Car Wash (song)
| "Car Wash" | ||||
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| Single by Rose Royce | ||||
| from the album Car Wash: Original Motion Picture Soundtrack | ||||
| Released | 1976 | |||
| Format | 7" vinyl | |||
| Genre | Disco, funk | |||
| Length | 3:20 (LP mix is 5:06) | |||
| Label | MCA 110 076 |
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| Writer(s) | Norman Whitfield | |||
| Producer | Norman Whitfield | |||
| Certification | 2x Platinum (US) | |||
| Rose Royce singles chronology | ||||
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"Car Wash" is a 1976 soul music single by Rose Royce for MCA Records, the group's debut single and one of the most notable successes of the disco era.[1] Written and produced by the band's main producer Norman Whitfield, "Car Wash", the theme of the 1976 film Car Wash, was Rose Royce's most successful hit single and the lead single from their first album, the Car Wash soundtrack. Reaching number one in the United States on the Billboard pop and R&B charts, "Car Wash" also peaked at number three on the disco charts.[2] Gary Numan's parody of the song, "Jet Wash", overlaid lyrics about Gary washing his car at a Total Service Station at Stoughton[disambiguation needed 
] and drives on Woodbridge Road A25 towards Guildford. The song was later covered in 2004 by Christina Aguilera and Missy Elliott, who released their version as the single for the Shark Tale soundtrack.
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[edit] Song information
Norman Whitfield, a former producer for Motown Records, had been commissioned to record the soundtrack album for Car Wash by director Michael Schultz. Although Whitfield did not want to assume the project, he did so because of both financial incentives, and the chance to give Rose Royce, a disco/funk backing band that Whitfield signed to his own label in 1975, the exposure they needed to become mainstream. Unable to develop a theme song for the film, inspiration finally struck Whitfield while playing a game of basketball, and he allegedly wrote his first draft of "Car Wash" on a paper bag from a fried chicken eatery.
The resulting song set the mood and tone for the comedy film it was commissioned for. Rose Royce lead singer Rose Norwalt (Gwen Dickey), with brief assistance from guitarist Kenji Brown, describes a fun and easy-going car washing business, where everything is "always cool/and the boss don't mind sometimes if you act a fool."
Car Wash's soundtrack, a double album, was Rose Royce's debut LP, and the title track was their debut single. "Car Wash" sold two million copies, and was a number one success on both the Billboard popular and R&B charts in the United States and a top ten success in the United Kingdom. The song held the number-one spot on the Billboard Hot 100 for one week, from January 22, 1977 to January 29, replacing "I Wish" by Stevie Wonder, and replaced by "Torn Between Two Lovers" by Mary MacGregor. The Car Wash soundtrack album, entirely recorded by Rose Royce and Whitfield, spawned two more successful singles: "I Wanna Get Next to You" and "I'm Going Down" (later covered in 1994 by Mary J. Blige).
The original Rose Royce version of "Car Wash" is one of the most sampled songs in history, not for its main instrumentation, but for its introductory section. The song opens with a series of hand claps, which have been sampled many times for both hip hop and R&B songs from the 1980s on. It was also re-released as a double A-side single with "Is It Love You're After?" in 1988 in the United Kingdom, peaking at #20.
[edit] Charts
| Chart (1977) | Position |
|---|---|
| U.S. Billboard Hot 100 | 1 |
| U.S. Billboard Hot Soul Singles | 1 |
| UK Singles Chart | 9 |
| Australian Singles Chart | 12 |
[edit] Chart procession and succession
| Preceded by "I Wish" by Stevie Wonder |
Billboard Hot 100 number one single (Rose Royce version) January 29, 1977 |
Succeeded by "Torn Between Two Lovers" by Mary MacGregor |
| Preceded by "Dazz" by Brick |
Billboard's Hot Soul Singles number one single (Rose Royce version) December 25, 1976 - January 1, 1977 |
Succeeded by "Darlin' Darlin' Baby (Sweet, Tender, Love)" by The O'Jays |
[edit] Christina Aguilera and Missy Elliott version
| "Car Wash" | ||||||||||||||||||||
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| Single by Christina Aguilera featuring Missy Elliott | ||||||||||||||||||||
| from the album Shark Tale: Original Motion Picture Soundtrack | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Released | October 18, 2004[3] | |||||||||||||||||||
| Format | CD single, digital download | |||||||||||||||||||
| Recorded | 2004 | |||||||||||||||||||
| Genre | R&B, dance-pop, hip hop | |||||||||||||||||||
| Length | 3:50 | |||||||||||||||||||
| Label | DreamWorks | |||||||||||||||||||
| Writer(s) | Norman Whitfield, Missy Elliott (uncredited) | |||||||||||||||||||
| Producer | Missy Elliott, Christina Aguilera, Ron Fair, T. Herzberg, C. Styles, Bang Out, Silence | |||||||||||||||||||
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In 2004, pop singer Christina Aguilera featuring rapper-singer Missy Elliott recorded a cover version of "Car Wash", giving the disco song a more modern pop feel and adding rapped verses from Elliott. In an interview Aguilera said, "...we had to change the key to be a little bit higher for my range. So we couldn't take the exact samples, but we brought in all these live instruments to recreate kind of this old, old classic, soulful feel and sound...."
"Car Wash" was the only single from the soundtrack to DreamWorks' computer animated film Shark Tale. Aguilera and Elliott's cover of "Car Wash" missed the U.S. Billboard Top 40, peaking at number sixty-three, while becoming a top five hit in the United Kingdom and became the 48th best selling single in the United Kingdom of 2004 with sales of over 100,000 copies.
The song was parodied by "Weird Al" Yankovic as "Auto Wash", a reference about a type of car wash in a Murco Service Station, on the music parody album White and Nerdy.
In this context, the "car wash" the song refers to would be the place where Oscar (the main protagonist, voiced by Will Smith) works, where large sea animals who behave like cars are washed in the same manner.
The single has sold over 1.5 million copies worldwide.
- Music video
The music video to Aguilera's version shows her and Elliott as animated fish similar to those in the film, combined with scenes of Aguilera and Elliott recording the song in a recording studio. The video also includes scenes of Shark Tale. The scenes of Aguilera and Elliott recording the song in the studio were shot by Rich Newey, while the scenes of both Aguilera and Elliott as animated fish were edited by Peter Lonsdale and John Venzon, who also edited Shark Tale.
- Track listing[3]
- Car Wash
- "Car Wash"
- "Can't Wait" (Performed by Avant)
- "Digits" (Performed by Fan 3)
- "Car Wash" (Enhanced Video)
[edit] Charts
| Charts (2004–05) | Peak position |
|---|---|
| Australia (ARIA)[4] | 2 |
| Austria (Ö3 Austria Top 75)[5] | 11 |
| Belgium (Ultratop 50 Flanders)[6] | 2 |
| Belgium (Ultratop 40 Wallonia)[7] | 18 |
| Denmark (Tracklisten)[8] | 5 |
| Finland (Suomen virallinen lista)[9] | 9 |
| Greece (IFPI Greece)[10] | 21 |
| Hungary (Single Top 10)[11] | 8 |
| Ireland (IRMA)[12] | 5 |
| Netherlands (Mega Single Top 100)[13] | 3 |
| New Zealand (RIANZ)[14] | 2 |
| Norway (VG-lista)[15] | 13 |
| Sweden (Sverigetopplistan)[16] | 27 |
| Switzerland (Schweizer Hitparade)[17] | 5 |
| UK Singles (Official Charts Company)[18] | 4 |
| US Billboard Hot 100[19] | 63 |
| US Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs (Billboard)[20] | 14 |
[edit] Year-end charts
| Chart (2004) | Rank |
|---|---|
| Australia[21] | 48 |
| Netherlands[22] | 62 |
| Switzerland[23] | 68 |
| UK[24] | 48 |
| Chart (2005) | Rank |
| Switzerland[25] | 73 |
[edit] Other versions
Andy Caine and The Easy Virtue Orchestra recorded a 1920s swing version for the soundtrack of the period drama Easy Virtue.
[edit] See also
[edit] References
- ^ Whitburn, Joel (2004). Top R&B/Hip-Hop Singles: 1942-2004. Record Research. p. 501.
- ^ Whitburn, Joel (2004). Hot Dance/Disco: 1974-2003. Record Research. p. 222.
- ^ a b http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00066FMX8 amazon.com
- ^ "Australian-charts.com – Christina Aguilera feat. Missy Elliott – Car Wash". ARIA Top 50 Singles. Hung Medien.
- ^ "Christina Aguilera feat. Missy Elliott – Car Wash – Austriancharts.at" (in German). Ö3 Austria Top 40. Hung Medien.
- ^ "Ultratop.be – Christina Aguilera feat. Missy Elliott – Car Wash" (in Dutch). Ultratop 50. Ultratop & Hung Medien / hitparade.ch.
- ^ "Ultratop.be – Christina Aguilera feat. Missy Elliott – Car Wash" (in French). Ultratop 40. Ultratop & Hung Medien / hitparade.ch.
- ^ "Danishcharts.com – Christina Aguilera feat. Missy Elliott – Car Wash". Tracklisten. Hung Medien.
- ^ "Finnishcharts.com – Christina Aguilera feat. Missy Elliott – Car Wash". Suomen virallinen lista. Hung Medien.
- ^ "IFPI Greece Singles chart 18-25/12 2004". ifpi.gr. Archived from the original on December 29, 2004. http://web.archive.org/web/20041229123853/http://www.ifpi.gr/chart03.htm.
- ^ "Archívum – Slágerlisták – MAHASZ – Magyar Hanglemezkiadók Szövetsége" (in Hungarian). Single (track) Top 10 lista. Magyar Hanglemezkiadók Szövetsége.
- ^ "Chart Track". Irish Singles Chart. Irish Recorded Music Association.
- ^ "Dutchcharts.nl – Christina Aguilera feat. Missy Elliott – Car Wash" (in Dutch). Mega Single Top 100. Hung Medien / hitparade.ch.
- ^ "Charts.org.nz – Christina Aguilera feat. Missy Elliott – Car Wash". Top 40 Singles. Hung Medien.
- ^ "Norwegiancharts.com – Christina Aguilera feat. Missy Elliott – Car Wash". VG-lista. Hung Medien.
- ^ "Swedishcharts.com – Christina Aguilera feat. Missy Elliott – Car Wash". Singles Top 60. Hung Medien.
- ^ "Christina Aguilera feat. Missy Elliott – Car Wash – swisscharts.com". Swiss Singles Chart. Hung Medien.
- ^ "Archive Chart" UK Singles Chart. Official Charts Company.
- ^ "Christina Aguilera Album & Song Chart History" Billboard Hot 100 for Christina Aguilera. Prometheus Global Media.
- ^ "Christina Aguilera Album & Song Chart History" Billboard R&B/Hip-Hop Songs for Christina Aguilera. Prometheus Global Media.
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- ^ [3]
- ^ [4]
- ^ [5]
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