How do you write a song about a car wash?

No, but seriously.

How…..do you write a song about a car wash?

This was the conundrum facing Norman Whitfield, the legendary Motown writer and producer already known for penning three Billboard #1 hits (including “War” and “Just My Imagination”), as well as a few classics which just missed the top (like “Ain’t Too Proud To Beg” and “I Heard It Through The Grapevine”). So Norman generally knew what he was doing.

He left Motown in 1975 in order to start his own label, and shortly afterwards received an offer to supervise the soundtrack for a (somewhat) major motion picture. Whitfield was reluctant, and very busy with his new recording venture, but he also needed money for his new recording venture — so he accepted. Unfortunately, he didn’t have a clue where to begin.

However, all was not lost, since he at least knew who he wanted to perform the not-yet-written song, and that was a group who started out together in high school as Total Concept Unlimited. They eventually got a job as the live backing band for Edwin “War, huh, what is it good for?” Starr, who then introduced them to Whitfield. He used the band as backing musicians for other major artists for a couple of years, turning them into a tight and cohesive unit, and then put the Total Concept together with a singer he had recently discovered, dubbing the new group Rose Royce. Their first release would be for this low-budget movie soundtrack.

The movie was a comedy about a day in the life of a southern California car wash and the crazy goings on of the employees, customers, and various people who enter its wacky orbit. Whitfield needed to capture the atmosphere of that orbit in a 3 minute song.

During a break while in the studio, the members of Rose Royce went outside to shoot some hoops when inspiration struck Whitfield. It must have struck suddenly because he began writing lyrics on a paper fast food bag from the lunch he was eating rather than looking for a pad. He made working at a car wash sound like a fun and exciting job (you never know who you might meet!) and then told the band he wanted the music to sound like a machine, like the rhythms of an automated car wash, but with a disco beat.

Released as a single in the fall of 1976, “Car Wash” cleaned up on the Billboard chart, hitting #1 in January of 1977 and helping to make its eponymous movie a cult classic. If you want to write about a car wash, keep it simple and describe almost exactly what you would see if you observed a car wash for a day. Also, make it with maximum funk.

So keep those rags and machines humming … with Rose Royce.