After years at Motown co-writing and producing hits like I Heard it Through the Grapevine for Marvin Gaye, War for Edwin Starr and many songs for the Temptations like I Can't Get Next to You, Papa Was A Rolling Stone and many more Norman Whitfield proved he was a mastermind when it came to making hit music. In the early 1970's he put together eight men and one woman to form the group Rose Royce. They had a few hits but their biggest was the title song for the hit comedy film Car Wash. Mr. Whitfield was asked to score the film and he asked Rose Royce and the Pointer Sisters to preform some of the non-stop disco/funk music for the film. Mr. Whitfield said he tried to have the music fit the mood of each scene. For example you would have some tense music in the scene where someone tries to talk a man out of holding up the place. With that in mind the opening theme seems like a car going through an automatice car wash. You hear handclaps as the water sprays the car. Then the bass comes in as the brushes are cleaning the car. As the car is finished running through its cycle the music is at its height. All of this came together to make Car Wash the #1 song in the country on this day in music history January 30, 1977.
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