Smash – Smash (1979):  Also known as Hot-Ice, Smash grew out of a band from Ohio called White Heat that was a backing band for Barry White; they released the album White Heat in 1975.  Smash could be considered a predecessor band to both DeBarge and Switch.  A German record producer named Bernd Lichters came to Grand Rapids, MI in late 1976 and oversaw the creation of an album for White Heat, renamed Hot-Ice, called Pall Mall Groove that was first released in Germany in 1977.  Although there is some confusion about who exactly was in the band, bandmembers in Hot-Ice evidently were Gregory Williams, Bobby DeBarge, Tommy DeBarge, Eddie Fluellen, Phillip Ingram (the brother of James Ingram), Stanley Hood, Jody Sims, Darnell Wyrick, and T. C. Brown.  With the help of Jermaine Jackson, the band signed with Motown Records in May 1977 and changed their name to Switch.  Two years after the Hot-Ice album was released in Europe, the same album came out in America under the name Smash.  The album has a superhero cover painting that was attractive enough for me to purchase it, although I had no idea what the music would be like.  By 1979, Switch was already releasing successful singles in the U.S.  In the same time period, the family band DeBarge was being formed; their debut album The DeBarges came out in 1981.  Smash remains as a driving funk album with all analog instruments and an unusual history.  In 2007, Bernd Lichters’ company Burndsman Records released a 30th anniversary reissue on CD of Smash.