Song:Shout
Album:National Lampoon's Animal House: Original Motion Picture Soundtrack
If you watched the 1978 film Animal House, you probably remember the classic songs performed by Otis Day and the Knights. Too bad it wasn't a real band. The songs were recorded by studio musicians. But the band was so successful in the film that Otis Day and the Knights became a real band. The man behind that was DeWayne Jessie. His older brother Obie Jessie was in the doo wop group The Flairs and he recorded as Young Jessie. Later on he was musical director for Esther Phillips. DeWayne Jessie is an actor. He appeared in films like The Bingo Long Traveling All Stars & Motor Kings, Car Wash and Thank God It's Friday. So he was hired to play Otis Day in Animal House. It looks like the vocals were by Lloyd Williams who at the time was lead singer of The Undisputed Truth and later on Rose Royce. The band were actors too including future bluesman Robert Cray. Elmer Bernstein composed the Animal House score. But veteran producer Kenny Vance produced the soundtrack album. He brought in former Chess and Motown producer Mark Davis to produce the Otis Day tracks. So it's mostly Motown guys who play on the record including Mel Britt, Mark Kenoly, James Gadson, Melvin "Wah Wah" Watson, Dean Gant and Jack Ashford. After the movie was a big hit, Jessie saw that there was a lot of buzz for Otis Day and the Knights. So he formed a band with family members and went on the road. There was a live Otis Day and the Knights video released in 1986. And they released the album Shout on MCA in 1989. George Clinton produced it. I'm not sure if they are still active but they toured for years as America's Favorite Party Band. It's hard to believe, eh. Here's Lloyd Williams performing Shout from the 1978 film Animal House.
Otis Day & The Knights - Shout (video edit) from FunkyRob on Vimeo.
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