Hot Chocolate is more than hot. Some old school jams that most of you probably never heard but wish the damn radio would have played. Too much good music like this gets passed up on for commercial stuff. Everybody's heard "You Sexy Thing", but the jam is "I Gave You My Heart..."
The UK band Hot Chocolate were regular visitors to the UK Top Ten right through the 1970s. Emma from about 1974 is a passionate dirge that tells the tragic story of Emmaline who wanted to be a star of the silver screen and So You Win Again was their huge top 5 hit from 1978. My other favourites here include You Sexy Thing, Love Is Life, I'll Put You Together Again and their other massive hit, Every 1's A Winner. The lead singer's smooth warm voice wraps itself perfectly around the synth-based instrumentation and all of the songs are tuneful and memorable. Hot Chocolate were perhaps the UK's premier soul band in the seventies, consistently scoring hits, even during the disco era when they mastered the form in their song Disco Queen. If they weren't a British band, I would have expected them to be on the Stax label! Yes, this music is that good and Hot Chocolate's sound compares well with the best of Motown and Stax/Volt's romantic songs.