Tony Wilson, bassist and co-founder of the hitmaking British soul/funk band Hot Chocolate, has passed away. According to the BBC, Wilson died at home in Trinidad last Friday, and his family shared the news on Facebook. No cause of death has been reported. Wilson was 89.
Before we go any further: This Tony Wilson is not the 24 Hour Party People Tony Wilson, the one who ran Factory Records and the Haçienda. That Tony Wilson died in 2007. It's a completely different Tony Wilson. They just had the same name. This Tony Wilson was born in Trinidad, and he worked as a UK pop songwriter in the '60. Wilson and lead singer Errol Brown got together to start Hot Chocolate in London in 1968. John Lennon liked their debut single, a 1968 reggae cover of the Beatles' "Give Peace A Chance," and the band briefly signed to the Beatles' Apple label.
"Give Peace A Chance" was not a hit, but Hot Chocolate's 1970 single "Love Is Life" went top 10 in the UK. Wilson and Brown wrote most of Hot Chocolate's songs, including that one. After "Love Is Life," Hot Chocolate had a big run of UK hits. In 1973, the American band Stories' covered Hot Chocolate's Brown/Wilson song "Brother Louie," and their version topped the Billboard Hot 100. A year later, Hot Chocolate's own single "Emma" broke through in the US, reaching #8.
To this day, Hot Chocolate's best-known hit is their 1975 disco-funk banger "You Sexy Thing." That's just an incredible song. The Philip Seymour Hoffman Boogie Nights scene? Come on. Brown and Wilson write that song, too. Wilson left Hot Chocolate to go solo in 1975, so he didn't have anything to do with Hot Chocolate's other incredible trans-Atlantic hit, 1978's "Every 1's A Winner." Wilson's solo debut I Like Your Style came out in 1976, and he followed it with 1979's Catch One and 1988's Walking The Highwire.
