“There were so many Sylvers,” Stereogum reports. “There were 10 Sylvers siblings … If you watch the Sylvers on any of the big TV shows of the era — The Midnight Special, Soul Train, American Bandstand — they make for a breathtaking spectacle: All these kids, most of them with towering afros, all doing complicated and busy dance routines while belting out some almost absurdly catchy music, looking like the damn Polyphonic Spree.”
Other than their smash #1 hit “Boogie Fever” (1975), perhaps the group’s best known single is 1976’s “Hot Line,” which made it to only #5. Stereogum continues: “The Sylvers played some kind of crucial connective role within pop music, acting as a bridge between early-’70s Motown and the disco explosion that followed. The Sylvers’ success couldn’t last, and it didn’t … In different permutations, the Sylvers kept recording until 1985, when they finally broke up.”
With a super-saturated arrangement and a tempo that percolates in the high 130 BPM range, this tune was hardly in need of a boost. But a half-step modulation does indeed drop at 2:01, with all of the siblings’ voices united in a huge syncopated kick.
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