Comedian Steve Harvey’s taste in music, clothes and overall swag screams old school. A trademark of his personality, the celebrity funnyman shared one of his favorite grooves with fans backstage of his show.
In a video posted on his Instagram, captioned “Soul,” Harvey is dressed to kill in all tan from head to toe and is caught vibing to “Zoom” by the Commodores.
“Don’t you wanna go?” he sings with his eyes shut and his teeth beaming. As he snaps his fingers, bobs his head, and twists his foot, he has “this is my jam” written all over his face.
Many of his 9 million followers hopped into his comments to chime in on his joy.
Fans noticed his fashion, saying, “Steve know he be clean with it!”
“Summer linen suit!” Aliceham017 exclaimed, noting, “Those are popular in Georgia where I’m originally from.”
Another wrote, “He be sharp! Go head Unc.”
“Looking handsome, as always. That monochromatic look is phenomenal!” one lady remarked not caring at all that his beautiful wife, Marjorie Harvey, is always around.
Later in the video, Harvey breaks down a little history behind the song, telling a younger man the song was recorded in 1974 or 1975. The song was actually released on August 26, 1977, on the fifth studio album, “Commodores.” Despite its popularity, “Zoom” was never released in the United States as a single, charting in the United Kingdom at #38, according to Songfacts.com.
Ronald LaPread, the person who co-wrote the song with Lionel Richie, said the song was written after he was told his 23-year-old wife had “massive tumors in her womb” and doctors “gave her about two months to live.”
He told Jo-Ann Geffen, co-author of “Chicken Soup for the Soul: The Story Behind the Song,” “I sat down at the piano and started fiddling around.”
LaPread had started penning the song.
“Cathy got out of bed and came and sat down beside me. She told me that there were nice changes, but the melody should go up at a certain place. We sat there for about an hour and worked out the music,” he remembered.
The writer said he brought the song to his group members to play during a listening session. After playing one song that no one liked, he popped in a tape with the instrumentation on, but no lyrics.
“I played it,” he said, “And they asked what it was called. I said, ‘It’s like… Zoom,’ and the name stuck. I played it for our producer, James Carmichael, and he said it was nice, but it needed a middle. He told me that (Lionel) Richie had a song with a middle and no beginning and he put us together to combine our songs.”
“The group went into the studio before the words were done and we cut the track. I took the cassette home to work on, but I couldn’t get Cathy out of my mind,” the musician recalled. “The first lines that came to me were: I may be just a foolish dreamer … But I don’t care … ‘Cause I know my happiness is waiting out there somewhere.”
He said Richie jumped in and added, “Zoom. I’d like to fly far away from here.”
So concerned about his lady he said he could not finish, and Richie “finished the words and recorded the lead vocal.”
“He captured everything I was feeling,” LePread continued. “It was very quiet in the studio when they played it for me. When the song finished, everyone was crying. They knew where it came from.”
Shortly after that, Cathy transitioned, but the song, written about the helplessness LePread felt when she turned ill, is a classic, living on in the hearts of many like Steve Harvey as a testament to their love.
