King Dream Chorus & Holiday Crew: "King Holiday" (1986)

As the story goes, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s son Dexter Scott King called Kurtis Blow in 1985 and asked him to make a record celebrating the legacy of his father and the then-forthcoming national holiday in Dr. King’s honor. Blow then assembled the King Dream Chorus and Holiday Crew, consisting of a lot of the premier R&B singers and rappers of the moment: El DeBarge, a very-early-in-her-career Whitney Houston, Stacy Lattisaw, New Edition, Lisa Lisa, “J.T.” Taylor of Kool & the Gang, Stephanie Mills, Teena Marie, and Menudo (yes, Ricky Martin’s on this), along with the Fat Boys, Run-D.M.C., Whodini, and Grandmaster Melle Mel. This wasn’t “We Are the World”; this was a black record, not a pop record, and is the better for its laser focus. Blow’s production positively sparkles — he knew what this meant — and the lyrics pay tribute to Dr. King in a way that’s positive without being overly cheesy, a tricky needle to thread with tribute records such as this. Appallingly, the joyous “King Holiday” only made it to #30 on the R&B singles chart; no surprise, it didn’t make the Hot 100. And that was even with a video paid for by Prince, which got heavy rotation at the time on BET. Close to 40 years later, the song is still great, and still resonates. “Sing! Sing! Celebrate!” indeed.