Musical Emotions Return With Melodic Sound : Singers: The Emotions, a trio of sisters, revives its career as musical tastes return to tuneful songs.

A number of pop music’s best singers and songwriters took a back seat during the disco daze of the late-’70s, when melody, harmony, structure, texture, and production were slaves to the relentless pummel of a faddish beat.

When a dance tune with traceable musical values somehow found its way onto the radio, it seemed a gulp of oxygen in a miasma of thumping mediocrity. Such was the case with “Best of My Love,” a song written and produced by Earth, Wind and Fire’s creative font, Maurice White, for a trio of sisters known as the Emotions.

“Best of My Love” was a perfect marriage of design and performance, with White’s fat but neatly groomed rhythm tracks providing a cushioned launching pad for the Emotions’ soulful singing. The record became a No. 1 hit in 1977, and the Emotions returned the favor by singing on EWF’s own genre-bending 1979 disco hit “Boogie Wonderland.”

The sisters--Wanda, Sheila and Pamela Hutchinson--subsequently toured with EWF and continued to release their own albums on the Columbia Records label. Eventually, the Emotions and White’s Kalimba Productions parted ways, and when one didn’t hear of the trio for several years it was easy to assume they’d abandoned the music field.

“We put our careers on hold, we all got married, and we started families,” is how Sheila Hutchinson describes a group hiatus that began in the early ‘80s. Speaking by phone from Los Angeles, Hutchinson, 38, explained the group’s relative absence, its reemergence and the two shows it will perform tonight at Smokey’s in Mission Valley:

“That run of hits and exposure in the late ‘70s and early ‘80s was great fun and very exciting, but we all decided to take time off to live normal lives. But we haven’t exactly been idle. Wanda, especially, kept writing, singing and producing. She’s produced several artists, including Patti LaBelle and Jennifer Holliday, and she worked with Earth, Wind and Fire.”

Although, officially, the Emotions were no longer working under the EWF aegis, that connection indirectly grew stronger during their collective retreat. Wanda married keyboardist Wayne Vaughn, who had collaborated with White on much of the material for EWF’s best-selling 1981 album, “Raise!” Two years later, White and the married Vaughns co-wrote “Sweet Sassy Lady” for EWF’s “Electric Universe” album. Under the WW Productions banner, the Vaughns continue to write and produce.

“Meanwhile, I did several television and radio commercials,” added Hutchinson. “You might have seen me in a Kraft barbecue sauce commercial and another one for McDonald’s biscuits. But I kept my hand in music, too. Recently, I recorded a song, “Don’t Hold Back,” that’s supposed to be in an upcoming movie. They’re releasing it as a single next month.”

Considering their seemingly short-lived public exposure, one might be excused for thinking of the Emotions as another momentary flash on a pop landscape. Actually, the trio was a successful recording act years before teaming with White, although their fame was confined mostly to followers of gospel and ‘60s-style soul music.

Much like the Staple Singers, the native Chicagoans toured the gospel circuit at a young age with their guitarist-father, Joe. As the Hutchinson Sun Beams, they performed on Jerry Van Dyke’s “Children’s Gospel” television show and occasionally shared the concert stage with Mahalia Jackson. When they reached high school age, the girls changed their name to Three Ribbons and a Bow (dad was the “beau”) and began recording more secular sounds for independent labels.

Ironically, it was their models, the Staples, who eventually got them a recording contract with the well-known ‘60s soul conglomerate, Stax-Volt. Modest, mostly regional hits and tours with the likes of Sly and the Family Stone, the Jackson 5, B.B. King and Stevie Wonder brought them to the attention of Maurice White.

The Emotions’ current concert repertoire canvasses their interrelated styles.

“I’d say that about one-third of our show these days is spiritually motivated music,” said Hutchinson, carefully avoiding categorization.

But they will, one ventured tentatively, sing such favorites as “Best of My Love,” “Don’t Wanna Lose Your Love,” and “Boogie Wonderland,” won’t they?

“Of course!” said Hutchinson, who intimated that the Emotions’ hit-making days might be starting all over again. “Both of my sisters have been in the studio recently working on new songs.”

“Our sound now is kind of pop-gospel,” said the singer. “Sort of like what BeBe and CeCe Winans have been doing. It’s a natural direction for us, and I just hope we get the chance to make a record sometime soon.”