Ohio Players – Honey

Well, if as a teenager I couldn’t have brought home the Ohio Players’ “Fire” because of its provocative cover, I sure as hell couldn’t have brought home “Honey.”

In fact, I didn’t buy it until late last year, when repeated YouTube viewings of the band performing “Love Rollercoaster” reminded me how much I enjoyed that song back in 1975 when this was released, and now that I have a pretty deep (if not broad) funk collection, I decided to pick this up.

Great record, beginning to end. It went to number 2 on the US pop chart! That was probably on the strength of “Love Rollercoaster,” which is one funky bop; the other two singles broke the Top 40 but didn’t leave much impression there, though “Sweet Sticky Thing” certainly hit number 1 on the R&B chart.

On the strength of this and “Fire,” Ohio Players have become one of those bands that I just play through – once one of their albums goes on, I just play them all.