Willie Hutch was a successful behind-the-scenes man in R&B and funk during the early '70s, serving as a staff producer and songwriter at Motown Records, penning tunes for
the Jackson 5,
Smokey Robinson,
Marvin Gaye, and
the Miracles, and scoring the hit movies Foxy Brown and The Mack before he launched a solo career. After cutting a handful of albums for Motown,
Hutch jumped ship for Whitfield Records, a label founded by legendary Motown producer
Norman Whitfield, and 1980's
Midnight Dancer was his second and last album for Whitfield. Recorded when disco was still riding high on the charts,
Midnight Dancer is devoted to polished but soulful dance grooves, as well as romantic slow jams like "Kelly Green" and "Never Let You Be Without Love" and a modern-day testimony of faith in "Everyday Love." While coming near the end of disco's first run of popularity in the United States,
Midnight Dancer shows that artists like
Willie Hutch were still burning up the dancefloor with style and panache. ~ Mark Deming