Kool & The Gang 'The Hits: Reloaded' album

Kool & The Gang are one of the most celebrated and revered groups of all time. No other band can boast that they have maintained the original line up for 40 years!

They have wowed audiences all over the world with their live performances and their contribution to popular music culture is immeasurable. Their music has spanned four decades pushing the boundaries in all genres of music from Jazz, Funk, R 'n' B to Pop.

"The Hits: Reloaded" is a tribute based album which features major stars collaborating with Kool & The Gang on some of their classic hits.

The diverse artistic talent featured on "The Hits: Reloaded" is testament of Kool & The Gang's musical genius. Stepping up to pay homage on "The Hits: Reloaded" are artist including: Sean Paul, Angie Stone, Blue, Youssou N'Dour, Jimmy Cliff & Bounty Killer, Blackstreet, Blu Cantrell, Jamiroquai, Redman, Atomic Kitten, Ashanti and many more.

The remarkable Kool & The Gang story started in 1964 at PS 22 Junior School, and continued later at Lincoln High School, New Jersey, USA where two eighteen year olds, namely the original founding members, brothers Ronald Bell (a.k.a. Khalis Bayyan) and Robert "Kool" Bell on bass formed a group known as the Jazziacs. At the same school, the three remaining original principals ("DT" on horns, Charles Smith on guitar, and George Brown on keyboards) joined forces to create the nucleus of Kool & The Gang - a line up that are still playing together, celebrating in 2004 40 years of musical history, resulting in over 100m sales of Kool & The Gang music.

Kool & The Gang have touched every generation in a unique way, their music has been featured in the biggest movie soundtracks including Saturday Night Fever (Open Sesame), Rocky (Summer Madness) and more recently Pulp Fiction (Jungle Boogie).

During the late 1970's and especially in the 1980's Kool & The Gang enjoyed a run of 18 Top 40 UK hits including classic tracks such as "Ladies Night", "Get Down On It", "Ooh La La La (Let's Go Dancin')", "Joanna", "Cherish", "Take It To The Top", "Fresh", "Celebration", "(When You Say You Love Somebody In The Heart","Steppin' Out" and "Too Hot".

The hallmark of the Kool & The Gang sound is, undoubtedly, the classic horns combined with an exotic blend of thumping bass prevalent on all their recordings.

During the 1990's Kool & The Gang continued to tour whilst developing their studio complex back in New Jersey. They discovered the talents of Lauryn Hill & Wyclef Jean collectively known as The Fugees, as well as Colour Me Badd. Also during this period the Bell families' offspring also followed in their fathers' footsteps both as successful producers/songwriters and record company executives.

2003 saw the band collect a prestigious MOBO award in London for "Outstanding Achievement"

The first single from "The Hits: Reloaded" was released towards the end of 2003, by Atomic Kitten. "Ladies Night" which hit the UK Top 10 resulted in Atomic Kitten's album "Ladies Night" selling in excess of 600k in the UK.

The fact remains, no one single group can boast such a diverse catalogue of hits that are still used (by means of both "sampling" [their publishers can confirm that there were over 1,000 samples used during the last ten years!] And/or standard "covers") than Kool & The Gang.

"The Hits: Reloaded" not only celebrates 40 years at the top of the musical jungle - the fact that such an amazing collection of contemporary musical talent has paid tribute by performing on this album illustrates the quality of Kool & The Gang.

The release of "The Hits: Reloaded" will see Kool & The Gang visit Europe to support their pan European release. A comprehensive promotional itinerary is currently being put together which includes performances for television and radio, press interviews and concert dates.

A charity concert, at Euro Disney in February 2005 is being planned with UNESCO to create an awareness campaign for Aids in Africa, a subject close to Robert "Kool" Bell's heart.

"The Hits: Reloaded" by Kool & The Gang was an idea developed by Robert "Kool" Bell and Alan Bellman C.E.O. of Unique Corp (Kool & The Gang's UK record company) in 1998 following the huge success of the Tom Jones album "Re: Load".

"The Hits: Reloaded" is not a conventional "covers" album but a unique collaboration of contemporary talent with the original Kool & The Gang line up. The album was recorded in part at the Kool & The Gang studio in New Jersey, USA, with programming and mixing in London. The album was co-produced by Ronald Bell (a.k.a. Khalis Bayyan) and London based producer Leigh Guest. The blend of US, African and UK talent illustrates the powerful sense of artistic respect that exists for Kool & The Gang. Had time been no object, many more major names that wanted to join this extremely excellent cast would have been included.

We are proud to announce the release on 31st May 2004 of "The Hits: Reloaded".

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Kool & The Gang - The Hits: Reloaded