1978
WHAT YOU WAITIN' FOR * STARGARD * MCA 40932 * USA
This slice of late 1970s Disco/Funk is a good example of how far, production wise, the music had come since the late 1940s group sound, even from the majors, like Decca or Columbia. To many the connection to say a Ravens or Orioles record would be unbridgeable, on a Ravens cut the production was most likely one track with all the group and musicians around one mike, and an engineer with no other electronic wizardry but about four dials to work Whereas by the time of Stargard the recording was probably on 64 channels, or more and a mixing deck the size of a shop counter, with enough electronic doo dahs to fake another man on the moon. But production apart, for me, there is really very little difference between Stargard and say a Louis Jordan dance recording or even a jumpin' R&B cut by Larry Darnell or Roy Brown; it's the positive vibration that is embedded in the music, its expression, and the genre, that remained a constant throughout the period despite the technological additions. Stargard was an all girl group who's original three members were: Rochelle Runnells, Debra Anderson, and Janice Williams, they first started recording for MCA in 1977 under the direction of Norman Whitfield, who wrote What You Waitin' For, and completely disbanded in 1983.