An Interview with Peaches & Herb
By Gregg Shapiro
Since first setting sail in February 2019, StarVista’s Ultimate Disco Cruise has been celebrating the acts from the genre’s late 1970s heyday. Some artists were one-hit-wonders (we’re talking about you, Taste of Honey). Others, including Yvonne Elliman and Gloria Gaynor, established themselves as hitmakers years before, and experienced a revival with disco. Elliman’s “If I Can’t Have You” and Gaynor’s “I Will Survive,” are examples. Some of the performers from that period had been around long before disco and ultimately had their greatest success with the beat-driven music. Peaches & Herb is an illustration of that. Herb Fame established the male and female soul duo in the mid-1960s, and since that time there have been fresh Peaches every few years, including during the disco era when they topped the charts with “Shake Your Groove Thing” and the follow-up ballad “Reunited.” I was fortunate to speak with the current incarnation of the duo, featuring Fame and Wanda Makle, in advance of the 2022 edition of the Ultimate Disco Cruise.
Gregg Shapiro: As one of the classic disco acts scheduled to perform on the Ultimate Disco Cruise 2022, what are each of you most looking forward to about the cruise?
HF: Well, I’m looking forward to working with all these great names I’m looking at. As a matter of fact, I’m ready to buy a ticket [laughs].
WM: I’m looking forward to having a great time with all of our friends. We miss everyone. Good music and good dancing. I’m ready!
GS: What would you like Peaches & Herb’s followers to know about what they can expect from your show?
WM: What they can expect from our show is that we always give love. Our show is about love, falling in love, and [being] united. That’s what we want our fans to know.
GS: In 2018, Peaches & Herb was inducted into The National Rhythm and Blues Hall of Fame. What does such an honor mean to each of you?
WM: It really was a great honor just to be a part of the organization. Just to be inducted. It meant so much that our fans are still listening and they’re still there rooting for us and wanting to see us. The great honor was the award, knowing that they were thinking about us, Peaches & Herb.
HF: My view is that there are many artists out there and we all like to be recognized for what we do. Every one of us out there wants attention. When you receive attention as far as awards, it’s great, because so many of us want to be recognized as true artists. That’s one of the ways of showing us that we had made some sort of impact.
GS: The songs on Peaches & Herb’s 1978 disco breakthrough album 2 Hot! were written by Dino Fekaris and Freddie Perren, the same songwriters who wrote “I Will Survive.” Herb, how did you come to work with them at that time?
HF: I knew Freddie when he was in college in Washington DC at Howard University. He worked at a record shop, and I worked at a record shop. We just became friends talking about music. One day we ran into him in New York when he was starting his own company. We decided to collaborate. The world knows what happened after that!
GS: Do you each remember what you thought when you first heard “Shake Your Groove Thing”?
HF: At the time that I first heard “Shake Your Groove Thing,” it was all about disco and partying all the time. Me being an old man at the time, I hadn’t seen disco in my life. After we recorded that, the words were, “Damn, this is great!”
WM: [Laughs]
HF: Thank God it worked for us.
GS: Wanda, you mentioned the word “reunited” earlier. After the huge success of “Shake Your Groove Thing,” the song was followed up with “Reunited” – a ballad. Was that a way to show Peaches & Herb’s versatility to a new generation of listeners?
WM: I believe so. When you even say the word “reunited,” you think about relationships and families. We all love our families. You also think about how we can all just come together as one and still continue to give that love.
HF: Most of the time, all I ever hear about “Reunited” is making babies [laughs]. That’s all I ever hear. “You got us back together, and now we have three more kids.”
GS: As I’m sure you’re aware, disco has a long history with and a strong connection to the gay community. How aware were you at the time of a gay following?
HF: I wasn’t. But as the months and years went by with them playing the song [I became aware]. When you go to a gay club, you’re gonna have fun. You’re gonna have massive fun, and that’s what I realized later on. I hate making distinctions about LGBT, and this and that. We’re all people. Let’s roll along as people that love. I don’t knock you, you don’t knock me. If you love what you’re doing and I love what I’m doing, let it be. Let’s work!
