You will struggle to find anyone who cannot instantly recognise Kool and the Gang’s biggest hit Celebration, the go-to anthem for anyone throwing a, well, celebration.
And it’s not the only Kool and the Gang track that is guaranteed to get people up on their feet dancing, or singing along, regardless of their age.
But getting them to name the band behind the infectious upbeat hits might be a tad more difficult – something the band’s founder and bass player Robert “Kool” Bell finds frustrating.
Wearing a dazzling Hawaiian shirt and sitting behind framed gold discs and a display of his new “Le Kool” signature champagne, Kool, now 72, nods as I tell him how my 12-year-old sings along to his songs – but has no idea who he is.
With his unmistakable southern drawl, Kool tells me: “Young people dig our music. Then the old people say, ‘That’s Kool and the Gang’, and they say, ‘No, that sounds like this band or that band’. They don’t know it’s us. I’ve been in restaurants when one of our songs comes on and I’ve had to tell people, ‘That’s us, that’s Kool and the Gang’.
“Or sometimes I ask someone, ‘Have you ever heard of Kool and the Gang?’ and they’re not sure. ‘OK, have you ever heard of Get Down On It, Ladies Night, Celebration?’ And they’re like, ‘Oh yeah’.
“So it would be nice for people to connect us with the song.
“To know about the songs. But also to know who I am, too.”
In fact, Kool, who will be delighting fans tomorrow at a one-off gig at the Hampton Court Palace Festival, has influenced more of today’s music than anyone might give him credit for.
His group’s pioneering horn-driven funk sound helped shape much of today’s R&B, hip-hop and pop music, while he has inspired the work of countless artists, including Mark Ronson, Jamiroquai and George Michael.
In 2015, the band – Robert “Kool” Bell, Ronald “Khalis” Bell, Dennis “DT” Thomas and George Brown – were honoured with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. They are also the most sampled band in modern music history with their tunes and riffs appearing on at least 1,800 tracks – another reason why so many young people recognise their songs today.
And it turns out Kool is idolised by at least one of the modern stars he has influenced, Bruno Mars, who is friends with Kool’s music producer son Hakim.
Chuckling, Kool says: “Bruno has been at my house a couple of times, although I’ve never been home at the time. I was on the road, but I hear he was starstruck, without me even being there.
“Bruno says that we were an inspiration to him and if you look at his band it’s like what we were when we were younger – the horns, the dancing, the upbeat rhythms. I’ve been in clubs where the DJ has mixed Bruno’s songs with Ladies Night or Get Down On It back and forth between his songs and mine. It sounds really good.
“I like that – it shows that our music is reaching the younger generation and that they’re listening.”
Kool reveals that he has had to employ someone to trawl through all newly released songs to check if they contain samples of any of his work.
He says: “In the beginning, people didn’t ask permission so I had to put some money on sample control. But President Biden has now passed a bill which requires record companies to get clearances before they can release a song.
“So they are checking now and paying up.
“In the 1970s we didn’t have a lead singer and our tracks were more open. So I think artists listen and think they can grab a part of this or that, use it to come up with a song… and a lot of the time those songs become hits.”
They include the Grammy award-winning tune Summertime that made Will Smith a major star. He wrote it over a sample of the Kool and the Gang song Summer Madness.
Kool has never let Will live it down. He says: “That was a big record for him. It was No1 and went platinum, and then he went on to become a movie star. We still keep in touch from time or time and I still point out that he only became famous after recording our song.”
Growing up poor in Jersey City, Robert and his brother Ronald started performing jazz with five other school friends in the early 1960s.
Robert gave himself the nickname Kool to fit in with the local street gangs.
Settling on the name Kool and the Gang, his band started making a name for themselves around their home town, before releasing two instrumental albums. But it wasn’t until they discovered disco in the 1970s that they hit the big time.
Singles Jungle Boogie and Hollywood Swinging reached the US Top 10 and, in 1977, Open Sesame made the soundtrack to Saturday Night Fever.
But Kool and the Gang’s biggest hits came after they had brought in a lead singer, James “JT” Taylor, who was with the band for nine years, between 1979 and 1988. Ladies Night won two American Music Awards while Celebration topped the Billboard Hot 100.
Kool says he and the band never imagined Celebration would be used by people all over the world to party.
He says: “We had just won two awards for Ladies Night, and the tag of that song is ‘Come on, let’s all celebrate’.
“So my brother said, ‘Wow, that’s another song, we could call that Celebration and put some music to it’, so that’s what we did.
“We didn’t write it so other people could celebrate – it was because we were celebrating winning that award.”
Kool admits it’s that song that will keep the royalties rolling in for decades – probably centuries – to come.
He says: “The song has been a blessing to us, because we never expected it to be the hit it became.
“Everywhere I go I hear it. Even in the space station, the astronauts got up one morning and guess what they were playing? Celebration.
“And yes, it’s the one that brings in the most royalties. They keep playing – and they keep paying.”
* Kool and The Gang headline Hampton Court Palace Festival tomorrow (Friday, June 8). Tickets from hamptoncourtpalacefestival.com
