Sam’s Jams: This Boogie Track Became the Theme Music for BET

WDET

Artist: Circle City Band

Track: Magic

Paul Thomas a.k.a. Pryme Tyme, “P”, and Stanlee Paul, founded early 80’s Boogie funk artists The Circle City Band and The Rickie Clark Company.

He began his career performing with various R&B, Pop, Rock, Jazz and Gospel acts. He was introduced to multi-track recording in 1979 and began making his own productions. In 1981, he went on tour with the iconic Disco group, LTD. When he returned back to Indianapolis in 1983, he was signed to the label Circle City Records which was a Disco and Funk label started in the late 1970s. By 1980, the label became a division of the record label Tyscot, Inc, which is now considered the oldest black-owned Gospel record label. Circle City Records was to release secular R&B and Funk music, while Tyscott was a gospel based label.

Paul Thomas formed the group Circle City Band, and between 1983 and 1985 they released three 12” singles. The song “Magic” got excellent reviews and became a staple in dance DJ’s sets as well as in roller skating rinks. After getting a lot of radio air-play, it became the theme song and station ID for the cable TV network, BET. All of the tracks have been re-released on a full length album in 2012 by Ubiquity Records.

This week, I have added a handful of songs from the Late 70’s/early 80’s Boogie Funk genre, as well as this weeks pick, “Magic” by Circle City Band.

Sam’s Jams is the weekly song selection of WDET’s creative producer Sam Beaubien, a longtime Detroit musician who also helms the soul-funk band Will Sessions.

From 70 years ago to contemporary releases today, Sam’s Jams is the musical equivalent of digging for hours in dusty record store bins to find forgotten-but-should-be-remembered deep cuts pulled from the genres of funk, jazz and soul genres.