''Rock On'' is the second album by

Raydio Raydio is an American funk and Rhythm and blues, R&B vocal group formed in 1977 by Ray Parker Jr., with Vincent Bonham, Jerry Knight, and Arnell Carmichael. In 1978 Charles Julian Fearing and Larry "Fatback" Tolbert joined the band, along with D ...

, released in 1979 on

Arista Records Arista Records ( ) is an American record label owned by Sony Music Entertainment, a subsidiary of Sony Corporation of America, the American division of the Japanese conglomerate Sony. The label was previously a division of Bertelsmann Music G ...

. The album reached No. 4 on the US

Billboard A billboard (also called a hoarding in the UK and many other parts of the world) is a large outdoor advertising structure (a billing board), typically found in high-traffic areas such as alongside busy roads. Billboards present large advertis ...

Top Soul Albums chart and No. 45 on the US

Billboard 200 The ''Billboard'' 200 is a record chart ranking the 200 most popular music albums and EPs in the United States. It is published weekly by '' Billboard'' magazine to convey the popularity of an artist or groups of artists. Sometimes, a rec ...

chart. ''Rock On'' was certified

Gold Gold is a chemical element; it has chemical symbol Au (from Latin ) and atomic number 79. In its pure form, it is a brightness, bright, slightly orange-yellow, dense, soft, malleable, and ductile metal. Chemically, gold is a transition metal ...

in the US by the

RIAA The Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) is a trade organization that represents the music recording industry in the United States. Its members consist of record labels and distributors that the RIAA says "create, manufacture, and/o ...

History

Like the debut, it features eight tracks, most of which were written by

Ray Parker Jr. Ray Erskine Parker Jr. (born May 1, 1954) is an American guitarist, songwriter, and record producer. As a solo performer, he wrote and performed the theme song for the 1984 film '' Ghostbusters'' and also sounds from the animated series '' The ...

It reached a peak of number 45 on the charts and featured two singles; one of them being " You Can't Change That", which was another top ten pop hit, peaking at number 9. The other single, " More Than One Way to Love a Woman", failed to chart on pop, but did make number 25 on R&B.

Critical reception

Robert Hilburn Robert Hilburn (born September 25, 1939) is an American pop music critic, author, and radio host. As music critic and editor at the ''Los Angeles Times'' from 1970 to 2005, his reviews, essays, and profiles have appeared in publications worldwide ...

of the ''

Los Angeles Times The ''Los Angeles Times'' is an American Newspaper#Daily, daily newspaper that began publishing in Los Angeles, California, in 1881. Based in the Greater Los Angeles city of El Segundo, California, El Segundo since 2018, it is the List of new ...

'' described ''Rock On'' as "lively and fun". Ace Adams of the New York ''Daily News'' wrote, "This is the group that had the big hit 'Jack and Jill', and this album shows them at their best. It has an instant funk sound that will please their fans, plus sparkling vocals and good instrumental interplay." The ''

Bay State Banner ''The Bay State Banner'' is a weekly newspaper primarily geared toward the readership interests of the African-American community in Boston, Massachusetts. Distributed free of charge, it was founded in 1965 by Melvin B. Miller, who remained the ...

'' wrote that, "by settling for imitating everything from rock to Chic, Ray Parker has Raydio floundering around with poor songs, cutesy lyrics and no direction."

Robert Christgau Robert Thomas Christgau ( ; born April 18, 1942) is an American music journalist and essayist. Among the most influential music critics, he began his career in the late 1960s as one of the earliest professional rock critics and later became a ...

of ''

The Village Voice ''The Village Voice'' is an American news and culture publication based in Greenwich Village, New York City, known for being the country's first Alternative newspaper, alternative newsweekly. Founded in 1955 by Dan Wolf (publisher), Dan Wolf, ...

'' gave ''Rock On'' a B+ grade, writing, "Ray Parker's idea is to synthesize the old black-music tradition of the male vocal group with the new one of the self-contained funk band, and here he proves that he has what it takes as a composer to keep the idea going. None of these songs stands out like 'Is This a Love Thing' and 'Me' did on the debut, but every one is danceable/listenable fun." Craig Lytle of

AllMusic AllMusic (previously known as All-Music Guide and AMG) is an American online database, online music database. It catalogs more than three million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on Musical artist, musicians and Mus ...

remarked: "To be taken seriously as an R&B group and to shake the stigma of their nursery rhyme hit '

Jack and Jill "Jack and Jill" (sometimes "Jack and Gill", particularly in earlier versions) is a traditional English nursery rhyme. The Roud Folk Song Index classifies the commonest tune and its variations as number 10266, although it has been set to severa ...

' (their debut single), Raydio answers the call on this album with two Billboard R&B singles."

Track listing

All tracks written by

Personnel

Raydio

* Arnell Carmichael – vocals * Darren Carmichael – vocals *

– vocals, keyboards, synthesizers, guitars, bass * Charles Fearing – guitars * Larry Tolbert – drums, percussion

Additional Personnel

Sylvester Rivers Sylvester Rivers (born October 28, 1953) is an American composer, arranger, pianist and producer, based in Los Angeles, California. A prolific session musician, he has recorded with numerous major artists including Aretha Franklin, Nancy Wilson, ...

– acoustic piano *

Ollie E. Brown Ollie E. Brown (born April 20, 1953) is an American drummer, percussionist, record producer, and high school basketball coach. A prolific session musician, Brown has performed on over a hundred albums in the 1970s, 1980s and 1990s. Brown was also ...

– drums, percussion, backing vocals *

Jack Ashford Jack Ashford (born May 18, 1934) is an American musician who was a percussionist for Motown Records' in-house Funk Brothers band during the 1960s and early 1970s. Ashford is most famous for playing the tambourine on hundreds of Motown recordings ...

– percussion * Norma Jean Bell – saxophones * Horatio Gordon – saxophones * Ken Peterson – trumpet, backing vocals * Cheryl Brown – backing vocals * Valorie Jones – backing vocals * Franci Pearlman – backing vocals

Production

* Ray Parker Jr. – producer, engineer, mixing *

Bernie Grundman Bernie Grundman (born 16 December 1943, Minneapolis) is an American audio engineer. He is most known for his mastering work and his studio, Bernie Grundman Mastering, which he opened in 1984 in Hollywood. The studio, which includes engineers Chr ...

– mastering at

A&M Studios The Jim Henson Company Lot, formerly A&M Studios, is a studio property located just south of the southeast corner of La Brea Avenue and Sunset Boulevard in Hollywood. Originally established by film star Charlie Chaplin, the property served as C ...

(Hollywood, California)

Charts and certifications

Charts

;Singles

Certifications

References

External links

*
Rock On
' at

Discogs Discogs ( ; short for " discographies") is a database of information about audio recordings, including commercial releases, promotional releases, and bootleg or off-label releases. Database contents are user-generated, and described in ''T ...

{{Authority control 1979 albums Raydio albums Albums produced by Ray Parker Jr. Arista Records albums