Parliament: Chocolate City [MERCURY]

Why you'll love it

This Mercury reissue brings back the third Parliament album on vinyl, with its melting chocolate medallion cover intact. It reached No. 18 on the Billboard soul albums chart, and the title track was a Top 30 R&B single.

About the album

Every city has a nickname, but few got a whole album. Washington's Black AM radio stations had been calling D.C. Chocolate City since the early 1970s, and George Clinton, grateful for the capital's loyal support, turned the phrase into a joyful, tongue-in-cheek celebration. The city returned the favour: the record sold 150,000 copies in D.C. alone.

The classic P-Funk lineup is all here, with Clinton, Bootsy Collins, Bernie Worrell and Eddie Hazel, plus Michael and Randy Brecker on horns. It's also where Clinton, Collins and Worrell first clicked as a songwriting team. "Ride On" is a slinky groove, "Let Me Be" draws on 1970s D.C. gospel with Hazel singing lead, "I Misjudged You" tips its hat to local ballad group the Unifics, and Glenn Goins makes his P-Funk debut on "Big Footin'."

Mothership Connection followed later the same year. The cover renders the Capitol, the Washington Monument and the Lincoln Memorial in milk chocolate, and we'd advise against leaving it on a sunny windowsill.

Also at Kops: more Parliament on vinyl · browse 70s Soul On Up

Tracklist

Listen

On Casablanca / Mercury (cat# NBLP 7014), a reissue of the 1975 album.