First Choice

Powered by the robust lead voice of Rochelle Fleming, First Choice were key to disco and well-established years before the style went mainstream. The Philadelphians scored their first hit with the Top 40 pop single "Armed and Extremely Dangerous" (1973). After they placed four additional singles in the R&B Top 40, the group's already-considerable value to DJs and clubbers increased dramatically. A series of Top Ten disco singles included "Doctor Love," taken from Delusions (1977), an album full of lyrically rich dance tunes as well as luscious ballads. The group broke up in 1980, but Shep Pettibone's 1983 remix of the anthemic Delusions cut "Let No Man Put Asunder" renewed commercial interest in a group whose importance to underground club music never waned. First Choice have inspired multiple generations of house producers, and they've been sampled, interpolated, and covered by an innumerable quantity of artists spanning several genres.