Hot (I Need To Be Loved, Loved, Loved, Loved)

Album: Hot (1975)
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Songfacts®:

  • The title track of James Brown's Hot album, this funk song reached #31 on the R&B chart.
  • The song uses the main riff that was employed on David Bowie's hit tune "Fame," half a year earlier. Bowie guitarist Carlos Alomar, the guy who originally came up with the riff, was briefly in James Brown's band in the late 1960s.
  • Mojo magazine's Fred Dellar dug out a 1979 promotional interview with James Brown, in which he was asked if he'd heard Bowie's "Fame." The Godfather of Soul replied:

    "I think the man is great, he's very talented. I did a thing of Fame called 'Hot.' It's like Jose Feliciano, he took the arrangement for 'Light My Fire ' off ' I Feel Good.' Sly Stone came out with 'Thank You' that's just 'Papa's Got A Brand New Bag. ' 'Everyday People' may be slow but the rhythm changes in that are mine. I can beat all of them doing that - Parliament, Clinton, all of 'em. I can beat 'em to it."

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