Dennis Coffey: Detroit's Funky Guitar Superman

Although, not really a household name, Dennis Coffey was a huge guitar studio musician presence on many of the great soul and R&B recordings of the late 60's into the 1970's and beyond. Coffey played that funky twangy guitar on Frieda Payne's 1970 smash hit, "Band Of Gold". And Coffey funked-up "It's Your Thing" for the legendary 1969 Isley Brothers hit as well. Coffey actually had two singles reach the top 40 on his own accord, with 1971's "Scorpio" which charted at #6 on the pop charts, and #9 on the soul charts. In 1972, Coffey again had a hit with "Taurus" at charting at #18. Coffey recorded three other singles which saw some smaller action on the soul or pop charts. Often, just on the basis of sales near Detroit, was Dennis Coffey able to chart. He was a hot local Detroit entity. On the American West coast he was far less known.

From 1969 to 2006, Coffey recorded 13 albums under his own name, and continued session guitar work on some of best R&B recordings over the years, adding his own unique funky guitar signature to the songs.

In 2004, Coffey published his life story in the book, GUITARS,BARS & DETROIT SUPERSTARS. It was a great collection of his memoirs as being one of the great Detroit guitar supermen of all time.

I'm sure that on more than a few hot R&B recordings, you can hear Coffey's Gibson Firebird guitar doing a funky twang. When Coffey heard the Funk Brothers using a Gibson Firebird during a recording session, he loved the sound and his own Fender Stratocaster got traded in at the guitar shop and Detroit music suddenly got a whole lot more funky ever since. Hey, get down Dennis. Get down. You're now officially a Wizbang Pop Guitar Superman.