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Celebrate! is the twelfth studio album by American band Kool & the Gang. Released on September 29, 1980, the album reached No. 1 on the US R&B chart and #10 on the Billboard 200.[1] The album produced perhaps Kool & the Gang's most recognizable hit song, the #1 chart-topper, "Celebration", which still receives heavy play today over four decades later.[2]

Celebrate!
Studio album by Kool & the Gang
Released	September 29, 1980
Recorded	November 1979 – March 1980
Genre	Post-disco, funk
Length	35:18
Label	De-Lite
Producer	Kool and the Gang, Eumir Deodato
Kool & the Gang chronology
Ladies' Night (1979) Celebrate! (1980) Something Special (1981)
Singles from Celebrate!
"Celebration" Released: October 1980 "Take It To the Top" Released: January 1981 "Jones vs. Jones" Released: April 1981

Critical reception

Professional ratings

Review scores
Source	Rating
Allmusic	[3]
Record Mirror	[4]
Village Voice	(C-)[5]
Los Angeles Times	(favourable)[6]

Dennis Hunt of the Los Angeles Times called Celebration "the band's mostly excellent new album."[6] Robert Christgau of the Village Voice gave a C- grade saying "It says something for these funk pioneers that unlike James Brown, George Clinton, and the Ohio Players they've adapted painlessly, nay profitably, to disco: a number-one single leads their Deodato-produced album into the top ten. What it says is that their funk was as bland as you suspected."[5] With a 3 out of 5 stars review Amy Hanson of Allmusic found that "Celebrate itself marked the end of an era for Kool & the Gang, as the band would slip even farther from their funk roots and adopted dance grooves into the realms of smooth soul. But what a way to go!"[3]

Track listing

Personnel

• Bass – Robert "Kool" Bell
• Lead guitar – Charles Smith
• Keyboards, saxophone, backing vocals – Ronald Bell
• Drums, percussion, backing vocals – George Brown
• Lead and backing vocals – James "J.T." Taylor
• Alto saxophone – Dennis Thomas
• Trumpet, backing vocals – Robert Mickens
• Keyboards, backing vocals – Earl Toon, Jr.
• Keyboards – Kevin Bell
• Additional keyboards – Adam Epolito
• Backing vocals – Cedric Toon, Meekaeel Muhammad, Robert Bell, Coffee, Something Sweet
• Orchestra arranged and conducted by – Eumir Deodato

Production

• Recording engineer – Jim Bonnefond
• Assistant engineers – Bobby Cohen, Clif Hodsdon, Jeff Kawalex, Joe DeAngelis, Jullian Robertson, Kenny Robb
• Mixed by – Eumir Deodato, Jim Bonnefond, Gabe Vigorito
• Mastered by – Tom Coyne
• Producer – Eumir Deodato
• Associate producer – Kool & The Gang
• CD Mastering - Joe Gastwirt
• CD Remastering - Joe Gastwirt

Certifications

Region	Certification	Certified units/sales
United States (RIAA)[7]	Platinum	1,000,000^
^ Shipments figures based on certification alone.

References

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