Crown Heights Affair

Crown Heights Affair connected funk and disco with the same skill shown earlier by Earth, Wind & Fire and Kool & the Gang. Their horn-driven singles continued to energize dancers across decades and later acquired fresh currency once hip-hop producers began sampling them. Between 1974 and 1989 the Brooklyn group placed a dozen singles on U.S. charts. The second of those releases, the primarily instrumental title track from their sophomore album, reached number one on the Billboard disco chart. “Every Beat of My Heart” and the funkier “Dancin’” soon returned the band to the upper reaches of the same listing. At the start of the 1980s they scored a British Top Ten pop hit with “You Gave Me Love,” which highlighted their vocal strengths, and they kept refining their sound after disco’s peak through additional singles that ended with “I’ll Do Anything,” a track affirming their place in the rise of house music.

The ensemble began in Brooklyn in 1967 as Nue Dey Express. Its first lineup featured lead vocalist Phillip Thomas, guitarist William “Bubba” Anderson, bassist Arnold “Muki” Wilson, keyboardist Stan Johnson, and drummer Raymond “Sugar Ray” Rock. Saxophonist Darryl Gibbs, trumpeter James Baynard, and trombonist Julius Dilligard, Jr. joined shortly afterward. RCA signed the band in 1973, and the self-titled debut album appeared the next year. Although “Super Rod” found favor in New York, it attracted little notice elsewhere; the same outcome greeted “Leave the Kids Alone” and “Special Kind of Woman,” after which the label dropped the group.

Johnson, Gibbs, Baynard, and Dilligard departed at that stage. Howie Young moved to keyboards, Tyrone Demmons took the trumpet chair, and siblings Bertram Reid and Raymond Reid handled saxophone and trombone, respectively. This roster signed with De-Lite, the same label that housed kindred spirits Kool & the Gang. In 1975 Crown Heights Affair issued its second album, Dreaming a Dream. An extended disco mix of the title track climbed to the R&B Top Five and the pop Top 50, while “Every Beat of My Heart” and “Foxy Lady” reinforced the band’s standing with club audiences.

Percussionist Skip Boardley entered the lineup for 1976’s Do It Your Way. Although the lead single “Dancin’” leaned heavily on Isaac Hayes’ “Theme from ‘Shaft’,” sales remained solid; the follow-up “Do It the French Way,” however, drew scant attention. Dream World benefited in 1978 from De-Lite’s new international arrangement with Polygram. Overnight the band gained a devoted British following, and both “Galaxy of Love” and “I’m Gonna Love You Forever” reached the U.K. pop chart. The title song from 1979’s Dance Lady Dance also succeeded there, yet the album underperformed at home, prompting the group to enlist producer Bert DeCoteaux, already known for Sister Sledge hits. The resulting Sure Shot stands as a minor classic, anchored by the disco staple “You Gave Me Love,” a British Top Ten pop success during the summer of 1980.

Once public interest in disco collapsed, Crown Heights Affair went on hiatus for two years. Without keyboardist Young, the remaining members resurfaced in 1982 with Think Positive!, which adopted a sleeker pop-funk approach. After one final album, 1983’s Struck Gold, the band dissolved. Bert Reid later found success as a producer, overseeing Denroy Morgan’s underground hit “I’d Do Anything for You” as well as sessions for Unlimited Touch (“I Hear Music in the Streets”), Raw Silk (“Do It to the Music”), and Barbara Tucker (“Stay Together”). Crown Heights Affair returned briefly at the end of the decade with the soulful house single “I’ll Do Anything,” recorded with assistance from Ce Ce Rogers, Marshall Jefferson, and Kenny Bobien.

As older Crown Heights Affair grooves kept circulating among club DJs and surfaced on later hip-hop and R&B tracks, Reid also worked with producer/DJs Little Louie Vega and François Kevorkian. He died in New York City in 2004. Raymond Reid succumbed to cancer in 2013, and James Baynard died two years later following a car crash.