Take Your Time (Do It Right) Part 1

Album

S.O.S.

Label

Tabu Records

Genre

Boogie

Composer(s)

Harold Clayton;Umunto Sigidi

Entered Chart

May 31, 1980

Peak Date

Aug 16, 1980

Released

Unknown

Recorded

Unknown

Catalog #

Tabu 9-5522

Disco didn't die in 1980, it just got funkier. "Take Your Time (Do It Right)," one of the most reliable dance-floor fillers in the summer of 1980, has all the hallmarks of disco, with a big bass groove and layers of strings, horns and glockenspiel. It was the first single for group, which were from Atlanta but used the name Santa Monica until changing it to The S.O.S. Band, meaning "Sounds Of Success." They had seven members at the time, including lead singer Mary Davis, one of the more distinctive vocalists of the era. The song was written by the group's producer Sigidi Abdullah along with his friend Harold Clayton. They wrote it after Clarence Avant, head of The S.O.S. Band's label, Tabu Records, made him an offer: Sigidi could produce the band if he brought a hit song to the table. He did. "Take Your Time (Do It Right)" was a #1 R&B hit and went to #3 on the Hot 100. The guy Mary Davis is singing to on this song is in for a good night. She sees he's overworked and stressed out, so she puts him at ease, telling him to relax and reminding him to enjoy life. They lock the door, unplug the phone and take some alone time together. You can guess what happens next. Check out the percussion on this one. It twists and turns, with tings, claps and beats. According to Sigidi Abdullah, they used skillets for part of it. The follow-up single, "S.O.S. (Dit Dit Dit Dash Dash Dash Dit Dit Dit)," didn't rate, and the group's next two albums also underperformed. But their fourth album, On the Rise in 1983, got them back in the swing with "Just Be Good to Me" and "Tell Me If You Still Care." That album was produced by the young team of Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis, who later led Janet Jackson to the top of the charts and helmed a flotilla of hit for other artists as well, including New Edition and Johnny Gill. The group Chicago group Max-A-Million covered this song in an electro-reggae style in 1995, taking it to #64 in the US. The album version runs 7:40. On the single, the song is split into two parts, with part 1 (running 3:51) the version most radio stations played.

Let's do it
Let's do it
Oh
Let's do it
Baby
Take your time
Let's do it
Come on, baby
Oh
Let's do it
Baby
Take your time
Let's do it

You know you ought to slow down
You been working too hard
And that's a fact
Sit back and relax a while
Take some time to laugh and smile
Lay your heavy load down
So we can stop and kick back
It seems we never take the time to do
All the things we want to, yeah

Now, baby we can do it
Take the time
Do it right
We can do it, baby
Do it tonight

Baby, we can do it
Take the time
Do it right
We can do it, baby
Do it tonight

The love I feel for you
You feel for me
One life is all we have to live
Our love is all we have to give, yeah
There are so many things
For us to do and see
Let's take some time to be alone
Lock the door
Pull out the phone, yeah

And baby we can do it
Take the time
Do it right
We can do it, baby
Do it tonight

Baby, we can do it
Take the time
Do it right
We can do it, baby
Do it tonight

Baby we can do it
Take the time
Do it right
We can do it, baby
Do it tonight

Baby, we can do it
Take the time
Do it right
We can do it, baby
Do it tonight

Take your time
Take the time
Take the time...