First Time Around
View on Discogs
Album Summary
First Time Around was the debut album from Brooklyn's own Skyy, dropped in 1979 on the legendary Salsoul Records label — and honey, when this record hit the shelves, the funk world sat up and paid attention. Produced by the group themselves alongside Salsoul's own Karl Richardson, this album was born right out of New York City's pulsating Black and Latin music scene, that beautiful, sweaty crucible where disco, funk, and soul were being forged into something entirely new. The record captured a band that already knew exactly who they were — sophisticated, tight, and dripping with style — blending Latin percussion, lush horn arrangements, and a production sensibility that felt both of its moment and ahead of its time.
Reception
- The album peaked at #29 on the Billboard R&B Albums chart, announcing Skyy as a serious new force in funk and soul music right out of the gate.
- Critical reception within funk and disco circles was warm and enthusiastic, with particular reverence paid to the band's exceptional musicianship and the polished, innovative quality of their production approach.
Significance
- First Time Around established the template for a more sophisticated, production-heavy strain of funk and soul — one that wove Latin percussion, brass arrangements, and electronic elements into a cohesive and elevated whole.
- At a pivotal transitional moment in Black music, Skyy's debut bridged the worlds of disco, funk, and Latin music in ways that resonated equally on the dance floor and over the airwaves.
- The album signaled a meaningful shift toward album-oriented funk productions with genuine artistic coherence, helping to lay the groundwork for the sound that would define R&B and funk well into the 1980s.
Tracklist
-
A First Time Around —
3:40
-
B Disco Dancin' —
4:12
Artist Details
Skyy was a funk and disco outfit that came together in Brooklyn, New York in the late 1970s, blending tight rhythmic grooves with lush horn arrangements and the silky vocals of Denise Dunning-Crawford and her brothers in a sound that was equal parts street heat and ballroom elegance. They hit their stride in the early 1980s with cuts like Call Me and Real Love, earning serious respect on the R&B and dance charts and cementing themselves as one of the unsung pillars of that post-disco funk era. Their groove-heavy style laid important groundwork for the New Jack Swing and urban dance sounds that would follow, making Skyy one of those acts that true music lovers recognize as essential even when the mainstream world wasn't always paying proper attention.
