Chaka is the debut solo album by American

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 R&B

Rhythm and blues

Rhythm and blues, often abbreviated to R&B, is a genre of popular African American music that originated in the 1940s. The term was originally used by record companies to describe recordings marketed predominantly to urban African Americans, at a time when "urbane, rocking, jazz based music with a...

/funk singer Chaka Khan

Chaka Khan

Chaka Khan , frequently known as the Queen of Funk, is a 10-time Grammy Award winning American singer-songwriter who gained fame in the 1970s as the frontwoman and focal point of the funk band Rufus. While still a member of the group in 1978, Khan embarked on a successful solo career...

, released on the Warner Bros. Records

Warner Bros. Records

Warner Bros. Records Inc. is an American record label. It was the foundation label of the present-day Warner Music Group, and now operates as a wholly owned subsidiary of that corporation. It maintains a close relationship with its former parent, Warner Bros. Pictures, although the two companies...

 label in 1978.

Overview

Two singles were released from Chaka, the first being her anthemic solo debut "I'm Every Woman

I'm Every Woman

"I'm Every Woman" is a hit song recorded by Chaka Khan in 1978. It was Chaka Khan's first hit outside of her recordings with funk band Rufus; the song was included on her platinum debut solo album Chaka. Produced by Arif Mardin and written by successful songwriting team Nickolas Ashford and Valerie...

", one of Khan's signature tunes alongside "Ain't Nobody" (1983) and "I Feel For You" (1984). The song has over the past three decades been re-released, remixed and covered a number of times, most notably by Whitney Houston

Whitney Houston

Whitney Elizabeth Houston is an American singer, actress, producer and a former model. Houston is the most awarded female act of all time, according to Guinness World Records, and her list of awards include 1 Emmy Award, 6 Grammy Awards, 30 Billboard Music Awards, 22 American Music Awards, among...

 in 1992 for the soundtrack album The Bodyguard, then featuring guest vocals by Khan herself and topping Billboard

Billboard (magazine)

Billboard is a weekly American magazine devoted to the music industry, and is one of the oldest trade magazines in the world. It maintains several internationally recognized music charts that track the most popular songs and albums in various categories on a weekly basis...

s Hot Dance Music/Club Play chart. A remix of Khan's original recording was also a Top Ten hit in the U.K. in 1989. The remix was included on the compilation Life is a Dance - The Remix Project

Life is a Dance - The Remix Project

Life is a Dance: The Remix Project is a remix album of recordings by American R&B/funk singer Chaka Khan released by the Warner Bros. Records label in 1989...

, the title track of which was the second single release from the Chaka album in early 1979 (US R&B #40). The album also features the ballad "Roll Me Through the Rushes", never commercially released as a single but still receiving considerable airplay in 1979, as well as Khan's cover version of Stevie Wonder

Stevie Wonder

Stevland Hardaway Morris , better known by his stage name Stevie Wonder, is an American singer-songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, record producer and activist...

's "I Was Made To Love Her

I Was Made to Love Her (song)

"I Was Made to Love Her" is a hit single recorded by American soul musician Stevie Wonder for Motown's Tamla label in 1967 . The song was written by Wonder, his mother Lula Mae Hardaway, Sylvia Moy and producer Henry Cosby; and included on Wonder's 1967 album I Was Made to Love Her...

", re-titled "I Was Made to Love Him".

Following the release of the Chaka album Khan reunited with Rufus

Rufus (band)

Rufus was an American funk band from Chicago, Illinois best known for launching the career of lead singer Chaka Khan. They had several hits throughout their career, including "Tell Me Something Good," "Sweet Thing," and "Ain't Nobody."-Origins:...

 for the recording of 1979's Masterjam

Masterjam

Masterjam is the eighth studio album by funk band Rufus , their debut on the MCA Records label following their purchase and dissolution of ABC Records, released in 1979.-History:...

, produced by Quincy Jones

Quincy Jones

Quincy Delightt Jones, Jr. is an American record producer and musician. A conductor, musical arranger, film composer, television producer, and trumpeter. His career spans five decades in the entertainment industry and a record 79 Grammy Award nominations, 27 Grammys, including a Grammy Legend...

. Her second solo album Naughty

Naughty (Chaka Khan album)

Naughty is the second solo album by American R&B/funk singer Chaka Khan, released on Warner Bros. Records in 1980.- Biography :Three singles were released from Naughty: the club hit "Clouds" , "Get Ready, Get Set" and the big hit "Papillon "...

 followed in 1980.

The Chaka album was re-released on CD in the United States by the Warner Music Group

Warner Music Group

Warner Music Group is the third largest business group and family of record labels in the recording industry, making it one of the big four record companies...

 in 1998.

Track listing

1. "I'm Every Woman
   I'm Every Woman
   "I'm Every Woman" is a hit song recorded by Chaka Khan in 1978. It was Chaka Khan's first hit outside of her recordings with funk band Rufus; the song was included on her platinum debut solo album Chaka. Produced by Arif Mardin and written by successful songwriting team Nickolas Ashford and Valerie...
   
   " (Nickolas Ashford, Valerie Simpson) - 4:05
2. "Love Has Fallen on Me" (Lloyd Webber, Charles Stepney
   Charles Stepney
   Charles Stepney was a producer, arranger, songwriter and musician famous for his Orchestral Psychedelic soul sound with Chicago's Cadet/Chess records in the 1960s/1970s and afterwards with Earth, Wind & Fire....
   
   ) - 4:52
3. "Roll Me Through the Rushes" (David Lasley, Lana Marrano) - 4:42
4. "Sleep on It" (Andrew Kastner, Larry John McNally) - 4:21
5. "Life Is a Dance" (Gavin Christopher
   Gavin Christopher
   Gavin Christopher is a R&B singer and musician, born on March 5, 1956 in Chicago, Illinois where he started out playing music at a very early age. Having been schooled by the likes of Oscar Brown Jr., Donny Hathaway and later on Curtis Mayfield, he honed his writing and singing skills and began his...
   
   ) - 4:20
6. "We Got the Love" (George Benson
   George Benson
   George Benson is a ten Grammy Award winning American musician, whose production career began at the age of twenty-one as a jazz guitarist....
   
   ) - 3:27
7. "Some Love" (Keith Boyd, Chaka Khan, Traude Sapik, Mark Stevens) - 5:50
8. "A Woman in a Man's World" (Andrew Kastner, Larry John McNally) - 3:56
9. "The Message in the Middle of the Bottom" (Lalomie Washburn
   Lalomie Washburn
   Lalomie Washburn was a R&B Singer Song Writer.She was born on August 25, 1941 in Memphis, Tennessee and went on to sing backup with such legends as Ray Charles, Ike & Tina Turner and Chaka Khan...
   
   ) - 4:15
10. "I Was Made to Love Him
    I Was Made to Love Her
    I Was Made to Love Her is the seventh studio album by Stevie Wonder, released in 1967 under Tamla Records, a Motown subsidiary.-Track listing:#"I Was Made to Love Her" – 2:36...
    
    " (Henry Cosby
    Henry Cosby
    Henry "Hank" R. Cosby was an African American songwriter and record producer for Motown Records...
    
    , Lula Mae Hardaway
    Lula Mae Hardaway
    Lula Mae Hardaway was the mother of blind soul musician Stevie Wonder...
    
    , Sylvia Moy
    Sylvia Moy
    Sylvia Moy is a songwriter and record producer, formerly associated with the Motown Records group. The first woman at the Detroit-based music label to write and produce for Motown acts, she is probably best known for her songs written for Stevie Wonder....
    
    , Stevie Wonder
    Stevie Wonder
    Stevland Hardaway Morris , better known by his stage name Stevie Wonder, is an American singer-songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, record producer and activist...
    
    ) - 3:23

Personnel

• Chaka Khan
  Chaka Khan
  Chaka Khan , frequently known as the Queen of Funk, is a 10-time Grammy Award winning American singer-songwriter who gained fame in the 1970s as the frontwoman and focal point of the funk band Rufus. While still a member of the group in 1978, Khan embarked on a successful solo career...
  
   - lead vocals, backing vocals
  Backing vocalist
  A backing vocalist or backing singer is a singer who provides vocal harmony with the lead vocalist or other backing vocalists...
  
  
• Gene Orloff - concert master
• Steve Ferrone
  Steve Ferrone
  Steven "Steve" Ferrone is a British drummer.He was a member of the Average White Band, and has recorded and performed with numerous other high-profile acts, including Slash, Chaka Khan, Eric Clapton, Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers and Scritti Politti...
  
   - drums
  Drum kit
  A drum kit is a collection of drums, cymbals and often other percussion instruments, such as cowbells, wood blocks, triangles, chimes, or tambourines, arranged for convenient playing by a single person ....
  
  
• Will Lee
  Will Lee (bassist)
  Will Lee aka William Franklin Lee IV is an American musician and bassist, best known for his work on the CBS television program The Late Show with David Letterman as part of the CBS Orchestra....
  
   - bass guitar
  Bass guitar
  The bass guitar is a stringed instrument played primarily with the fingers or thumb , or by using a pick....
  
   & backing vocals trks 1, 5, bass trk 3, backing vocals trks 4, 10
• Hamish Stuart
  Hamish Stuart
  Hamish Stuart is a guitarist, bassist, singer, composer and record producer.- Biography :Stuart had recorded a couple of singles with his first band, the Dream Police, before he was invited to join the recently formed Average White Band in June 1972.A member of AWB from 1972 to 1982, he went on to...
  
   - guitar
  Guitar
  The guitar is a plucked string instrument, usually played with fingers or a pick. The guitar consists of a body with a rigid neck to which the strings, generally six in number, are attached. Guitars are traditionally constructed of various woods and strung with animal gut or, more recently, with...
  
   & backing vocals trks 1, 2, 4, 5, backing vocals trk 3, guitar trks 6, 8, 10, bass trk 9
• Phil Upchurch
  Phil Upchurch
  Phil Upchurch is an American jazz and R&B guitarist and bassist.Upchurch started his career working with The Kool Gents, The Dells, and The Spaniels before going on to work with Curtis Mayfield, Otis Rush and Jimmy Reed. He then returned to Chicago to play and record with Woody Herman, Stan Getz,...
  
   - guitar trks 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 7, 8, 9, 10, bass trk 6
• Andrew Kastner - Guitar trks 4,8
• Richard Tee
  Richard Tee
  Richard Tee was a pianist, studio musician, singer and arranger.Tee graduated from the High School of Music and Art and attended the Manhattan School of Music. Though better known as a studio and session musician, Tee led a jazz ensemble, the Richard Tee Committee, and was a founding member of the...
  
   - piano
  Piano
  The piano is a musical instrument played by means of a keyboard. It is one of the most popular instruments in the world. Widely used in classical and jazz music for solo performances, ensemble use, chamber music and accompaniment, the piano is also very popular as an aid to composing and rehearsal...
  
   trks 1, 2, 7, 8, electric piano
  Electric piano
  An electric piano is an electric musical instrument.Electric pianos produce sounds mechanically and the sounds are turned into electrical signals by pickups. Unlike a synthesizer, the electric piano is not an electronic instrument, but electro-mechanical. The earliest electric pianos were invented...
  
   trk 4, clavinet
  Clavinet
  A Clavinet is an electrically amplified keyboard instrument manufactured by the Hohner company. It is essentially an electronically amplified clavichord, analogous to an electric guitar. Its distinctive bright staccato sound has appeared particularly in funk, disco, rock, and reggae songs.Various...
  
   trk 5, piano & clavinet trk 10
• Cissy Houston
  Cissy Houston
  Emily "Cissy" Houston is a Grammy Award–winning American soul and gospel singer. She led a very successful career as a backup singer for such artists as Elvis Presley, Mahalia Jackson, Wishbone Ash and Aretha Franklin, and is now primarily a solo artist...
  
   - backing vocals trks 1, 2, 3
• Whitney Houston
  Whitney Houston
  Whitney Elizabeth Houston is an American singer, actress, producer and a former model. Houston is the most awarded female act of all time, according to Guinness World Records, and her list of awards include 1 Emmy Award, 6 Grammy Awards, 30 Billboard Music Awards, 22 American Music Awards, among...
  
   - backing vocals trks 1, 3, 5
• David Lasley
  David Lasley
  David Lasley is an American singer-songwriter, best known for his contributions as a background singer for such artists as Bonnie Raitt, James Taylor and Luther Vandross....
  
   - backing vocals trks 2, 3
• Anthony Jackson - bass trks 2, 4, 10
• George Young - alto saxophone
  Alto saxophone
  The alto saxophone is a member of the saxophone family of woodwind instruments invented by Belgian instrument designer Adolphe Sax in 1841. It is smaller than the tenor but larger than the soprano, and is the type most used in classical compositions...
  
   trks 2, 5, 6
• Ronnie Cuber
  Ronnie Cuber
  Ronnie Cuber is a jazz saxophonist. He has also played in Latin, pop, rock and blues sessions. In addition to his primary instrument, baritone sax, he has also played tenor sax, soprano sax and flute, the latter on an album by Eddie Palmieri. As a leader, Cuber is known for hard bop and Latin jazz...
  
   - baritone saxophone
  Baritone saxophone
  The baritone saxophone, often called "bari sax" , is one of the largest and lowest pitched members of the saxophone family. It was invented by Adolphe Sax. The baritone is distinguished from smaller sizes of saxophone by the extra loop near its mouthpiece...
  
   trks 2, 5, 6
• Michael Brecker
  Michael Brecker
  Michael Leonard Brecker was an American jazz saxophonist and composer. Acknowledged as "a quiet, gentle musician widely regarded as the most influential tenor saxophonist since John Coltrane," he has been awarded 15 Grammy Awards as both performer and composer and was inducted into Down Beat Jazz...
  
   - tenor saxophone
  Tenor saxophone
  The tenor saxophone is a medium-sized member of the saxophone family, a group of instruments invented by Adolphe Sax in the 1840s. The tenor, with the alto, are the two most common types of saxophones. The tenor is pitched in the key of B, and written as a transposing instrument in the treble...
  
   trks 2, 5, 6, 7, tenor saxophone solo trks 7, 9
• Barry Rogers
  Barry Rogers
  Barry Rogers was a salsa musician and jazz fusion trombonist.Born Barron W. Rogers in The Bronx, he descended from Polish Jews who came to New York City via London and was raised in Spanish Harlem...
  
   - trombone
  Trombone
  The trombone is a musical instrument in the brass family. Like all brass instruments, sound is produced when the player’s vibrating lips cause the air column inside the instrument to vibrate...
  
   trks 2, 5, 6
• Randy Brecker
  Randy Brecker
  Randal "Randy" Brecker is an American trumpeter and flugelhornist. He is a highly sought after performer in the genres of jazz, rock, and R&B, and has performed or recorded with Stanley Turrentine, Billy Cobham, Bruce Springsteen, Lou Reed, Sandip Burman, Charles Mingus, Blood, Sweat & Tears,...
  
   - trumpet
  Trumpet
  The trumpet is the musical instrument with the highest register in the brass family. Trumpets are among the oldest musical instruments, dating back to at least 1500 BCE. They are played by blowing air through closed lips, producing a "buzzing" sound which starts a standing wave vibration in the air...
  
   trks 2, 5, 6, 8, 9, trumpet & flugelhorn
  Flugelhorn
  The flugelhorn is a brass instrument resembling a trumpet but with a wider, conical bore. Some consider it to be a member of the saxhorn family developed by Adolphe Sax ; however, other historians assert that it derives from the valve bugle designed by Michael Saurle , Munich 1832 , thus...
  
   trk 7
• Rick Marotta
  Rick Marotta
  Rick Marotta is a US-based drummer and percussionist who appears on many recordings by leading artists such as Aretha Franklin, Carly Simon, Steely Dan, James Taylor, Paul Simon, John Lennon, Hall & Oates, Stevie Nicks, Wynonna, Roy Orbison, Todd Rundgren, Roberta Flack, Peter Frampton, Quincy...
  
   - drums trk 3
• Leon Pendarvis - electric piano trk 3
• Brook Tillotson - french horn trks 3, 4, 7, 8, 9
• Jim Buffington - french horn trks 3, 4
• Cornell Dupree
  Cornell Dupree
  Cornell Luther Dupree was an American jazz and R&B guitarist. He worked at various times with Bill Withers, Donny Hathaway, King Curtis and Steve Gadd, appeared on David Letterman, and wrote a book on soul and blues guitar: Rhythm and Blues Guitar ISBN 0-634-00149-3...
  
   - guitar trk 3
• Gene Bianco - harp
  Harp
  The harp is a multi-stringed instrument which has the plane of its strings positioned perpendicularly to the soundboard. Organologically, it is in the general category of chordophones and has its own sub category . All harps have a neck, resonator and strings...
  
   trk 3
• Alan Gorrie
  Alan Gorrie
  Alan Gorrie is a Scottish bassist, guitarist, keyboardist and singer. He is a founding member of the Average White Band and remains one of two original members in the group's current line-up....
  
   - backing vocals trks 3, 5
• Ken Bichel - synthesizer
  Synthesizer
  A synthesizer is an electronic instrument capable of producing sounds by generating electrical signals of different frequencies. These electrical signals are played through a loudspeaker or set of headphones...
  
   (S.R.M.) trks 4, 6, 8
• Raphael Cruz - congas trk 6, trk 9
• Arthur Jenkins - electric piano trk 6, clavinet trk 9
• Eddie Daniels - flute
  Flute
  The flute is a musical instrument of the woodwind family. Unlike woodwind instruments with reeds, a flute is an aerophone or reedless wind instrument that produces its sound from the flow of air across an opening...
  
   trk 6
• Phil Bodner - flute trk 6
• George Marge - alto flute
  Alto flute
  The alto flute is a type of Western concert flute, a musical instrument in the woodwind family. It is the next extension downward of the C flute after the flûte d'amour. It is characterized by its distinct, mellow tone in the lower portion of its range...
  
   trk 6
• George Benson
  George Benson
  George Benson is a ten Grammy Award winning American musician, whose production career began at the age of twenty-one as a jazz guitarist....
  
   - vocals
  Singing
  Singing is the act of producing musical sounds with the voice, and augments regular speech by the use of both tonality and rhythm. One who sings is called a singer or vocalist. Singers perform music known as songs that can be sung either with or without accompaniment by musical instruments...
  
   trk 6
• Mark Stevens - bass trk 7, backing vocals trk 10
• John Clark - french horn trk 7, 8, 9
• Onnie McIntyre - guitar trks 7, 9
• Airto Moreira
  Airto Moreira
  Airto Moreira is a Brazilian jazz drummer and percussionist. Airto is married to jazz singer Flora Purim, and their daughter Diana Moreira is also a singer. He currently resides in Los Angeles.-Biography:...
  
   - percussion
  Percussion instrument
  A percussion instrument is any object which produces a sound when hit with an implement or when it is shaken, rubbed, scraped, or otherwise acted upon in a way that sets the object into vibration...
  
   trk 7
• David Sanborn
  David Sanborn
  David Sanborn is an American alto saxophonist. Though Sanborn has worked in many genres, his solo recordings typically blend jazz with instrumental pop and R&B. He released his first solo album Taking Off in 1975, but has been playing the saxophone since before he was in high school...
  
   - alto saxophone trks 7, 8
• Sammy Figueroa
  Sammy Figueroa
  Sammy Figueroa is an American percussionist born in The Bronx, New York. At 18 he joined the band of bassist Bobby Valentín and also co-led the Brazilian/Latin fusion group Raices....
  
   - percussion trk 8
• Paul Faulise - bass trombone trk 8, 9
• Jesse Levy - cello
  Cello
  The cello is a bowed string instrument with four strings tuned in perfect fifths. It is a member of the violin family of musical instruments, which also includes the violin, viola, and double bass. Old forms of the instrument in the Baroque era are baryton and viol .A person who plays a cello is...
  
   trk 9
• Kermit Moore - cello trk 9
• Richard Bock - cello trk 9
• Terri Gonzales - backing vocals trk 10
• Tony Maiden - guitar solo trk 10
• Luther Vandross
  Luther Vandross
  Luther Ronzoni Vandross was an American singer-songwriter and record producer. During his career, Vandross sold over twenty-five million albums and won eight Grammy Awards including Best Male R&B Vocal Performance four times...
  
   - backing vocals trk 3
• F. Buldrini - strings
  String instrument
  A string instrument is a musical instrument that produces sound by means of vibrating strings. In the Hornbostel-Sachs scheme of musical instrument classification, used in organology, they are called chordophones...
  
  
• E. Bianco - strings
• G. Marge - strings
• G. Lumia - strings
• H. Kohon - strings
• J. Levy - strings
• J. Malin - strings
• J. Abramowitz - strings
• J. Barber - strings
• K. Moore - strings
• M. Morgenstern - strings
• M. Takayama - strings
• P. Winter - strings
• R. Iandiorio - strings
• R. Bock - strings
• R. Sortomme - strings
• S. Allen - strings
• T. Israel - strings

Production

• Arif Mardin
  Arif Mardin
  Arif Mardin was a Turkish-American music producer, who worked with hundreds of artists across many different styles of music, including jazz, rock, soul, disco, and country...
  
   - record producer
  Record producer
  A record producer is an individual working within the music industry, whose job is to oversee and manage the recording of an artist's music...
  
  , musical arranger brass
  Brass
  Brass is an alloy of copper and zinc; the proportions of zinc and copper can be varied to create a range of brasses with varying properties.In comparison, bronze is principally an alloy of copper and tin...
  
  , strings, woodwind
• Chaka Khan
  Chaka Khan
  Chaka Khan , frequently known as the Queen of Funk, is a 10-time Grammy Award winning American singer-songwriter who gained fame in the 1970s as the frontwoman and focal point of the funk band Rufus. While still a member of the group in 1978, Khan embarked on a successful solo career...
  
   - musical arranger trk 5
• James Douglass - sound engineer
• Bill Dooley - assistant sound engineer
• Michael O'Reilly - assistant sound engineer
• Randy Mason - assistant sound engineer
• Sheridan Eldridge - assistant sound engineer
• Anthony D'Amico - assistant sound engineer
• Lew Hahn - additional recording engineer, remix
• Gene Paul - additional recording engineer
• Recorded at Atlantic Recording Studios, New York
• Additional recording at Cherokee Recording Studios, Los Angeles

External links

• Chaka at Discogs
  Discogs
  Discogs, short for discographies, is a website and database of information about audio recordings, including commercial releases, promotional releases, and bootleg or off-label releases. The Discogs servers, currently hosted under the domain name discogs.com, are owned by Zink Media, Inc., and are...