CoronaVinyl Day 154 (Roman Numerals): The Gap Band III by The Gap Band

 For an explanation of CoronaVinyl, click here.

After a hiatus for Rocktober, CoronaVinyl is back!  As this hoax of a global pandemic trudges into its eighth month -- but don't worry, it'll go away after tomorrow's election! -- so does my daily look at my vinyl collection.  The burning question is:  What will end first, the pandemic or my vinyl collection?  I have a few hundred more records in my vinyl collection, so let's all hope we don't make it through all of them before things get back to some semblance of normalcy.

Today's CoronaVinyl category is Roman numerals.  Throughout rock and pop history, many bands and artists have, for whatever reason, become enamored with using Roman numerals in album names instead of standard Arabic numerals.  Perhaps Led Zeppelin 2 just doesn't have the same panache as Led Zeppelin II.

I have a bunch of albums that fit this category from a variety of genres, but I'm going with The Gap Band's 1980 album The Gap Band III, which is, oddly enough, their fourth studio album.

The Gap Band was one of the leaders of funk in the late '70s and '80s.  The group was comprised of three brothers, middle brother Charlie Wilson on lead vocals, keyboards, and percussion, older brother Ronnie Wilson on trumpet, keyboards, and backing vocals, and younger brother Robert Wilson on bass and backing vocals.   They were from Tulsa, and the band was named after three streets in Tulsa's Greenwood neighborhood (Greenwood, Archer, and Pine). 

The Gap Band III hit #16 on the Billboard album chart and #1 on the Billboard R&B albums chart, the band's highest-charting album up to that point on either chart.  It eventually went platinum in the U.S.  The album also produced the band's first two songs to crack the Billboard Hot 100:   "Burn Rubber On Me (Why You Wanna Hurt Me)" (#84), which was also the group's first #1 on the Billboard R&B singles chart; and "Yearning For Your Love" (#60), which also hit #5 on the Billboard R&B singles chart.

The band's next album -- 1982's The Gap Band IV -- would also be a hit, and would feature their first two Top 40 hits, "Early in the Morning" (#24) and perhaps their best-known song, "You Dropped a Bomb On Me" (#31).

Favorite song from Side 1:  "Burn Rubber On Me (Why You Wanna Hurt Me)"

Whoever Charlene was, she musta done somebody wrong, apparently by burning rubber on him.  Whatever happened, she inspired a great, head-bobbing, up-tempo funk song.

Favorite song from Side 2:  "Humpin'"
"Humpin'" is another solid funk song, with a signature funk guitar riff, not-so-subtle double entendre, and some call-and-response type vocals.  It's another song that just makes you want to bob your head and shake your rump.