The Isley Brothers ( ) (
IZE-lee) are an
African-American R&B,
soul
music and
Funk group. They are one of the
few groups to have long-running success on the
Billboard
charts placing a charted single in every decade since 1959 and as
of 2006 were still charting successful albums performing under a
repertoire of
doo-wop, R&B,
rock 'n' roll, soul,
funk,
disco,
urban adult contemporary and
hip-hop soul. The group has had a
variation of lineups, ranging from a quartet to a trio to a sextet
to finally a duo.
Overview
Background
Originally
raised in Cincinnati,
Ohio
, the original group consisted of the three elder
sons of O'Kelly Isley, Sr. and Sally Bell Isley: O'Kelly Jr., Rudy and Ronnie,
who formed in 1957 and recorded with small labels singing doo-wop and rock 'n'
roll. After modest success with singles such as
"
Shout", "
Twist and Shout" and the
Motown single, "
This Old Heart of
Mine ", and a brief tenure with
Jimi
Hendrix as a background guitar player, the group settled on a
brand of gritty
soul and
funk defined by the
Grammy-winning smash "
It's Your Thing", in 1969. After reforming
the group as a six-member lineup in 1973 featuring younger brothers
Ernie and
Marvin and brother-in-law
Chris Jasper, they became known to fans as
3 + 3 and charted
gold and
platinum success with albums such as
3 + 3,
The Heat Is On,
Go For Your Guns and
Between the
Sheets, while charting a succession of hit singles such as
"
That Lady", "
Fight the Power", "
For the Love of You",
"
Don't Say
Goodnight " and "
Between
the Sheets", between 1973 and 1983. After the younger brothers
splintered from the group in 1984, the remaining trio continued
recording until O'Kelly's death from a
cancer-related heart attack in 1986. Rudy left the
group for a career in the
ministry in 1989. In 1991, Ron
reformed the group with Ernie and Marvin returning to the lineup.
Since 1997, after
diabetes forced Marvin
into retirement, the lineup has been Ron and Ernie, now on hiatus
due to Ron's current prison sentence after a
tax evasion conviction in 2006. Much like
The JB's,
Parliament-Funkadelic,
DeBarge and
Zapp, the
Isleys are among one of the most sampled groups in hip-hop history
with their recordings sampled by the likes of
2Pac,
The Notorious
B.I.G.,
Outkast,
UGK,
J Dilla,
Bone Thugs-n-Harmony,
Ice Cube and
Snoop Dogg
among others.
History
Early years
Occasionally performing in churches throughout their childhood, the
three eldest brothers O'Kelly, Rudy, Ron, were taught how to
perform in front of crowds by their parents, who were also
musicians, along with their younger siblings. A few years after the
death of younger brother Vernon from a road accident, O'Kelly, Rudy
and Ron were convinced by their parents to form a new singing group
together.
After forming the group in 1957, the brothers
immediately moved to New
York
and began recording in the doo-wop music genre. In 1959,
RCA Records signed the group after catching them
in concert where they had opened for
R&B star
Jackie Wilson. Their second release from the
label, "
Shout", became
the group's first charted single, reaching number 47 on the
Billboard Hot 100 though it failed
to enter the R&B chart. The single, written by the three
brothers, was a modest single when the group released it but the
song gained a mainstream following after cover versions by singers
such as
Lulu and
Joey Dee and the Starlighters
helped the song eventually sell over a million copies. Motivated by
its success, RCA later re-released the group's original version in
1961 but the song only peaked at number 92. A follow-up success to
"Shout!" never came and the group was released from their
contract.
Signing with
Wand Records in 1962, the
group scored their first top forty single, "
Twist & Shout", which was originally
recorded in a
calypso production by
the Top Notes. The Isleys' version, which had a more rock flavor,
influenced many groups, including
The
Beatles, who would record the single the following year and
finding huge success before the group moved on to record their own
compositions. After several more releases, the group left Wand
Records in 1964 and formed
T-Neck
Records after moving to New Jersey. Finding only local success
with the single "Testify", recorded with a young Jimi Hendrix on
guitar, the group temporarily folded T-Neck and signed with
Motown's Tamla imprint in 1965. The
following year's "
This Old Heart of
Mine " gave the group their biggest success up to that point on
the American
Billboard chart, reaching number twelve on
the Hot 100 and number six in R&B. Much like their earlier
tenures in other labels, the Isleys couldn't come up with a
follow-up and after complaining of being given "leftover tracks"
from the label's staff songwriters such as
Smokey Robinson and
Holland-Dozier-Holland, they asked to
be let go from their contract in 1968.
Upon
separating from Motown, the group discovered that they had a huge
following in England
where three
of their Motown singles had reached the top forty (among them "This
Old Heart", "Put
Yourself in My Place" and "Behind a Painted Smile").
Touring in the UK that year, they returned to the US with a new
image and sound. Signing with
Buddah
Records, the group recorded the gritty soul single, "
It's Your Thing", a noted departure from
their earlier recordings and showcasing a more independent sound in
addition to featuring younger brother Ernie on lead guitar, it was
released under the group's revived T-Neck label and eventually rose
to number 2 on the Billboard Hot 100, becoming their biggest
charted success, selling over a million copies and winning the
group a
Grammy Award for Best R&B
Vocal Performance by a Duo or Group. The success of "It's Your
Thing" reportedly irked Motown CEO
Berry
Gordy, who had agreed to let the band leave Motown in 1968;
Gordy began making accusations that "It's Your Thing" was recorded
while they were still in Motown, which the group denied. After
several years, Gordy settled with the group out of court. The group
released a succession of seven albums for Buddah including
The Brothers: Isley,
Givin' It Back and
Brother, Brother,
Brother. After the release of a live album, the group left
Buddah in 1973 after being offered a long term deal with
Epic by
Clive Davis,
then president of
CBS Records.
3 + 3
After signing with Epic, the group updated their lineup, now
including Ernie, brother
Marvin and
brother-in-law
Chris Jasper. The trio
had worked initially in the background on some of the group's
Buddah recordings. Their 1973 album, aptly titled
3 + 3, featured the crossover hit, "
That Lady", and featured guitarist
Ernie Isley in a memorable solo near the end of the song. By the
end of the year,
3 + 3 became their first album to be
certified gold. In 1975, the group hit number-one on the album
chart with
The
Heat Is On, featuring "
Fight the Power" and
"
For the Love of
You". Throughout the 1970s and 1980s, the Isleys issued other
successful recordings such as
Harvest for the World,
Showdown
and
Between the
Sheets. In 1983, the lineup splintered, with Chris Jasper,
Ernie and Marvin Isley forming the
Isley-Jasper-Isley group. The
3 +
3 period is still considered by some as the most notable Isley
Brothers era sandwiched between the group's earlier classic
rock/soul period and the group's later tenure into smooth urban
contemporary music. While the group members shared lyrical
composition rights, it is noted that most of the group's singles
were constructed by Ernie, Marvin and Chris, while allowing
O'Kelly, Rudy and Ron to share credit, easily splitting royalties
with the members. By 1985, however, the group found themselves in
trouble with the
IRS for not paying back taxes
and evading payments. To settle, the group agreed to sell their
label, thereby folding the company, though its imprint's logo would
still be on Isley Brothers records. All of the group's T-Neck
recordings are in the control of
Sony
Music. Afterwards, the group, which reverted back to the
original lineup of Kelly, Rudy and Ron, left Epic for
Warner Bros. Records.
Later years
In 1985, the group released
Masterpiece, which featured a
cover of
Phil Collins' "If Leaving Me
Is Easy". A year later,
O'Kelly Isley
passed away after suffering a heart attack in his New Jersey home.
Rudy and Ron dedicated their
Angela
Winbush-produced 1987 album
Smooth Sailin', which included the
tribute song "Sending a Message," to O'Kelly's memory. Nearly two
years before the release of 1989's
Spend the Night (also
produced by Winbush, whom Ron married soon after), Rudy left the
group to become a
minister,
leaving Ron to carry on a solo career, where he found success
collaborating with
Rod Stewart on a
remake of "This Old Heart of Mine". In 2000
Michael Bolton unsuccessfully tried to buy
the Isley Brothers' catalogue after the Isleys won a lawsuit
alleging that Bolton's song "
Love Is a
Wonderful Thing" plagiarized their 1966 VEEP single (VEEP 1230)
track of the same title.
Around the same time, The Isley Brothers were re-formed, with Ernie
and Marvin returning to the lineup with Ron to record the album,
Tracks of Life in 1992.
That same year, the group was inducted to
the Rock &
Roll Hall of Fame
. In 1996, the group released their first hit
album in years with
Mission to
Please, boosted significantly because of lead singer Ron
Isley's
music video character, "Mr.
Biggs", created by frequent collaborator, hip-hop/R&B singer
R. Kelly, who first
used Isley in the 1996 single for his hit, "
Down Low". The character would
dominate much of the group's later recordings and helped to gain
the group a brand new audience. The group - now consisting of Ron
and Ernie - would top that success with their biggest-selling
release, 2001's
Eternal, which featured
their biggest hit single in over twenty years with "
Contagious", a song written by O'Kelly,
who recorded it as Mr. Biggs' answer to "Down Low." The single and
its heavily rotated video returned the Isley Brothers to the top of
the music chart,
Eternal eventually sold more than two
million copies. With "Contagious" and
Eternal, they had
become the only group to have a single and album chart in over five
decades -- longer than any group in recording history (42 years).
They stretched their streak with 2003's gold-certified
Body Kiss, which was their first number-one
charted album in nearly thirty years (since
The Heat Is
On), and their first to
debut at number one, and
which featured the top fifty single, "What Would You Do" and 2006's
Baby Makin' Music, which
peaked at number five on the Billboard 200.
But the Isleys haven't been without struggle. In the years since
their comeback to the music charts in 1996, Marvin Isley retired in
1997 due to a bout with diabetes that forced doctors to amputate
both his legs. Rudolph "Rudy" Isley has had health problems over
the years, but has said that his faith in
God
has kept him alive; he currently lives in California with Elaine
Jasper Isley, his wife of over 50 years. Chris Jasper has recorded
sporadically over the years since the split of Isley-Jasper-Isley
in 1987. Ernie Isley is currently working on his first solo album
in nearly 20 years after the release of 1990's
High Wire.
The most supported and famous of the group, Ron Isley, has also
suffered hard times, recently convicted of tax evasion charges in
2006 after he was accused of not paying back taxes between 1997 and
2002, giving band mates cash rather than taking the money to cash a
check, and using money from his late brother O'Kelly's estate to
continue his "expensive lifestyle". After quietly divorcing Winbush
in 2002, Ron was married for a third time to his backup singer
Kandy Johnson, formerly of the group JS, and became a father again
in 2006. He also has a daughter from a previous marriage.
In 2004,
the singer suffered a mild stroke during a touring schedule in
London
. During his court case, it was revealed
Isley, now 66, has kidney cancer and failing organs. Isley's
lawyers have tried pleading with the judge to give leniency to the
singer, who was sentenced to serve 37 months (at least three years)
in prison, but have been denied. Isley is currently serving his
sentence and will be released on a tentative date in April 2010.
The Isley Brothers were inducted to the
Vocal Group Hall of Fame in 2003.
They released their first Christmas album,
I'll Be Home For
Christmas, in 2007 on their second release with
Island Def Jam.
In October of 2009, 68 year old Ronald Isley was released from
prison just a few months shy of his pending April 13, 2010 release
date .
Isley Brothers personnel
-
- 1 - The Isley Brothers' career has been put on
hiatus since Ron began serving his sentence for tax evasion charges in 2007.
- 2 - Ernie, Marvin and Chris were recruited as the
group's background instrumentalists between 1968 and 1973 before
becoming members.
Discography
For a detailed listing of albums and singles, see: Isley Brothers
discography.
Billboard Top 40 Albums
Billboard Top 40 Singles
References
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