Brother Louie: Hot Chocolate vs Stories

Although the group still exists today in another form, Hot Chocolate enjoyed its greatest successes during the 1970s and 1980s.

At a time when both Motown and Philadelphia International were producing their own brands of American funk and soul, in the UK, Hot Chocolate was beginning its prolific run of pop funk chart hits. Over the decade the band managed to become one of only three acts to achieve at least one hit song in the UK in every year of the 1970s. In all, Hot Chocolate charted 20 singles between 1970 and 1979.

Fronted by Errol Brown, Hot Chocolate are probably best remembered for the songs You Sexy Thing - used in the movie The Full Monty - as well as Every 1's A Winner, both also American hits.

Other big sellers included So You Win Again, the group's only UK Number 1, as well as Emma, A Child's Prayer and the one discussed here, Brother Louie.

UK download: Every 1's a Winner - The Very Best of Hot Chocolate

Image: Hot Chocolate by Stepheye on Flickr

The story of Stories is a fairly short one. Formed in 1972 by Michael Brown and vocalist Ian Lloyd, the band only lasted two years in total.

Over that period, Stories briefly brushed the US charts with songs like I'm Coming Home and Mammy Blue, but it was the cover of Brother Louie that became the band's biggest claim to fame when it reached Number 1 in the US for two weeks during the late Summer of 1973.

However, the group could not repeat the success of this song, and only one of their albums, About Us, managed to place inside the US Top Forty. Not long after this, Stories was history.