# Car Wash (song)

"Car Wash" is a song by the American soul and R&B band Rose Royce. Written and arranged by the ex-Motown producer Norman Whitfield, the song was the group's first single and one of the most notable successes of the 1970s disco era. "Car Wash", the theme of the 1976 film Car Wash, was Rose Royce's most successful single and the lead single from their first studio album, the Car Wash soundtrack. Reaching number one on the US Billboard Hot 100 and Hot Soul Singles charts, "Car Wash" also peaked at number three on the National Disco Action Top 30 chart and reached number nine on the UK Singles Chart in February 1977. The song was covered in 2004 by Christina Aguilera and Missy Elliott, who released their version as the single for the Shark Tale soundtrack.

## Background

The former Motown Records producer Norman Whitfield had been commissioned to record the soundtrack album for Car Wash by the director Michael Schultz. Although Whitfield did not want the project, he decided to do so, both for financial incentives as well as the chance to give Rose Royce, a disco/funk backing band that Whitfield signed to his own label in 1975, the exposure they needed to become mainstream. Unable to develop a theme song for the film, inspiration finally struck Whitfield while watching a game of basketball, and he wrote his first draft of "Car Wash" on a paper bag from a fried chicken eatery.
The resulting song set the mood and tone for the comedy film it was commissioned for Rose Royce's lead singer Rose Norwalt (Gwen Dickey). It describes a fun and easy-going car washing business, where everything is "always cool/and the boss don't mind sometimes if you act a fool".
The Car Wash soundtrack, a double album, was Rose Royce's first album, and the title track was their first single. "Car Wash" sold 2 million copies and was a number one success on both the Billboard popular and R&B charts in the United States and a top ten success in the United Kingdom. The song was number one on the Billboard Hot 100 for one week, from January 23 to 29, 1977, replacing "I Wish" by Stevie Wonder and replaced by "Torn Between Two Lovers" by Mary MacGregor. The Car Wash soundtrack album, entirely recorded by Rose Royce and Whitfield, spawned two more successful singles, "I Wanna Get Next to You" and "I'm Going Down" (covered in 1994 by Mary J. Blige).
The Car Wash soundtrack won a 1977 Grammy Award for Best Score Soundtrack Album.
In 1978 the song was featured in the Tamil movie Sigappu Rojakkal.
In 1988, the song was re-released as a double A-side single with "Is It Love You're After?" in the United Kingdom, peaking at No. 20.

## Track listings

* UK 7" vinyl
* "Car Wash" – 3:18
* "Water" – 3:31

## Certifications

| Region | Certification | Certified units/sales |
| Canada (Music Canada) | Gold | 75,000$^^$ |
| United Kingdom (BPI) | Silver | 200,000$^‡$ |
| United States (RIAA) | Platinum | 2,000,000$^^$ |
| $^^$ Shipments figures based on certification alone. $^‡$ Sales+streaming figures based on certification alone. |||

## Car Wash '98

In 1998, "Car Wash" was remixed and interpreted in a duet with Gwen Dickey. Officially titled "Car Wash '98", the release also carries the alternative title "Car Wash '98 (The Monday Nightclub Mixes)", as the group Monday Nightclub was involved in the mixing.

### Track listing

* CD single
* "Car Wash '98" (Mustard Edit) - 3:09
* "Car Wash '98" (Mustard Mix) - 6:45
* "Car Wash '98" (Mustard Dub) - 5:34
* "Car Wash '98" (Levent's & Olli's Cream City Club Mix) - 6:19
* "Car Wash '98" (Levent's Talking About Dub Mix) - 7:56
* "Car Wash" (Original Version) - 3:20
* US 12" vinyl
* "Car Wash" (Mustard Mix) – 6:45
* "Car Wash" (Mustard Dub) – 5:34

### Charts

| Chart (1998) | Peak position |
| UK Singles (OCC) | 18 |

## Christina Aguilera and Missy Elliott version

In 2004, American singer Christina Aguilera recorded a cover version of "Car Wash", featuring rapper-singer Missy Elliott, giving the disco song a more modern feel and adding rapped verses from Elliott. In an interview, Aguilera said, "We had to change the key to be a little bit higher for my range. So we couldn't take the exact samples, but we brought in all these live instruments to recreate kind of this old, old classic, soulful feel and sound". Aguilera was reportedly paid $1 million to record the song.
"Car Wash" was the only single released from the soundtrack to DreamWorks' animated film Shark Tale (2004). Aguilera and Elliott's cover of "Car Wash" missed the U.S. Billboard Top 40, peaking at No. 63; however, it was a top-five and top-ten hit in the United Kingdom (#4), Australia (#2), Belgium (#2), Costa Rica (#6), New Zealand (#2), and several other international markets in which it was released. The song was the 48th best-selling single in the UK for 2004, with sales of over 100,000 copies. In the context of the film and its soundtrack, the "car wash" in question is the location where Oscar (voiced by Will Smith) is employed, a place like a car wash, albeit where large oceanic animals who behave and function like "cars" for the anthropomorphic fish are "washed".

### Music video

The music video to Aguilera's version features herself and Elliott as animated sea creatures (jellyfish and fish, respectively, similar to those in the film), combined with sequences of "human" Aguilera and Elliott singing the song in a recording studio. It includes numerous scenes of the film, Shark Tale. The recording studio scenes were shot by Rich Newey, while the animated scenes of Aguilera and Elliott were edited by Peter Lonsdale and John Venzon, editors on Shark Tale. The singers' fish characters are also featured at the end of the film.

### In popular culture

"Car Wash" by Christina Aguilera and Missy Elliott was ranked No. 5 on BMI's list of the Top 10 songs played at Major League sports events for the 2009–2010 season.

### Track listings

* CD single
* "Car Wash" (Christina Aguilera featuring Missy Elliott) – 3:51
* "Can't Wait" (Avant) – 3:45
* "Digits" (fan 3) – 3:39
* "Car Wash" (music video)
* Pocket maxi single
* "Car Wash" – 3:51
* "Can't Wait" – 3:45
* Digital download
* "Car Wash (Shark Tale Mix)" – 3:49
* "Can't Wait" – 3:43
* "Digits" – 3:38

### Release history

| Region | Date | Format | Label |
| United States | August 30, 2004 | Contemporary hit radio | DreamWorks |
| United States | August 30, 2004 | Rhythmic contemporary radio | DreamWorks |
| New Zealand | October 6, 2004 | Digital EP | DreamWorks |
| Germany | October 18, 2004 | CD single | DreamWorks |
| Germany | October 18, 2004 | Pocket maxi single | DreamWorks |
| Germany | October 18, 2004 | Digital download | DreamWorks |
| United Kingdom | November 1, 2004 | CD single | DreamWorks |
| United Kingdom | November 1, 2004 | Digital download | DreamWorks, Polydor |
| Canada | November 19, 2004 | CD single | DreamWorks, Universal Music |

### Certifications

| Region | Certification | Certified units/sales |
| Australia (ARIA) | Gold | 35,000$^^$ |
| New Zealand (RMNZ) | Gold | 5,000$^*$ |
| United Kingdom (BPI) | Silver | 200,000$^‡$ |
| $^*$ Sales figures based on certification alone. $^^$ Shipments figures based on certification alone. $^‡$ Sales+streaming figures based on certification alone. |||