7-inch series, part 603 – Rose Royce

Rose Royce – Car Wash
label: MCA
year: 1976
side a: Car Wash
side b: Water
www.rose-royce.com

Some time ago a friend and I were engaged in a conversation with a man who wanted to do business with us. He was a Real Big DJ in his country who had been going at it since the early eighties, who knew what being a DJ is all about, which is sooooo much more than playing a couple of good tunes. The Real Big DJ was, and probably still is, an artist. We were talking about deejaying and the way people are not always prepared to dance to music they might not know or recognise, and that often you need a classic tune to get things going.

Now, the Real Big DJ was talking in a language my friend and I did not understand, but there was a fourth man translating. So the interpreter said how the Real Big DJ liked to throw on a big classic to drive the crowd wild and have them explode into frantic dancing and whistling and hands in the air and girls touching themselves inappropriately out of pure joy and I thought to myself “yeah something by James Brown or some disco tune like ‘Car Wash’ or something” and we were hearing “brljotsk wretchk dobre dobre marianutchki lou bega mambo nomberr 5”, and my heart skipped a beat. And when the interpreter translated what the Real Big DJ had said it turned out he really had said “Mambo Number 5” by Lou Bega and my friend started laughing real hard and I muttered “O-or ‘Car Wash’“, and the night was ruined, and we knew we would never be able to work with the Real Big DJ. And yes we’re big fukken snobs but sometimes one just has to stand for what one believes in.

Video of “Car Wash”.