The smooth, melodic vibes served as the nice and easy soundtrack for the summer of 1979.
Release Date: April 1979
Peak Chart Position (US): #9
In the summer of 1979, disco still ruled the radio and music charts. Donna Summer was heating things up with singles from her Bad Girls album, Barbra Streisand was storming dance floors with “The Main Event/Fight” and Anita Ward’s “Ring My Bell” was everywhere.
RELATED: August 1984: Ray Parker Jr. Tops the Charts with “Ghostbusters”
Detroit band Raydio took a much smoother route to the dance floor with the single, “You Can’t Change That.” Taken from the group’s second album, Rock On, the tune favored melody over rhythm, featuring thick vocal harmonies and a captivating chorus. The song soared into the Top 10, peaking at #9 on the Hot 100 for the week of August 18, 1979. The #1 song in America that week: Chic’s “Good Times.”
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Raydio frontman Ray Parker Jr. arrived with a serious pedigree. Playing with the Spinners while only a teen, he would record with the likes of Marvin Gaye and Smokey Robinson before being tapped by Stevie Wonder just before his 18th birthday to join his touring band in 1972. Their first gig: supporting the Rolling Stones on a North American tour.
Scoring his biggest hit in 1984 with “Ghostbusters,” Parker continues to work, perform and record at his own pace. He’s planning to release an autobiographical documentary next year to coincide with the release of Ghostbusters 2020.
“The movie will educate you about when I grew up in Detroit,” he told The Glendale Star. “It’s an eye-opener. They learn about all the clubs in Detroit and how, right after high school, Stevie Wonder took me out on tour with the Rolling Stones. My parents didn’t want me to go. They wanted me to get a job building cars at Ford.”