Deep Cuts - Heatwave's 'The Star of a Story'

DEF|Y|NE Media's series about overlooked yet exceptional tracks from renowned musicians. Heatwave's 'The Star of a Story' expresses love with ethereal execution seldom heard from a funk band.

Soulful stories, jazzy chords, and incomparable harmonies were the core of the band Heatwave. A group of worldly influences marbleized within Ohio funk, this septet thrilled audiences on both sides of the Atlantic in the late 1970’s.

With the release of their 1976 debut Too Hot to Handle, songs like “Boogie Nights,” “Ain’t No Half Steppin'” and “Always and Forever” put Heatwave on the map. The album was an inferno of funk and slow jams, built from the prolific song craft of keyboardist Rod Temperton (who’d later write classics for Michael Jackson and Quincy Jones), the sultry falsetto of lead singer Johnnie Wilder, and the husky vocal punch of Wilder’s younger brother, Keith.

In 1978, Heatwave returned with more potency on their sophomore LP Central Heating. They doubled down on the funk and earnest soul with equal measure. Temperton contributed the locomotive dancefloor anthem “Groove Line,” while Johnnie Wilder started contributing compositions as well, like the breezy “Happiness Togetherness.” Also included on that album was a song unlike any other Heatwave ever recorded.

With a damning strike of cello, “The Star of a Story” already sounded nothing like what one would expect from a funk band like Heatwave. However, as it slowly transitioned into mystifying siren vocals and soft caresses of electric keyboard and acoustic guitar, one goes from being apprehensive to being spellbound.

Temperton had a pension for composing song intros with classical and/or traditional jazz leanings, usually within a contemporary subtext (i.e. “Boogie Nights” started with a bebop drum chart and harp flourishes), but never before had their material sounded so ethereal. The hypnotic arrangement was made to match Temperton’s lyrics, describing a man’s longing to be subjected to an otherworldly love from his object of desire.

Wilder’s vocals were hazy and adrift as if he was standing 10 feet from the microphone. This effect, however, suited the song perfectly, especially during the chorus. Two lead vocal tracks, each with slight variations of the lyric, played simultaneously, yet intertwined one another like vines around a column:

“Hold me all through the night, (Hold me through the night,)
“Stay ‘til the day is bright, (light up my life, stay ‘til it’s bright)
“And Angel, don’t ever break the spell, (Angel be well, don’t break the spell)
“‘Cause you’re the star of a story (‘Cause you’re the star of a story)
“I’ll always tell…” (I’ll always tell…)

(L-R Ernest "Bilbo" Berger, Johnnie Wilder, Billy Jones, Mario Mantese, Rod Temperton, Keith Wilder, and Roy Carter, of funk band Heatwave. Photo courtesy of Dayton Daily News Archives.)

Although Heatwave was accustomed to recording beautiful balladry, this didn’t have the spontaneous excitement of “Always and Forever,” but rather possessed a lingering, mythical atmosphere; the equivalent of an aurora borealis hovering over Alaskan mountains, shining a blinding light to a midnight sky. “The Star of a Story” was a sentiment not often associated with any group during the disco era, and proclaimed the band’s limitless versatility and ability to express love on a transcendental level.

“The Star of a Story” was never released as a single, getting lost in the shuffle among Central Heating hit singles “The Groove Line” and “Mind-Blowing Decisions.” However, it did find life thanks to artists who appreciated its quiet power.

In 1980, George Benson recorded a cover for his Grammy-winning album Give Me the Night (Temperton contributed two originals in “Love X Love” and the title track). Perhaps its most high-profile appearance came in the form of hip-hop. A Tribe Called Quest sampled it for “Verses from the Abstract” on their seminal album, The Low End Theory, proving that its power can affect people in ways you’d least expect.

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