‘Rockin’ Chair’s Gwen McCrae Dead At 81

AP reports, Gwen McCrae helped the pre-Bicentennial U.S. find another use for the “Rockin’ Chair,” turning the piece of furniture into one of the soundtracks of the summer of 1975. McCrae was one of the soulful voices that pulled Miami’s Sunshine Sound out from the confines of Criteria and TK studios in North Miami and Hialeah to get its pop, Black and tropical fusion blend on radios across the nation and world. Rockin’ Chair was written by Betty Wright. 

McCrae died Friday, Feb. 21, at a care facility in North Miami Beach. She really did help to shape hip-hop and dance music with her energetic soulful voice. “Gwen was a force in Miami’s TK family. She was loved, admired and she will be missed — but never forgotten.” The sexy crossover tune “Rockin’ Chair” was written by Miami composers Clarence “Blowfly” Reid and Willie Clarke and it thrust its way up the Billboard Hot 100 pop chart to No. 9 and No. 1 R&B in the summer of 1975. She cooed “Let me be your rockin’ chair” in a ear-catching voice of melted butter.

McCrae, who was married at the time to fellow Miami TK star George McCrae, captured the steam Marvin Gaye delivered with his own “Let’s Get It On” two years earlier.

Harry Wayne Casey, who, as the KC namesake of the Sunshine Band, had his breakthrough by co-writing George McRae’s trailblazing “Rock Your Baby” for TK Records in 1974. That song’s rhythm inspired ABBA’s “Dancing Queen” in 1976 and its chord structure powered Reid and Clarke’s “Rockin’ Chair.”