"Once You Get Started" is a horn-driven funk number written by musician Gavin Christopher, and recorded and released by the band Rufus featuring Chaka Khan in late 1974. The song is led mostly by Khan, though fellow group member Tony Maiden contributed lead vocals for the song's second verse. It helped to make their third album Rufusized go platinum. "Once You Get Started", peaked at number ten on the Billboard Hot 100 in 1975, giving the group their second top ten single and third top forty single overall. The song also hit number-four on the Hot Soul Singles chart^[1] as well as number six on the Record World, Disco File Top 20 chart.^[2]

Covers

• Christopher later recorded his own version of the song on his 1986 solo album, One Step Closer.
• Chaka Khan re-recorded a version for the deluxe version of her 2007 album Funk This.

Bobby Byrd's wife now widow Vicki Anderson previously recorded a version of this song with Christopher singing background vocals released June 1974.

Samples

• The song was sampled in Raw Man's 1999 song,"Number Seven".

Song in Media

• It was also prominently heard in an episode of Good Times titled "Cousin Cleatus".

Credits

• Chaka Khan - lead vocals; background vocals
• Tony Maiden - guitar; co-lead vocals; background vocals
• Kevin Murphy - keyboards; background vocals
• Andre Fischer - drums; background vocals
• Bobby Watson - bass; background vocals
• Tower of Power - horns

References