Dennis Coffey - Finger Lickin Good (1975)

Dennis Coffey is an American guitarist. He was a studio musician for many soul and R&B recordings.

Dennis Coffey (born November 11, 1940, Detroit, Michigan) is an American guitarist. He was a studio musician for many soul and R&B recordings. Coffey learned to play guitar at the age of thirteen, in the Michigan Upper Peninsula town of Copper City. In 1955, as a fifteen year-old sophomore at Detroit's Mackenzie High School, Dennis played his first record session - backing Vic Gallon in "I'm Gone", on the Gondola record label. In the early 1960s he joined The Royaltones who had had hits with "Poor Boy" in 1958 and "Flamingo Express" in 1961. The Royaltones played sessions with other artists including Del Shannon. By the late 1960s as a member of the Funk Brothers studio band, Coffey played on dozens of recordings for Motown Records, and introduced a hard rock guitar sound to Motown record producer Norman Whitfield's recordings, including distortion, Echoplex tape-loop delay, and wah-wah; most notably heard on "Cloud Nine", "Ball of Confusion (That's What the World Is Today)" and "Psychedelic Shack" by The Temptations. He played on numerous other hit records of the era including #1 singles like Edwin Starr's "War" and Diana Ross & The Supremes "Someday We'll Be Together" and Freda Payne's #3 hit "Band of Gold". In addition, Coffey scored the blaxploitation film, Black Belt Jones. "Finger Lickin Good" was one of Coffey’s later LPs so you get those bad 70s influences. "If You Can’t Dance To This You Got No Business Havin Feet" is a perfect example with its dance style drum break intro that leads into a neo-disco song with strings, horns and a female chorus. There’s also a 4 count break on "El Tigre" and "Some Like It Hot" has 2 party dance breaks with drums and congas. The best song is probably "Wild Child" that has elements of "Scorpio" and Coffey’s earlier sound to it.

 

01.  "If You Can't Dance To This You Got No Business Havin-Feet"   - 3:48  

02.  "Finger Lickin Good"  - 3:18  

03.  "I've Got A Real Good Feeling" -  3:29  

04.  "Honky Tonk"  - 3:40  

05.  "El Tigre"  - 2:52  

06.  "Live Wire"  - 3:25  

07.  "Some Like It Hot"  - 5:10  

08.  "Fame"  - 3:47  

09.  "Wild Child"  - 3:10

Release:  1975

Label:  Westbound Records

Genre:  Funk, Soul, Jazz, Fusion

Length:  32:37

Producer:   Mike Theodore And Dennis Coffey

Credits

Dennis Coffey - Guitar