Funky Friday – Episode 81: This Day In Funk
- Noah McDonough
- Aug 20
- 12 min read
Updated: 3 days ago
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Airdate: 8.21.26 - 9 AM Pacific Time on KDOG & 9 PM Pacific Time on KCSM HD2
Funky Friday – Episode 81: This Day In Funk
Happy Friday and welcome to Funky Friday Episode 81: This Day in Funk
August 21, 1976.
Disco was exploding.
Funk was everywhere.
And depending on which music chart you happened to pick up, there was more than one answer to the question: What was the biggest funk song in America?
On the Cash Box R&B chart dated August 21, Wild Cherry sat at number one with a song whose instruction could not have been more direct:
“Play That Funky Music.”
Meanwhile, over at Billboard, the Ohio Players were sitting atop the soul chart with something considerably stranger:
“Who’d She Coo?”
Fifty years later, August 21 lands on a Friday. That seems like a pretty good reason to play them both.
This week, Funky Friday turns the calendar backward for This Day in Funk,
an episode built around the songs, artists, birthdays, releases, and charts connected to August 21.
And once we started digging, things got funky fast.
The journey begins with Wild Cherry.
“Play That Funky Music” has become so deeply embedded in popular culture that it can be easy to forget what a monster song it was in 1976.
On August 21 of that year, Cash Box placed it at the top of its R&B chart.
But the chart beneath it reveals something even more interesting.
Ohio Players.
Earth, Wind & Fire.
James Brown.
War.
Parliament.
The Brothers Johnson.
Bootsy Collins.
The Blackbyrds.
The Crusaders.
Graham Central Station.
Roy Ayers.
The Bar-Kays.
Kool & The Gang.
Funk wasn’t hiding around the edges of popular music. It was everywhere.
That single chart becomes one of the threads running through this week’s episode.
Ohio Players bring us “Who’d She Coo?”
Bootsy Collins slows things down with the elastic, deeply strange groove of “I’d Rather Be With You.”
Parliament invites everybody aboard the Mothership with “Give Up the Funk (Tear the Roof Off the Sucker).”
The Brothers Johnson tell us exactly what to do with “Get the Funk Out Ma Face.”
Graham Central Station stretches the groove across the musical workout of “Entrow.”
And the Bar-Kays arrive with “Shake Your Rump to the Funk,” a song entering the Cash Box R&B chart that very week.
But August 21 takes us much further than 1976.
We travel backward to 1967 and Sam & Dave. “Soul Man,” written by Isaac Hayes and David Porter, gives this episode a direct connection to the place we visited last week: Stax Records and Memphis.
It also reminds us that funk did not suddenly appear fully formed in the 1970s.
You can hear its machinery being assembled in the soul songs that came before it.
The rhythm section tightens.
The bass becomes more assertive.
The guitar starts functioning as percussion.
The groove moves toward the center of the song.
Then comes James Brown. “Get Up I Feel Like Being a Sex Machine” strips the idea almost to its foundation.
Rhythm.
Repetition.
Space.
The one.
Stevie Wonder takes that rhythmic vocabulary somewhere more melodic with “Signed, Sealed, Delivered (I’m Yours),” another reminder that by 1970 the boundaries between soul,
R&B, and the emerging language of funk were becoming increasingly difficult to draw.
August 21 also gives us people.
Santana keyboardist and composer Tom Coster was born on August 21, 1941. His work with Santana during the 1970s helped push the band through a remarkable period when Latin rhythm, rock, jazz fusion, and funk continually collided. This week, we hear that collision in “Give and Take.”
Then there is Kim Sledge, born August 21, 1957. With Sister Sledge, she became part of another transformation in the sound of the late 1970s. “He’s the Greatest Dancer” brings Nile Rodgers and Bernard Edwards into our story, connecting Sister Sledge to the rhythmic precision of Chic and to the increasingly porous boundary between funk and disco.
Different years.
Different cities.
Different branches of the family tree.
One date.
And maybe that is what makes August 21 interesting. There is no single event that defines this episode. Instead, the calendar becomes an excavation tool. Follow one song and you find another.
Follow one birthday and you find a musician.
Open a fifty-year-old chart and suddenly you’re staring at an extraordinary snapshot of what people were hearing while funk was approaching its commercial peak.
Some of these songs became standards. Some became sample sources. Some became building blocks for hip-hop. Some simply stayed funky.
fifty years later, they still talk to one another.
Wild Cherry and Ohio Players were competing for chart space.
Bootsy Collins and Parliament were constructing their own universe.
Larry Graham was continuing to redefine what an electric bass could do.
The Brothers Johnson were working with Quincy Jones.
The Bar-Kays were proving that the Memphis story didn’t end when Stax closed its doors.
And underneath all of it was the groove.
Which brings us back to August 21, 1976.
A song sat at number one on the Cash Box R&B chart with four words that, half a century later, sound less like a song title than instructions for a Friday morning.
Play That Funky Music.
I’m Noah McDonough. Apparently, somebody left instructions...
Welcome to Episode 81.
Welcome to This Day in Funk.
Signal Discovery
On August 21, 1976, the Ohio Players were sitting at the top of Billboard’s Hot Soul Singles chart with “Who’d She Coo?”
It would be their final No. 1 R&B hit.
By then, the Ohio Players had already become one of the defining funk bands of the decade.
“Skin Tight.”
“Fire.”
“Love Rollercoaster.”
Their sound was heavy, playful, sensual, and unmistakably funky.
But “Who’d She Coo?” arrived near the end of an extraordinary run.
Released from the 1976 album Contradiction, the song climbed to No. 1 on Billboard’s soul chart and eventually reached No. 18 on the Hot 100. It would also become the Ohio Players’ final Top 40 pop hit.
And the title?
It was a play on the phrase “hoochie coochie.”
That helps explain a title that looks almost indecipherable until Sugarfoot Bonner sings it.
But there is another reason “Who’d She Coo?” captures this particular moment in funk.
Turn on Soul Train in the fall of 1976 and the song kept showing up.
On September 4, Soul Train dancers moved to “Who’d She Coo?” during an episode featuring Melba Moore and the Whispers.
A week later, the song appeared again during an episode featuring the O’Jays and Thelma Houston.
Then, on December 4, the Ohio Players themselves arrived.
Don Cornelius welcomed the band to Soul Train, where they performed “Who’d She Coo?,” “Feel the Beat (Everybody Disco),” and “Bi-Centennial.”
That appearance provides this week’s Signal Discovery.
The video below captures the Ohio Players performing “Who’d She Coo?” on Soul Train in December 1976.
Funky Friday – Episode 81: This Day In Funk
🔥 SETLIST + RENEGADE NOTES
Wild Cherry - “Play That Funky Music”
Personnel: Rob Parissi - lead vocals, guitar; Bryan Bassett - guitar, backing vocals; Allen Wentz - bass, synthesizer, backing vocals; Ron Beitle - drums, backing vocals; Chuck Berginc and Jack Brandiar - trumpet; Joe Eckert and Rick Singer - saxophone.
Renegade Note: Fifty years ago, “Play That Funky Music” sat at No. 1 on the Cash Box R&B chart dated August 21, 1976. The song grew out of Wild Cherry’s experience as a rock band being encouraged by club audiences to play funkier music. Rob Parissi turned the idea into a song, and Wild Cherry suddenly found itself straddling rock, R&B, disco, and funk.
Ohio Players - “Who’d She Coo?”
Personnel: Leroy “Sugarfoot” Bonner - vocals, guitar; Billy Beck - keyboards, vocals; Marshall “Rock” Jones - bass; James “Diamond” Williams - drums, congas, vocals; Clarence “Satch” Satchell - saxophones, vocals; Ralph “Pee Wee” Middlebrooks - trumpet; Marvin Pierce - horns; Robert Jones - congas.
Renegade Note: While Cash Box had Wild Cherry at No. 1, Billboard’s Hot Soul Singles chart dated August 21, 1976 had Ohio Players at the top with “Who’d She Coo?” It became the band’s final No. 1 R&B song and final Top 40 pop hit. The song also provides this week’s Signal Discovery through a 1976 performance by the Ohio Players on Soul Train.
Santana - “Give and Take”
Personnel: Carlos Santana - guitar; Tom Coster - piano, synthesizer; Leon Patillo - organ, vocals; David Brown - bass; Michael Shrieve - drums; Armando Peraza - congas; José Areas - percussion; Jules Broussard - tenor saxophone.
Renegade Note: Keyboardist and composer Tom Coster was born August 21, 1941. During Santana’s jazz-fusion period, Coster became an important creative presence in the band. He co-wrote “Give and Take” with Carlos Santana and Michael Shrieve for 1974’s Borboletta, an album that pushed Santana deeper into the intersection of Latin rhythm, rock, jazz fusion, and funk.
Sam & Dave - “Soul Man”
Personnel: Sam Moore and Dave Prater - vocals; Steve Cropper - guitar; Donald “Duck” Dunn - bass; Al Jackson Jr. - drums; Isaac Hayes - keyboards; Wayne Jackson - trumpet; Charles “Packy” Axton - tenor saxophone; Don Nix - baritone saxophone.
Renegade Note: “Soul Man” was released on August 21, 1967. Written by Isaac Hayes and David Porter, the song gives this episode a direct connection to last week’s trip to Soulsville and Stax Records. Steve Cropper supplied the instantly recognizable guitar figure, prompting Sam Moore’s spontaneous “Play it, Steve!” during the song.
Stevie Wonder - “Signed, Sealed, Delivered (I’m Yours)”
Personnel: Stevie Wonder - lead vocals, keyboards; Syreeta Wright - backing vocals; with Motown session musicians providing the rhythm and instrumental backing.
Renegade Note: In August 1970, “Signed, Sealed, Delivered (I’m Yours)” was at the top of Billboard’s Best Selling Soul Singles chart. The song captures 20-year-old Stevie Wonder at a pivotal moment, as he began asserting greater creative control over his music and moving toward the extraordinary run of albums that would define his 1970s work.
James Brown - “Get Up I Feel Like Being a Sex Machine, Pt. 1”
Personnel: James Brown - lead vocals; Bobby Byrd - vocals; Bootsy Collins - bass; Catfish Collins - guitar; Jabo Starks - drums.
Renegade Note: In the same August 1970 chart period that found Stevie Wonder at the top, James Brown was right behind him with “Get Up I Feel Like Being a Sex Machine.” The song reduces funk almost to its essential components: repetition, space, syncopation, and Brown’s relentless emphasis on the One. The personnel also points toward the future of this episode. Bootsy Collins would eventually become one of the central figures in George Clinton’s P-Funk universe.
Sister Sledge - “He’s the Greatest Dancer”
Personnel: Kathy Sledge - lead vocals; Debbie, Joni and Kim Sledge - vocals; Nile Rodgers - guitar; Bernard Edwards - bass; Tony Thompson - drums; additional Chic musicians. Written and produced by Nile Rodgers and Bernard Edwards.
Renegade Note: Kim Sledge was born August 21, 1957. “He’s the Greatest Dancer” came from Sister Sledge’s breakthrough collaboration with Chic architects Nile Rodgers and Bernard Edwards. The result became one of the great meeting points between disco precision and funk rhythm.
Bootsy Collins - “I’d Rather Be With You”
Personnel: Bootsy Collins - vocals, bass, guitar; Bernie Worrell - keyboards; Gary Shider, Michael Hampton and Phelps “Catfish” Collins - guitars; Frankie “Kash” Waddy - drums; Fred Wesley - trombone; Maceo Parker - saxophone; Rick Gardner - trumpet; additional vocals and instrumentation from the extended Bootsy/P-Funk family.
Renegade Note: By 1976, Bootsy Collins had transformed the rhythmic discipline he learned playing behind James Brown into something psychedelic, humorous, romantic, and unmistakably his own. “I’d Rather Be With You” appeared on Stretchin’ Out in Bootsy’s Rubber Band and was part of the extraordinary wave of funk circulating during the summer of 1976.
Parliament - “Give Up the Funk (Tear the Roof Off the Sucker)”
Personnel: George Clinton - vocals; Bootsy Collins and Cordell Mosson - bass; Bernie Worrell - keyboards; Garry Shider, Michael Hampton and Glenn Goins - guitars; Jerome Brailey - drums; Fred Wesley - trombone; Maceo Parker - saxophone; additional P-Funk musicians and vocalists.
Renegade Note: “Give Up the Funk” was sitting on the Cash Box R&B chart dated August 21, 1976. From Mothership Connection, the song helped carry Parliament beyond the funk underground and into the mainstream. The arrival of former James Brown musicians including Fred Wesley and Maceo Parker further connected Brown’s rhythmic revolution to the increasingly outrageous universe George Clinton was building.
The Bar-Kays - “Shake Your Rump to the Funk”
Personnel: Larry Dodson - vocals; James Alexander - bass; Winston Stewart - drums; Lloyd Smith - guitar; Charles Allen - trumpet; Harvey Henderson - saxophone; Frank Thompson - trombone; Michael Beard - keyboards.
Renegade Note: One week after we traced the Bar-Kays from “Soul Finger” through “Son of Shaft,” they return for a completely different reason. “Shake Your Rump to the Funk” entered the Cash Box R&B chart dated August 21, 1976, capturing the rebuilt Bar-Kays as they moved decisively into the harder funk sound that would define their next chapter.
Graham Central Station - “Entrow”
Personnel: Larry Graham - bass, vocals; David “Dynamite” Vega - guitar; Robert “Butch” Sam - keyboards; Gaylord “Flash” Birch - drums; with Graham Central Station.
Renegade Note: Larry Graham had already changed the vocabulary of electric bass with Sly & The Family Stone before forming Graham Central Station. “Entrow,” from 1976’s Mirror, gives him more than seven minutes to stretch out. The song was also on the Cash Box R&B chart dated August 21, 1976, putting one of funk’s foundational bass innovators directly inside our fifty-year-old snapshot.
The Brothers Johnson - “Get the Funk Out Ma Face”
Personnel: George Johnson - guitar, vocals; Louis Johnson - bass, guitar, vocals; Dave Grusin - acoustic and electric piano, synthesizer; additional musicians under producer Quincy Jones.
Renegade Note: Written by George Johnson, Louis Johnson, and Quincy Jones, “Get the Funk Out Ma Face” came from the Brothers Johnson’s 1976 debut Look Out for #1. The song was climbing the Cash Box R&B chart dated August 21, 1976 and helped establish “Thunder Thumbs” Louis Johnson as one of the era’s most distinctive bass players.
🔗 Quick Links:
🎧 Listen live on KDOG 9 AM Pacific Time→ Here
🎧 Listen live on KCSM HD2 9 PM Pacific Time→ Here
📆 Add to Calendar — Funky Friday (Weekly):
• 9 AM KDOG
Add to Google Calendar
• 9 PM KCSM HD2
Add to Google Calendar
🎶 Catch the Replay → Here
📖 Full Episode Recaps + Setlists → Here
📻 Renegade Radio Site → Here
Funk Facts
WILD CHERRY - Play That Funky Music
Built around Rob Parissi’s clipped guitar riff, Allen Wentz’s driving bass, Ron Beitle’s four-on-the-floor drums, bright horn punches, handclaps, and Parissi’s swaggering lead vocal. The arrangement sits directly at the intersection of rock, funk, and disco, using a remarkably simple guitar figure and tightly repeated rhythm to turn an instruction from the dance floor into an irresistible groove.
OHIO PLAYERS - Who’d She Coo?
Driven by Marshall “Rock” Jones’ elastic bass, James “Diamond” Williams’ drums and percussion, Leroy “Sugarfoot” Bonner’s guitar, Billy Beck’s keyboards, tightly arranged horns, layered vocals, and the band’s playful call-and-response. The arrangement moves effortlessly between deep funk and polished mid-1970s R&B, allowing individual instruments to dart in and out while the rhythm section keeps the entire song locked firmly in the pocket.
SANTANA - Give and Take
Built around Carlos Santana’s expressive electric guitar, Tom Coster’s keyboards, Michael Shrieve’s drums, David Brown’s bass, congas, additional percussion, organ, and saxophone. The arrangement blends Santana’s Latin rhythmic foundation with jazz-fusion complexity and a distinctly funky pulse, creating a dense instrumental conversation in which guitar, keyboards, and percussion continually trade momentum.
SAM & DAVE - Soul Man
Constructed from Steve Cropper’s instantly recognizable guitar figure, Donald “Duck” Dunn’s bass, Al Jackson Jr.’s disciplined drums, keyboards, tightly arranged Memphis horns, and the explosive vocal interplay between Sam Moore and Dave Prater. The arrangement demonstrates how much rhythmic force can be created through economy, with nearly every instrumental part functioning as another piece of percussion beneath the vocals.
STEVIE WONDER - Signed, Sealed, Delivered (I’m Yours)
Driven by an insistent rhythm section, bright guitar, keyboards, handclaps, tambourine, backing vocals, and Stevie Wonder’s exuberant lead performance. The arrangement combines Motown’s melodic precision with a harder rhythmic attack, using syncopation and repeated instrumental figures to push the song toward the increasingly funky vocabulary Wonder would explore throughout the 1970s.
JAMES BROWN - Get Up I Feel Like Being a Sex Machine, Pt. 1
Built around Bootsy Collins’ repeating bass figure, Catfish Collins’ clipped guitar, Jabo Starks’ relentlessly disciplined drums, Bobby Byrd’s vocal responses, and James Brown conducting the entire performance from inside the groove. Melody becomes secondary to rhythm as every instrument repeats a tightly defined pattern, creating one of the clearest demonstrations of Brown’s concept of treating the entire band like a drum.
SISTER SLEDGE - He’s the Greatest Dancer
Constructed around Bernard Edwards’ fluid bass, Nile Rodgers’ precisely clipped guitar, Tony Thompson’s disciplined drums, polished keyboards and strings, and the Sledge sisters’ layered vocals. The arrangement reflects the Chic organization’s extraordinary rhythmic precision, combining the elegance of disco with a rhythm section rooted deeply enough in funk that the groove remains powerful even beneath the song’s polished surface.
BOOTSY COLLINS - I’d Rather Be With You
Built around Bootsy Collins’ enormous, elastic bass sound, Bernie Worrell’s atmospheric keyboards, layered guitars, relaxed drums, horns, backing vocals, and Bootsy’s intimate lead performance. Rather than attacking with speed, the arrangement stretches time, leaving enormous spaces around the beat and allowing the bass to function simultaneously as rhythm, melody, and personality.
PARLIAMENT - Give Up the Funk (Tear the Roof Off the Sucker)
Driven by Bootsy Collins and Cordell Mosson’s bass foundation, Bernie Worrell’s keyboards, layered guitars, Jerome Brailey’s drums, the Horny Horns, and a massive collection of overlapping voices. The arrangement builds through repetition and accumulation, introducing chants, riffs, horn lines, and vocal responses until the song feels less like a conventional performance than an entire room being recruited into the groove.
THE BAR-KAYS - Shake Your Rump to the Funk
Built around James Alexander’s muscular bass, tightly syncopated guitar, hard-pocket drums, keyboards, punchy horns, and Larry Dodson’s commanding lead vocal. The arrangement reflects the Bar-Kays’ transformation into a heavier 1970s funk band, using short instrumental attacks, repeated vocal commands, and an aggressive rhythm section to keep the song in constant forward motion.
GRAHAM CENTRAL STATION - Entrow
Driven by Larry Graham’s thunderous bass, rhythmic guitar, keyboards, drums, layered vocals, and an extended arrangement designed to give the groove room to develop. Graham treats the bass as both foundation and lead instrument, moving between percussive attacks, melodic phrases, and deep sustained notes while the band builds an increasingly dense rhythmic environment around him.
THE BROTHERS JOHNSON - Get the Funk Out Ma Face
Built around Louis Johnson’s explosive bass, George Johnson’s guitar, tightly controlled drums, keyboards, synthesizer, horns, and the brothers’ vocal interplay. The arrangement combines the precision associated with Quincy Jones’ production with the Johnson brothers’ harder rhythmic attack, packing an extraordinary amount of movement into a compact song and allowing Louis Johnson’s bass to supply much of its unmistakable personality.
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