Your angelic song of the day is straight from the disco era, “Heaven Must Be Missing an Angel” from Tavares. This was a huge hit in the summer of 1976, right when I was getting ready to head off to my freshman year in college, hitting #15 on the Billboard Hot 100, #3 on the Hot Soul Singles chart, and #1 on the Hot Dance Club Play chart. It also hit the top ten in Belgium, France, Ireland, the Netherlands, Mexico, and the UK.
“Heaven Must Be Missing an Angel” is a straight-up disco track, three minutes and some-odd seconds of four-on-the-floor with an upbeat hi-hat. It was written by Freddie Perren and Kerri St. Lewis, the former also having written or produced hits for the Jackson 5 (“ABC,” “The Love You Save,” “I Want You Back,” and “Mama’s Pearl’), the Miracles (“Love Machine”), the Sylvers (“Boogie Fever”), Peaches & Herb (“Shake Your Groove Thing” and “Reunited”), and Gloria Gaynor (“I Will Survive”). Mr. Perren took a bit of a break in the ’80s but surged back in the ’90s with boy bands like Boyz II Men, Westlife, and 911 covering his disco-era hits. Freddie Perren’s career came to a crashing halt when he suffered a massive stroke in 1993, and he died of a heart attack eleven years later, in 2004, at the age of 61.
Tavares recorded “Heaven Must Be Missing an Angel” for their fourth album, 1976’s Sky High!. The group consisted of five brothers (Ralph, Pooch, Chubby, Butch, and Tiny) born in Cape Verde but who lived in either New Bedford, Massachusetts, or Providence, Rhode Island. (They’re close.) They had a series of hits in the ’70s, most with a disco flavor, including “It Only Takes a Minute” (#10 on the Hot 11, #1 on the R&B chart), “More Than a Woman” (#32 on the Hot 100, #36 on the R&B chart), “Don’t Take Away the Music” (#34 on the Hot 100 and #14 on the R&B chart), and a cover of Hall & Oates’ “She’s Gone” that only hit #50 on the Hot 100 but went all the way to #1 on the R&B chart. They were inducted into the Rhode Island Music Hall of Fame in 2014, decades after releasing their last album (in 1983).
One small bit of trivia. The drummer on this track was the great James Gadson, who you might have heard on hits by Bill Withers (“Lean on Me,” “Use Me”), Charles Wright and the 103rd Street Band (“Express Yourself”), the Jackson 5 (“Dancing Machine”), Cheryl Lynn (“Got to Be Real”), Melissa Manchester (“Don’t Cry Out Loud”), and Diana Ross (“Love Hangover”). The cat got around a lot back in the ’70s, and for good reason—he could cook!
