Dr. Buzzard’s Original Savannah Band – Soraya (1978), introduction from Scarface (1983) *NEW VIDEO

Introduction from Scarface (1983), directed by Brian De Palma.

I bought this album back in January 1978 just as it was released. The full name of the album was Dr. Buzzard’s Original Savannah Band Meets King Penett and I still have the original vinyl LP from those days. I had just started out as a DJ at a local bar a week earlier and used to play the band’s opening track, “Mister Love,” as part of my nightly offerings. It did okay (mixed results some nights) as this was a bar that had a sizable disco audience (although tastes were generally mixed, with fans of rock, pop, jazz, funk, swing, 50’s and 60’s oldies, and eventually new wave, rap, and country included). But it was when I started introducing other tracks from the album that a few of those songs got a lot more requests than “Mister Love.” This was one of them: from side two, “Soraya/March of the Nignies.” It really caught on although I don’t think many were capable of dancing to it (LOL). The whistling part was really popular.

To me, this was a new band, but several years ago I found out that Dr. Buzzard’s Original Savannah Band had a hit single back in 1976, “Whispering/Cherchez La Femme/Se Si Bon” (or simply “Cherchez La Femme”) which made it to #1. Where the hell was I that I could have missed that? As it turns out, the band was put together by half-brothers Stony Browder Jr. and Thomas Browder (also known as August Darnell). Later August Darnell and the band’s percussionist, Andy Hernandez (also known as Coati Mundi), would form the even more famous group, Kid Creole and the Coconuts.

This is a big dance extravaganza video I put together using several sources, all synchronized by me. It is preceded by a clip from the Brian De Palma film, Scarface (1983) directed by the great Brian De Palma.