Chaka Was a Rolling Stone

This is a random thought that I’ve never been able to work into any essay anywhere, but I always wished that Rufus (the 70s group that gave us the immortal Chaka Khan) marketed their trademark tongue-and-lips logo as savvily as the Rolling Stones did. I wish I could stroll Les Halles and find T-shirts adorned with Chaka Khan’s luscious lips as easily as I can find old Mick’s.

Rufus dropped their first, self-titled album back in 1973 featuring the classic “Sweet Thing” and “Fool’s Paradise.” Stevie Wonder wrote “Tell Me Something Good” for the followup album, Rags to Rufus. And c’mon, tell me those lips don’t deserve to be splashed across a million T-shirts!

Most people who care about such ephemera think that Andy Warhol was responsible for creating the omnipresent Rolling Stone logo, but that’s not true. Warhol did the supercool design of 1971’s Sticky Fingers with the functional zipper on the front of the vinyl LP cover. (There was a copy in my house growin up.) But the logo of the group was done by graphic designer John Pasche. Don’t believe me, read this. One day, I’m gonna take the CD sleeve of Rufus to Les Halles and get its design imprinted on a T-shirt; sometimes you gotta take matters into your own hands.

Below: the first thing I ever saw on YouTube years ago (courtesy of ?uestlove), Chaka Khan playing the drums on some 1970s talk-show.