| ck | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
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| Studio album by | ||||
| Released | November 22, 1988 | |||
| Recorded | January–September 1988 | |||
| Genre | R&B | |||
| Length | 49:26 | |||
| Label | Warner Bros. | |||
| Producer | Russ Titelman David Frank Chaka Khan Prince Chris Jasper | |||
| Chaka Khan chronology | ||||
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| Singles from ck | ||||
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| Review scores | |
|---|---|
| Source | Rating |
| AllMusic |   [1] |
ck is the seventh studio album by American R&B/funk singer Chaka Khan, released on the Warner Bros. Records label in 1988.
ck was Khan's first album not to be recorded with Arif Mardin. Instead, it had, with the exception of two tracks, Russ Titelman at the helm as producer, with whom she had collaborated on hits including "Ain't Nobody" (1983), "Eye to Eye" from 1984's platinum-selling I Feel for You as well as "Tight Fit" from her previous album Destiny . Musically ck combined a variety of genres such as soul, R&B, funk, pop as well as two jazz titles and altogether the set was more laid-back, less hip-hop influenced and production-wise not as complex and synth-driven as I Feel for You and Destiny.
ck opens with Khan's cover of Stevie Wonder's 1970 hit "Signed, Sealed, Delivered I'm Yours", again featuring the composer himself on harmonica, as on the 1984 hit single "I Feel for You".
One of the two tracks not to be produced by Russ Titelman was the funky and improvisational "Sticky Wicked", Khan's first proper collaboration with Prince after having covered his "I Feel for You" and turning it into a million-selling hit single. ck also includes a second Prince composition, a cover version of Sheena Easton's "Eternity" (produced by David Frank and Khan herself), and some ten years later Khan and Prince were to team up for a full-length album together, Come 2 My House .
ck includes one track written and co-produced by Chris Jasper, former member of the Isley Brothers, who was also responsible for writing and producing much of the Isley material from 1973 through 1984 before the Isley Brothers' breakup. Jasper can also be heard singing backing vocals with Khan on "Make It Last".
ck also features two recordings of jazz classics that since have become mainstays in Khan's live repertoire, "The End of a Love Affair", a tribute to Billie Holiday who first recorded the song on her 1958 album Lady in Satin , and Alec Wilder's "I'll Be Around", the latter with a guest appearance by trumpeter Miles Davis, who also features on the Prince track "Sticky Wicked".
Three singles were released from ck: Womack & Womack's Latino-flavoured "It's My Party", which reached number five on Billboard's R&B Singles chart, "Soul Talkin'" and "Baby Me", which reached Top 20 on the R&B chart, peaking at number 12. The ck album itself also charted higher than the preceding Destiny, reaching number 17 on the R&B Albums chart.
One title from the ck sessions was only released as a single B-side, "Everybody Needs Some Love" written by former Rufus member David "Hawk" Wolinski, producer Russ Titelman and Khan herself.
| Chart (1988) | Peak position |
|---|---|
| Australian Albums (ARIA) [2] | 115 |
| US Billboard 200 [3] | 125 |
| US Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums (Billboard) [4] | 17 |
The Isley Brothers are an American soul group originally from Cincinnati, Ohio, that began as a vocal trio consisting of the brothers O'Kelly Isley Jr., Rudolph Isley and Ronald Isley in the 1950s. With a career spanning over seven decades, the group has enjoyed one of the "longest, most influential, and most diverse careers in the pantheon of popular music".
Yvette Marie Stevens, better known by her stage name Chaka Khan, is an American singer. Known as the "Queen of Funk", her career has spanned more than five decades beginning in the early 1970s as the lead vocalist of the funk band Rufus. With the band she recorded the notable hits "Tell Me Something Good", "Sweet Thing", "Do You Love What You Feel" and the platinum-certified "Ain't Nobody". Her debut solo album featured the number-one R&B hit "I'm Every Woman". Khan scored another R&B charts hit with "What Cha' Gonna Do for Me" before becoming the first R&B artist to have a crossover hit featuring a rapper, with her 1984 cover of Prince's "I Feel for You". More of Khan's hits include "Through the Fire" and a 1986 collaboration with Steve Winwood that produced a number-one hit on the Billboard Hot 100, "Higher Love".
Angela Lisa Winbush is an American R&B/soul singer-songwriter, musician and record producer who rose to fame first in the 1980s R&B duo René & Angela, also scoring hits as a solo artist. To date, Winbush has sold over 10 million albums and singles worldwide.
Gavin Christopher was an American R&B singer, songwriter, musician, and producer.
Christopher Howard Jasper is an American singer, composer, and producer. Jasper is a former member of the Isley Brothers and Isley-Jasper-Isley and is responsible for writing and producing the majority of the Isley Brothers music (1973–1983) and Isley-Jasper-Isley music (1984–1987). He is also a successful solo musician and record producer, recording over 17 of his own solo albums, including four urban contemporary gospel albums, all written, produced and performed, both vocally and instrumentally, by Jasper. He also produces artists for his New York City-based record label, Gold City Records. Jasper's keyboard and Moog synthesizer work was a primary ingredient of the Isley Brothers' sound of the 1970s and 1980s when the Isley Brothers were a self-contained band.
I Feel for You is the fifth solo studio album by American R&B/funk singer Chaka Khan, released on the Warner Bros. Records label in 1984.
Russ Titelman is an American record producer and songwriter. He has to date won three Grammy Awards. He earned his first producing the Steve Winwood song "Higher Love", and his second and third for Eric Clapton's Journeyman and Unplugged albums, respectively. Titelman also produced Clapton's 24 Nights live album of 1990 and the all-blues album From the Cradle, released in 1994.
Back in the High Life is the fourth solo album by English singer, songwriter, and multi-instrumentalist Steve Winwood, released on 30 June 1986. The album proved to be Winwood's biggest success to that date, certified Gold in the UK and 3× Platinum in the US, and it reached the top twenty in most Western countries. It collected three Grammy Awards and generated five hit singles, starting with "Higher Love", which became Winwood's first Billboard Hot 100 number-one chart topper, coming 20 years after he first entered that chart with "Keep on Running" by the Spencer Davis Group. Other global hit singles from the album were "Freedom Overspill", "Back in the High Life Again" and "The Finer Things". The single "Split Decision", with ex-Eagles guitarist Joe Walsh, was a US hit.
Harvest for the World is the fourteenth studio album released by The Isley Brothers on their T-Neck imprint on May 29, 1976.
Naughty is the second solo album by American R&B and funk singer Chaka Khan, released on Warner Bros. Records in 1980.
Destiny is the sixth studio album by American R&B/funk singer Chaka Khan, released on Warner Bros. Records in 1986.
Stompin' at the Savoy – Live is an album by American R&B/funk band Rufus with singer Chaka Khan, released on the Warner Bros. Records label in 1983.
Life Is a Dance: The Remix Project is a remix album of recordings by American R&B/funk singer Chaka Khan, released by the Warner Bros. Records label in 1989. The compilation takes its title from a track included on Khan's 1978 solo debut album Chaka.
The Woman I Am is the eighth studio album by American singer Chaka Khan. It was released by Warner Bros. Records on April 14, 1992, in the United states. Dedicated to her friend Miles Davis, who had died the previous year, the album was Khan's first full-length project since 1988's CK. Khan worked with a variety of producers on the album, including multi-instrumentalist Marcus Miller, Scritti Politti's David Gamson as well as frequent collaborator Arif Mardin and his son Joe Mardin.
Come 2 My House is the ninth studio album by American R&B/funk singer Chaka Khan released on the NPG Records label in 1998.
Epiphany: The Best of Chaka Khan, Vol. 1 is a compilation album of recordings by American R&B/funk singer Chaka Khan, first released on the Warner Bros. Records label in 1996. Although the compilation, which reached #22 on Billboard's R&B chart and #84 on Pop, was given the "Vol. 1" tag, it remains without a sequel to date.
Dance Classics of Chaka Khan is a compilation album of recordings by American R&B/funk singer Chaka Khan released on the Warner Bros. Records label in Japan in 1999.
Rufus featuring Chaka Khan is the gold-selling fourth studio album by the funk band Rufus and Chaka Khan, released on the ABC Records label in 1975. It remained on top of the R&B album chart for six consecutive weeks.
Brave New World is the ninth album by American jazz group The Rippingtons, released in 1996 for the GRP label. The album reached No. 4 on Billboard's contemporary jazz chart. It was the group's final release on the GRP label.
20/20 is a studio album by George Benson, released on the Warner Bros. record label in 1985. The lead single by the same name reached #48 on the Billboard Hot 100. The album was certified Gold by the RIAA. "You Are the Love of My Life" is a duet with Roberta Flack. It was one of a number of songs used for Eden Capwell and Cruz Castillo on the American soap opera Santa Barbara. Also included on 20/20 is the original version of the song "Nothing's Gonna Change My Love for You" which would later become a smash hit for Hawaiian singer Glenn Medeiros.
