''Ain't Nothin' Stoppin' Us Now'' is an album by

Tower of Power Tower of Power is an American R&B and funk based band and horn section, originating in Oakland, California, that has been performing since 1968. There have been a number of lead vocalists, the best-known being Lenny Williams, who fronted the b ...

released in 1976, the band's first record on

Columbia Records Columbia Records is an American record label owned by Sony Music, Sony Music Entertainment, a subsidiary of Sony Corporation of America, the North American division of Japanese Conglomerate (company), conglomerate Sony. It was founded on Janua ...

. Ron Beck takes up the drummers spot after David Garibaldi exited for a second time. This also would be the last album to feature bassist Francis "Rocco" Prestia as he would go on an extended hiatus from the band until his return in 1986. It is also the only album to feature vocalist Edward McGee.

Release history

In addition to the standard 2 channel

stereo Stereophonic sound, or more commonly stereo, is a method of sound reproduction that recreates a multi-directional, 3-dimensional audible perspective. This is usually achieved by using two independent audio channels through a configuration ...

version the album was also released by Columbia in a 4 channel

quadraphonic Quadraphonic (or quadrophonic and sometimes quadrasonic) sound – equivalent to what is now called 4.0 surround sound – uses four audio channels in which speakers are positioned at the four corners of a listening space. The system allows for th ...

version in 1976 on LP and

8-track tape The 8-track tape (formally Stereo 8; commonly called eight-track cartridge, eight-track tape, and eight-track) is a magnetic tape sound recording technology that was popular from the mid-1960s to the early 1980s, when the compact cassette, wh ...

. The quad LP was encoded with the SQ matrix. This album was reissued in the UK on the

Super Audio CD Super Audio CD (SACD) is an optical disc format for audio storage introduced in 1999. It was developed jointly by Sony and Philips Electronics and intended to be the successor to the Compact Disc (CD) format. The SACD format allows multiple aud ...

format in 2016 by

Dutton Vocalion Dutton Vocalion specialises in re-issuing on CD music recorded between the 1920s and 1970s, and in issuing albums of modern digital recordings. It was established by British recording and re-mastering engineer Michael J. Dutton. Dutton Laborator ...

. This release contains the complete stereo and quad recordings.

Track listing

# "Ain't Nothin' Stoppin' Us Now" (Emilio Castillo, Stephen "Doc" Kupka, David Bartlett) – 3:58 # "By Your Side" (Edward McGee, Clifford Coulter) – 4:30 # "Make Someone Happy" (Ron E. Beck, Keith Rogers) – 2:47 # "Doin' Alright" (Bruce Conte, Coleman Head) – 4:48 # "Because I think the World Of You" (Stephen "Doc" Kupka, Frank Biner) – 3:00 # "You Ought To Be Havin' Fun" (

Hubert Tubbs Hubert Tubbs is an American vocalist, singer, and songwriter of soul, funk, and gospel and has cooperated with a number of music acts. His debut introduction was as a lead vocalist for the band Tower of Power (also known as TOP), an American R& ...

, Emilio Castillo, Stephen "Doc" Kupka) – 3:06 # "Can't Stand To See The Slaughter" (Stephen "Doc" Kupka, Emilio Castillo) – 2:47 # "It's So Nice" (T. Castillo, Emilio Castillo, David Bartlett, Stephen "Doc" Kupka, Frank Biner) – 5:39 # "Deal With It" (Chester Thompson) – 3:20 # "While We Went To The Moon" (Stephen "Doc" Kupka, David Bartlett, Emilio Castillo) – 4:24

Personnel

Tower of Power * Edward McGee – lead vocals * Chester Thompson – acoustic piano, Fender Rhodes, clavinet, organ,

Moog synthesizer The Moog synthesizer is a modular synthesizer developed by the American engineer Robert Moog. Moog debuted it in 1964, and Moog's company R. A. Moog Co. (later known as Moog Music) produced numerous models from 1965 to 1981, and again from 20 ...

bass pedals Bass pedals are an electronic musical instrument with a foot-operated pedal keyboard with a range of one or more octaves. The earliest bass pedals from the 1970s consisted of a pedalboard and analog synthesizer tone generation circuitry packag ...

, backing vocals, horn arrangements (7, 9, 10), string arrangements and conductor (10) * Bruce Conte – guitars, backing vocals *

Francis Rocco Prestia Francis Rocco Prestia Jr. (March 7, 1951 – September 29, 2020) was an American bassist, best known for his work with the funk band Tower of Power. Biography Born in Sonora, California, Prestia started playing electric guitar as an adolesce ...

– bass guitar * Ron E. Beck – drums, percussion, backing vocals * Stephen "Doc" Kupka – baritone saxophone *

Lenny Pickett Lenny Pickett (born April 10, 1954) is an American saxophonist and musical director of the ''Saturday Night Live'' band. From 1973 to 1981 he was a member of Tower of Power. He is known for his skill in the altissimo register (executed by using ...

– alto saxophone, tenor saxophone,

Lyricon The Lyricon is an electronic wind instrument, the first wind controller to be constructed. Invented by Bill Bernardi (and co-engineered by Roger Noble and with the late Lyricon performer Chuck GreenbergIngham (1998) p.184), filed for patent o ...

, tenor sax solo (1, 2) *

Emilio Castillo Emilio Castillo (born September 24, 1950) is an American saxophone player and composer, best known as the founder of the band Tower of Power. Background In 1965, Emilio Castillo took to music after he and his brother Jack were caught stealing by ...

– tenor saxophone, backing vocals *

Mic Gillette Mic Gillette (May 7, 1951 – January 17, 2016) was an American brass player, born and raised in the San Francisco Bay Area's East Bay. He is best known for being a member of the bands; Tower of Power, Cold Blood, and The Sons of Champlin. He pl ...

– trombone, bass trombone, trumpet, flugelhorn, baritone horn, backing vocals, "superbone" solo (10) * Greg Adams – trumpet, flugelhorn, backing vocals, horn arrangements (1-6, 8), string arrangements and conductor (2, 4, 5, 8), flugelhorn solo (3) Additional musicians * Bill Lamb – trombone (2), trumpet (2), flugelhorn (2) * Tower of Power – horn arrangements (1, 8) * Patricia Henley – backing vocals (1, 2, 4, 5, 6) * Melba Joyce – backing vocals (1, 2, 4, 5, 6) * Ivory Stone – backing vocals (1, 2, 4, 5, 6) * Carol Rogers – backing vocals (3, 9, 10)

Production

* Emilio Castillo – producer * Tower of Power – producers * Alan Chinowsky – production assistant, engineer, mixing * Bob Edwards – engineer, assistant engineer * Jim Gaines – mixing * Rich Ehrman – assistant engineer, mix assistant * Bruce Steinberg – art direction, design, photography Studios * Recorded at Kendun Recorders (Burbank, California); Record Plant, Los Angeles (California); Record Plant, Sausalito (California); CBS Studios (San Francisco, California). * Mixed at Record Plant, Sausalito.

References

{{Authority control 1976 albums Tower of Power albums Columbia Records albums