In 1964, brothers Robert “Kool” Bell and Ronald Bell put a band together in Jersey City, New Jersey. Originally called the Jazziacs, that band would go on to fame and fortune by creating a song catalog that explored jazz, rhythm and blues, soul, funk, disco, rock, and pop music.

Eventually, the band settled on the name Kool & The Gang. The group underwent numerous personnel changes over the decades, beginning with their self-titled debut album in 1969 all the way through the release of 2021’s Perfect Union. Thanks to one song in particular, Kool & The Gang would become a integral part of weddings, birthdays, bar mitzvahs, sporting events, and just about every other kind of “Celebration” to this day.

• Celebration (1980)

  Released as the first single from their twelfth album, Celebrate! (1980), “Celebration” was the band’s first and only single to reach No. 1 on the US Billboard Hot 100. In 2021, the Library of Congress selected “Celebration” for preservation in the National Recording Registry for being “culturally historically or aesthetically significant.”

• Get Down On It (1981)

  The dance hit “Get Down on It” was originally released on Kool & The Gang’s Something Special album in 1981. Apparently, even the camera had a hard time capturing this level of funkiness

• Misled (1984)

  Kool & The Gang showed off their rock chops on “Misled,” the first single from their 1984 album, Emergency. This surreal video is part horror movie, part Indiana Jones knock-off.

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