The Isley Brothers also began covering rock and folk-rock material, adding their own gospel flavor to songs like Stephen Stills’s “Love the One You’re With” (#18 Pop, #3 R&B, 1971 and Bob Dylan’s “Lay, Lady, Lay” (#71 Pop, #29 R&B, 1971), while doing a whole LP of covers (Giving It Back) that included James Taylor’s “Fire and Rain.” The group began producing other acts for T-Neck like Dave “Baby” Cortez (of THE VALENTINES, Rama) and Judy White. “I Guess I’ll Always Love You” hit number 11 in early 1969 and “Behind a Painted Smile” went to number five in the spring of 1969 – just two of the eventual charters the Isleys would accumulate in Britain.īy the fall of 1969 the family trio had been joined by brothers Marvin (bass), Ernie (Guitar and drums), and cousin Chris Jasper (keyboards). began to hit the upper reaches of the charts. Tamla releases that did little in the U.S. Their It’s Your Thing LP eventually sold over two million copies. The group wasn’t on Tamla anymore, so they resurrected T-Neck, arranged distribution through Neil Bogart’s Buddah label, and in 1969 hit with “It’s Your Thing,” which turned out to be their biggest record ever (#2 Pop,#1 R&B, #30 U.K.). In 1968 the group toured England and “This Old Heart” was reissued for a chart climb to number three.
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They issued only one single at the time, “Testify, Parts I and II,” a recording that featured a 22-year-old touring band member named Jimi Hendrix on guitar.īy 1966 the Isleys had signed with Motown’s Tamla affiliate and recorded some of their best material, including the Holland, Dozier, and Holland song “This Old Heart of Mine” (#12 Pop, #6 R&B, #47 U.K.). In 1964 the group set up their own T-Neck label named after the New Jersey city where they and their family now lived. The Beatles made it a number two hit in 1964. In 1962 the brothers switched over to Wand (a division of Florence Greenberg’s Scepter operation) and hit with a Bert Berns song and production called “Twist and Shout” (#17 Pop, #2 R&B, #42 U.K.).
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The Isley Brothers moved to Atlantic Records in 1961 and were produced by Leiber and Stoller, but they couldn’t come up with a commercial package for the group’s gospel power. In 1962 it charted again (#94), but their other RCA releases didn’t fare as well even though they included such gospel rockers as “Respectable,” which the Outsiders (another Ohio group, this one from Cleveland) took to number 15 in 1966, and the rousing “Tell Me Who.” It never made it to the R&B chart, but in years to come it sold over a million copies as a standard rock and roll oldie and became one of oldies radio’s most popular plays. With a high-energy rhythm, gospel shouts, insistent tambourines, Professor Herman Stephens (their hometown church organist) on the keys, and the Isleys’ now-famous “hey-ey-ey-ey” call-and-response section, “Shout” charted Pop on September 21, 1959, and reached number 47. On July 29th the trio made the historic recording of “Shout, Parts I and II,” the song that epitomized the merging of gospel and rock and roll. The group was then spotted by Howard Bloom of RCA at the Howard Theatre in Washington, D.C., and in the spring of 1959 they signed with that label. Three more Goldner singles (two on Gone and one on Mark-X) went nowhere. He recorded the group and issued their first single, the doo wop, tenor-led ballad “The Angels Cried.”Ī year later they crossed paths with George Goldner and recorded the Ron Isley-penned JESTERS/”So Strange” styled ballad “Don’t Be Jealous” Through their local shows they met Bill (Bass) Gordon, former lead singer of the Colonials (Gee, 1956) and owner of Teenage Records. The introduction allowed the teens to work and earn money for food and lodging. A woman on the bus liked their harmonizing and recommended they see an agent in New York that she knew. In 1957 The Isley Brothers left for New York with bus fare and $20 out of the family fund. A year later their parents convinced them to regroup, and the trio set about crafting a balance of gospel, rhythm and blues, and doo wop into an energetic style. With their mother accompanying them, the Isleys toured churches throughout Kentucky and Ohio, but activities ground to a halt in the 1950’s when young Vernon was killed in a traffic accident. In 1944, three-year-old Ronald won a $25 war bond for singing in a spiritual contest at the Union Baptist Church, and by the time he was seven he was singing on stage at the Regal Theatre alongside Dinah Washington and others.
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The Isley family was from Cincinnati, Ohio, and the original group was a quartet consisting of four Isley sons of Kelly and Sallye Isley.
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Coming from a gospel background, the Isley Brothers successfully entertained several generations of R&B and rock and roll lovers.