Brick House (song)
Encyclopedia
"Brick House" is a funk
Funk
Funk is a music genre that originated in the mid-late 1960s when African American musicians blended soul music, jazz and R&B into a rhythmic, danceable new form of music. Funk de-emphasizes melody and harmony and brings a strong rhythmic groove of electric bass and drums to the foreground...

 song from the Commodores
Commodores
The Commodores are an American funk/soul band of the 1970s and 1980s. The members of the group met as mostly freshmen at Tuskegee Institute in 1968, and signed with Motown in November 1972, having first caught the public eye opening for The Jackson 5 while on tour...

' 1977
1977 in music
This is a list of notable events in music that took place in the year 1977.-January–February:*January 1 – The Clash headline the gala opening of the London music club, The Roxy....

 album Commodores
Commodores (album)
Commodores is a self-titled album released in 1977 by the Commodores. The album spent eight weeks atop the R&B/Soul Albums chart as their second album to do so, and was their first Top 5 Pop Album.-Reception:...

and is one of their most popular songs. The single peaked at #5 in the U.S. and #32 in the UK pop charts.

Creation and recording

In 1977, the Commodores were in the studio recording when there was a problem with the equipment. While the tapes were being repaired and replaced, the group took a break. Ronald LaPread, the Commodores' bass player, began jamming. Bit by bit the group joined in until they and came up with the now famous track and bass line. Upon returning, James Carmichael, the Commodores producer heard and recognized that this could be a song worth recording. He asked everyone to see if they could use the riff to come up with a song. That night while he slept, William King
William King (singer)
William King is a founding member of the "Commodores", one of Motown's most successful recording groups of all time. In addition to being the group's choreographer, William plays trumpet, guitar, synthesizer and congas/percussion. After college, William considered playing tennis professionally but...

's wife, Shirley Hanna-King, wrote. The following day, William played "Brickhouse" for the Commodores, allowing them to think he had written it. They loved it and decided that drummer, Walter "Clyde" Orange had the funky voice to sing lead vocals. "Brick House" went on the new album and sold millions of copies around the world. It was a few years before the Commodores discovered that it was actually Shirley Hanna-King who had written and coined the term "Brick House". Although not originally credited, the Commodores have publicly acknowledged Shirley Hanna-King as writer.

Lyrics

Shirley Hanna-King modified the expression "built like a brick sh*t house" for the song. The term "Brick House" has since become part of mainstream American slang. The song is noted for its catchy rhythm, and thirty years after its recording it is still popular in night clubs and on radio stations all over the world.

House of Brick

In 1995, Mayte released "House of Brick", a rap version of "Brick House", on Paisley Park Records
Paisley Park Records
Paisley Park Records was Prince's record label, associated with and funded in part by Warner Bros. Records. It was started in 1985, following the success of the film and album Purple Rain...

. The track appears on her debut album Child of the Sun
Child of the Sun (album)
Child of the Sun is a pop/rock album by Mayte Garcia, released in 1995. It was produced by Prince when they were married, and released by NPG Records. The album was not very critically or commercially successful....

. The song features The New Power Generation, and Mayte's then-husband, Prince
Prince (musician)
Prince Rogers Nelson , often known simply as Prince, is an American singer, songwriter, musician, and actor. Prince has produced ten platinum albums and thirty Top 40 singles during his career. Prince founded his own recording studio and label; writing, self-producing and playing most, or all, of...

.

Other versions

In 1995, Dread Zeppelin
Dread Zeppelin
Dread Zeppelin is an American band best known for performing the songs of Led Zeppelin in a reggae style as sung by a 300 pound Vegas Elvis impersonator. Over the years they would also perform songs originally by Elvis Presley, Bob Marley and The Yardbirds. The group toured extensively around the...

 covered this song as "Brick house (of the holy!)" on their album No Quarter Pounder
No Quarter Pounder
No Quarter Pounder is a studio album by Dread Zeppelin, released on September 12, 1995. Its title is wordplay on the Led Zeppelin song "No Quarter" and the name of a hamburger made by McDonald's, a Quarter Pounder ....

.

"Brick House" was also covered in 2003 by Rob Zombie
Rob Zombie
Rob Zombie is an American musician, film director, screenwriter and film producer. He founded the heavy metal band White Zombie and has been nominated three times as a solo artist for the Grammy Award for Best Metal Performance.Zombie has also established a career as a film director, creating the...

 on the House of 1000 Corpses Soundtrack
House of 1000 Corpses (soundtrack)
"House of 1000 Corpses" soundtrack for the movie House of 1000 Corpses directed by Rob Zombie. It features artists such as Buck Owens, Helen Kane, The Ramones, Lionel Richie, Slim Whitman, Trina, Scott Humphrey and Rob Zombie himself along with numerous instrumentals and audio samples taken from...

 and released as a promo single in 2003. The song can also be found on Zombie's Past, Present & Future
Past, Present & Future
Lyrics1 Richard Raymond Finch, Harry Wayne Casey2 Lionel B. Richie, Ronald LaPread, Walter Orange, Milan Williams, Thomas McClary, William King3 Jeffrey Hyman, John Cummings, Douglas Colvin, Thomas Erdelyi...

album. In the song, Zombie collaborates with Lionel Richie
Lionel Richie
Lionel Brockman Richie, Jr. , is an American singer-songwriter, musician and record producer. Since 1968, he has been a member of the musical group Commodores signed to Motown Records...

 (who did not sing on the original version) and Trina
Trina
Katrina Laverne Taylor , better known by her stage name Trina, is an American rapper, songwriter and model from Miami, Florida. Trina first gained notoriety in 1998 with her appearance on Trick Daddy's second studio album www.thug.com to the single "Nann Nigga"...

 on vocals.

Brick House was covered in 2010 by M.o.D. (Juan Sunshine) And Staffan Thorsell with UK singer Simon Green on vocals, released on Purple Music Switzerland
Purple Music Switzerland
Purple Music Switzerland is a Swiss record label, based in Zürich and owned by DJ, producer and a former record shop owner Cem Berter aka Jamie Lewis. Purple Music is regarded as one of the most influential house music labels of the past decade....

.

The Wickes Furniture store has used a modified version for their commercials, changing the lyric "She's a brick...House" to "Go to Wickes...Ow(or now)".
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