SONG PREMIERE: Sonny Knight & the Lakers Perform “Sonny’s Boogaloo” Live

Back in December, the members of Minneapolis soul band Sonny Knight & the Lakers each selected their favorite live albums for a special feature right here at Glide. The members were excited to share personal favorite live shows because they were getting ready to record their very own live album. If you read that piece and had never heard of the group, you probably would have guessed that their music is heavily influenced by classic funk and soul, among many other styles. At the age of 66, veteran performer Sonny Knight brings to mind other soul singers like Charles Bradley and Lee Fields who’ve found new audiences decades after getting into music. Don’t let his age fool you though, as Knight fronts the band with a youthful spunk that plenty of performers in their 20s can’t top.

Fast forward six months later and the band is ready to release their first ever concert album on June 23rd, bluntly titled Do It Live. Recorded in their hometown of Minneapolis at the Dakota Jazz Club over two nights and four performances, the result is a double LP that captures one of the hottest live acts around doing what they do best. Sonny Knight offered his own thoughts on bringing the whole thing together: “Making Do It Live was new…exciting…and scary. I was pretty nervous at first. If you mess up on tape, it’s there forever. Eventually I got over it and had a ton of fun. I think it’s fun doing things I’ve never done before.”

Today we’re excited to premiere a fresh cut from Do It Live and easily one of the album’s funkiest most danceable tunes, “Sonny’s Boogaloo,” right here on Glide.

“Boogaloo was a dance style that was popular back in the day. James Brown was always doing it. It’s a pretty loose style…a lot of people sort of make up their own version of it. Doing this tune was a cool way to connect with that part of my youth,” says Knight.

Get your dancing shoes on and give a listen to “Sonny’s Boogaloo”: