Kool & The Gang ~ Open Sesame (Get Down With The Genie) 1976 Disco Purrfection Version

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"One Thousand and One Nights" is a collection of Middle Eastern folk stories known in English as "Arabian Nights" shortened from the 1706 english translation title of "The Arabian Nights Entertainment". The tale of "Ali Baba & The Forty Thieves" follows Ali Baba, an impoverished woodcutter who finds out that the lair of the 40 thieves can be accessed by saying "Open Sesame". The thieves then find out about Ali Baba and try to kill him, but his slave girl helps him out of that jam by eliminating them all in their hiding places. The secret of the riches in the thieves cave remains with Ali Baba and his story has a happy ending. "Open Sesame" has become an iconic catchphrase often used to comic effect and has become part of our lingo. Khalis Bayyan (aka Ronald Bell) was into Eastern philosophy and music, coming up with a rhythm track that had a middle eastern sounding scale at the start. Then he hit a block, unable to finish what he started. Saying a little prayer, he feels he tapped into the cosmic energy of an Armenian group that had just finished using the studio. The song kept working itself out in his head and then went into the studio, recording it twice to double track it to achieve a density that brings the funk out. He kept the band in the studio for a brutal 12 hours until he felt it was finished, even though they thought he was nuts. They were partly right as Bayyan was inspired The Nutcracker. The jazz leanings of the band added to the richness of "Open Sesame" and that backbeat kept it firmly planted for the dance floor. Special attention was focused on the horns which had two separate charts and the TWO basses they used on the track. It peaked at #13 on the disco chart in 1976, spending 13 weeks on the survey. About a year later, the band was approached by the producers of the soundtrack for "Saturday Night Fever" about adding the tune as an album track. The band would get a mere pittance in royalties, but the producers assured them that it would advance their career. Bayyan wasn't so sure, but says "We can't argue with it looking back. We got two Grammys with that record. I don't know if it deserved it or not but I knew that we had done something special after that when I came back in and listened to it. It was different. The movie's great! It's about disco, Bee Gees!" It brought the band into the homes of 25 million people who looked forward to hearing from them again. In 1979 they collaborated with Deodato and produced "Ladies Night" together resulting in a #5 disco hit. They were on their way again all due to that simple evocative phrase "Open Sesame"..so groove with the Genie, EVERYBODY GET DOWN!