Exile ~ Kiss You All Over 1978 Disco Purrfection Version

The song "Kiss You All Over" was written by Mike Chapman and Nicky Chinn, who were known for writing memorable songs during the glam rock fad with Sweet's "Little Willy" the best known. Chapman went on to produce and in the late 70's he was the King!

He was repsonsible for breakout records for groups like Blondie "Heart Of Glass" (#1, 1979) The Knack's "My Sharona" (#1, 1979), Nick Gilder "Hot Child In The City" (#1, 1978) and Exile's take on "Kiss You All Over" which touched me so much, I felt cheap. Exile was #1 for four weeks in the fall of 1978 and when Nick Gilder took the top spot, Chapman joined the very elite in chart acheivements, replacing himself at #1.

Exile was the new name for a country rock group who got their start in Richmond, Kentucky. The Madison Central High School provided teenagers guitarist James Pennington, keyboardist Buzz Cornelison and singer Jimmy Stokely with a common interest and they formed a successful band named Fascinations who played the school dances.

In 1965, still in high school, they changed their names to the Exiles and started working the pub route with a decidedly biker rock group persona underlined by their long hair. Dick Clark found them and invited them to join his "Caravan Of Stars" touring show that led to their meeting 60's heartthrob vocalist Tommy Roe and Tommy James of Shondells who got RCA to take a chance for a single release in 1969 that did not chart.

Another session with RCA led to the band deciding to write and produce their own music on their own dime and approach the west coast labels with demo tapes. By this time they added three more members, Marlon Hargis (keyboards) Steve Goetzman (drums) and bassist Sonny Lemaire.

It was one of those demo tapes that made it to Mike Chapman, who had relocated to southern California and was looking for a group to produce. He agreed to come see the band live at the opening of a new apartment building in Lexington. While the sound was crappy, Chapman realized he had found his group.

He had the band shorten their name to Exile gave them their first Hot100 hit "Try It On" peaked on the chart at #97. With that success, inspired by Barry White's "It's Ecstasy When You Lay Down Next To Me", he wrote and produced a demo version of "Kiss You All Over" that used a primitive drum machine, three guitars and Mike's vocal and gave it to the band telling them "to improvise with it" and left them to it.

They came up with this funky country disco thing that Chapman added atmosphere to and he said about it "that was very much about music in the US is all about in 1978. Americans are big lyric listeners and listen to every word. In Europe, listeners are more into the atmosphere of a record and then they listen to the lyrics". The song has since been designated by Billboard to be the #9 of the top 50 Sexiest Songs Of All Time.

While Exile never reached that height of popularity again on the pop charts, they did successfully transition to country where they earned 10 #1 Country hits with their last charting hit in 1991. James Pennington is the only original member left in Exile as of today.