George McCrae is 80 this week.

Born in Florida, He married Gwen when he was 19 and went straight into the US Navy. After his service he reformed a group he had been in prior to Service called the Jivin’ Jets and Gwen became part of the line-up.

In 1973, Harry Casey and Richard Finch of KC & the Sunshine Band wrote a song called Rock Your Baby for Gwen to sing but she was late for the session and so George sung it instead and it went to number one and became accepted as the first disco number one in the UK.

He had a further seven UK hits including the top 10 hits I Can’t Leave you Alone and It’s Been So Long.

After divorcing Gwen and marrying twice more and moving to the Netherlands, he made a comeback in 1984 with the self-penned, One Step Closer (To Love)

That comeback song a happy tune with so little airplay. If you don’t know it, have a listen here.