednesday, 6 May 2015 17:09 (nine years ago) link
RIP
― Hugh G. Wreckjoke (snoball), Wednesday, 6 May 2015 17:48 (nine years ago) link
I had completely forgotten "Heaven's In The Back Seat of my Cadillac" until this minute, and I'm not sure how I knew it; it wasn't a hit in the US. Probably a promo single I picked up. I had no idea they had so many UK hits!
― Competent Cracker Barrel manager (Dan Peterson), Wednesday, 6 May 2015 18:14 (nine years ago) link
oh man, that stinks. this band has never gotten its critical due -- and by that i guess i mean any critical due.
i remember sitting in a coffee shop a few years ago, a bit glum over a shitty situation that had come up at work. this song--
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JQsg6XXGxXQ
--came on, happily very loud, and suddenly nothing else mattered anymore. what a jam.
― he quipped with heat (amateurist), Wednesday, 6 May 2015 18:26 (nine years ago) link
Ah didn't see this. Saw them a couple of years ago, apparently he died without ageing
Xp they are the only group to have a hit in every year of the 70s & iirc that continued quite a bit into the 80s!
― italosVEVO (wins), Wednesday, 6 May 2015 18:26 (nine years ago) link
...and as i discovered a few years ago, their LPs are surprisingly solid. some of 'em, anyway.
― he quipped with heat (amateurist), Wednesday, 6 May 2015 18:27 (nine years ago) link
xpost.
also, shout out to the scene in 'alice in the cities' when the main character is listening to 'brother louie' on the radio and starts cursing when the DJ fades it out early.
― he quipped with heat (amateurist), Wednesday, 6 May 2015 18:28 (nine years ago) link
RIP the hitmeister, no doubt about it.
:(
― Jeff W, Wednesday, 6 May 2015 18:31 (nine years ago) link
Yeah, I need to delve into these guys more. I don't know them outside their biggest hits, but every one I know I love.
― Competent Cracker Barrel manager (Dan Peterson), Wednesday, 6 May 2015 18:37 (nine years ago) link
Hot Chocolate were amazing. Thanks Errol.
― ewar woowar (or something), Wednesday, 6 May 2015 23:58 (nine years ago) link
Saw them a couple of years ago, apparently he died without ageing
he left the band in 1986.
― new noise, Thursday, 7 May 2015 01:17 (nine years ago) link
a bbc4 clips doc was just on. I'd just left it on as nothingy background to solitary reading but it was great - I'd never realised how consistently good they were, or even what they were, really - the 60s hippie-ish stuff jarred me into attention.
― woof, Friday, 25 September 2015 22:18 (eight years ago) link
Yeah, I hadn't heard "A Childs Prayer" since it was a hit. Funny how they used to have alternating lead singers until.
― Mark G, Friday, 25 September 2015 22:55 (eight years ago) link
I was about to say that "Mindless Boogie" is the only (surely!) hit single to mention Jonestown until I discovered it wasn't a hit!
― Fields of Fat Henry (Tom D.), Friday, 25 September 2015 23:31 (eight years ago) link
It was a bit of a hit. 46.
― Mark G, Saturday, 26 September 2015 02:05 (eight years ago) link
can we talk about "mindless boogie"? is it the creepiest disco song ever?
― the late great, Saturday, 10 October 2015 05:01 (eight years ago) link
One of my favourite Hot Chocolate songs to DJ; always thought it was a great bridge between 50s atom bomb songs and "Drop The Bomb"/Green Velvet ("like clones and robots that we are" makes me think of Alice Cooper's Numan/Devo move). Love the stern/cheek-puffing "very strange, very strange".
― etc, Saturday, 10 October 2015 05:50 (eight years ago) link
it reminds me of talking heads
― the late great, Saturday, 10 October 2015 06:25 (eight years ago) link
12 inch of this is perfect and timeless
― bonobo voyage (Noodle Vague), Saturday, 10 October 2015 09:55 (eight years ago) link
/Saw them a couple of years ago, apparently he died without ageing/he left the band in 1986.
lol omg
― (emphasis mine) (wins), Saturday, 10 October 2015 10:10 (eight years ago) link
lol seconded
― Terry Micawber (Tom D.), Saturday, 10 October 2015 10:24 (eight years ago) link
I liked this = she's right, adults don't drink enough of it.
https://theoutline.com/post/7029/hot-chocolate-is-for-grown-ups-now?zd=1&zi=dc662vvf
― xyzzzz__, Thursday, 31 January 2019 20:23 (five years ago) link
i've got some Swiss Miss and I think I'll make a cup. it ain't high falutin' but it's really good when made with milk
― calumy (rip van wanko), Thursday, 31 January 2019 20:26 (five years ago) link
haha the group AND the drink are classic. God I am tired!
― xyzzzz__, Thursday, 31 January 2019 20:28 (five years ago) link
In my new job there are two women in the small team I'm in. Their names are Emma and Emily. I'm dreading December.
― Well *I* know who he is (aldo), Tuesday, 6 April 2021 22:35 (three years ago) link
"Every 1's A Winner" is in my top 10 fave songs.
― too cool for zen talk (Eazy), Tuesday, 6 April 2021 22:42 (three years ago) link
i knew someone who worked at a primary (grade for you north american types) school as a teacher. the staff had an end of year bbq party with all the staff invited, not just the teachers.
the school receptionist, a quiet older woman, got in her cups and for all the assembled told a detailed, rapturous story about making love to Errol Brown after a Hot Chocolate concert in the 1970s
― 《Myst1kOblivi0n》 (jim in vancouver), Tuesday, 6 April 2021 22:46 (three years ago) link
Blimey.
― Duncan Disorderly (Tom D.), Tuesday, 6 April 2021 23:22 (three years ago) link
― the late great, Friday, October 9, 2015 10:01 PM (five years ago) bookmarkflaglink
had literally never noticed the lyrics to this but im giving it a listen and damn, very dark
― 《Myst1kOblivi0n》 (jim in vancouver), Tuesday, 6 April 2021 23:34 (three years ago) link
Fantastic story, Jim
― too cool for zen talk (Eazy), Wednesday, 7 April 2021 00:53 (three years ago) link
.
― It Is Dangerous to Meme Inside (James Redd and the Blecchs), Wednesday, 7 April 2021 00:57 (three years ago) link