Lonette on YouTube

Years before she appeared in SPARKLE, THE COTTON CLUB, 'ROUND MIDNIGHT, and numerous Spike Lee movies, actress Lonette McKee was a singer in Detroit at the height of the Motown era. As Lonette, she recorded her first single at age 11 and was cutting tracks for producers Dennis Coffey & Mike Theodore by 13 (In his autobiography Guitars, Bars and Motown Superstars, Coffey recalls Lonette's mom dropping her off at the studio every day after school). A couple of her early singles on the Dearborn and M-S labels, like "Blue Jeans," are very hard to find. "Mind Intruder" from '67 can be heard on the import comp CD Detroit: The Northern Soul Years (Goldmine), but here it is on YouTube for your listening pleasure:



Lonette recorded her first LP in 1974 for Sussex Records, again with the Theo-Coff team handling production chores. Here she is on Soul Train performing the single from that album, "Save It." Enjoy!

MARDI GRAS MASSACRE -- The Soundtrack!

Jack Weis' no-budget gore flick MARDI GRAS MASSACRE (1978) features a slammin' -- and completely inappropriate -- soundtrack of R&B/disco songs credited to Westbound Records and the label's top production team at the time, Dennis Coffey & Mike Theodore (Theo-Coff Productions). No song titles or artists are listed in the credits, but I've managed to identify all but one of the songs and confirm the 1978 production date that is most frequently cited for this movie -- even though it received its widest theatrical exposure five years later.

Westbound Records, formed in Detroit in 1970 by Armen Boladian, had just seen its three most successful acts (The Ohio Players, Funkadelic, Denise LaSalle) depart for greener pastures and needed some hits to satisfy a new distribution deal with Atlantic Records. Theo-Coff -- the team that discovered Rare Earth and Lonette McKee, produced "So Nice to be With You" by Gallery as well as Coffey's own million-seller "Scorpio," and brought the world one of the greatest movie themes ever ("Theme from BLACK BELT JONES") -- was called in to produce some hits for the struggling Motor City label. They could've had a smash with "Devil's Gun" by C.J. & Co. but the single, despite being a big hit in the clubs, only reached 36 on the Pop chart and never got the push it deserved. By the time MARDI GRAS MASSACRE was completed, Westbound had lost its distribution deal with Atlantic Records and Theo-Coff was looking for work elsewhere.

I wrote to Dennis Coffey about MARDI GRAS MASSACRE in early 2006 and he answered, "A long time ago Mike Theodore and I and Armen from Westbound worked on a film score based upon things we had already recorded. It was a pretty gory film. I don't know if this is the one you are referring to."

It is!

All of the Coffey songs were pulled from Back Home and the Theodore numbers were from Cosmic Wind, both released in 1977. "Big City Sidewalk" is on C.J. & Co.'s second album, Deadeye Dick, a Theo-Coff production released in 1978. Several of the songs are heard twice in the film, and the intro from "Cosmic Wind" is played every time one of the gory sacrificial murders is committed.

TRACK LIST

1. "High On Love" – Dennis Coffey

2. "Cosmic Wind" – The Mike Theodore Orchestra

3. "Funk Connection" – Dennis Coffey

4. "Our Love Goes On Forever" – Dennis Coffey

5. "Ain't Nothing to It" – The Mike Theodore Orchestra

6. "The Bull" – The Mike Theodore Orchestra

7. "Belly Boogie" – The Mike Theodore Orchestra

8. "Free Spirit" – Dennis Coffey

9. "Boogie Magic" – Dennis Coffey

10. "I Love the Way You Move" – The Mike Theodore Orchestra

11. "Big City Sidewalk" – C.J. & Co.

12. "Brazilian Lullaby" – The Mike Theodore Orchestra

13. "Wings of Fire" – Dennis Coffey