The Commodores are a
Grammy Award winning
American funk/
soul band, most popular in the 1970s and 1980s. The group is best known for their
ballads, such as "
Easy" and "
Three Times a Lady", but, for the most part, the group mainly recorded funky, driven dance-floor
hits which include "
Slippery When Wet" and "
Brick House". Even though the band's 1969 debut album on
Atlantic slipped out unnoticed, The Commodores became one of the 1970s most popular recording acts.
The Commodores were one of the top bands during their long tenure at Motown.
The group is credited with seven number one R&B songs and a host of other
Top Ten hits on the
Billboard charts, and their catalog includes more than 50 albums.
Biography
The members of the group met as
freshmen at Tuskegee Institute (now
Tuskegee University) in 1967,
and signed with
Motown in November 1972, having first caught the public eye opening for
The Jackson 5 while on
tour.
The Commodores originally called themselves the Jays, but had to change their name because of the similarly named
The O'Jays. To choose a new name band member William King opened a dictionary, and randomly picked a word.
"We lucked out," he remarked with a laugh when telling this story to
People Weekly. "We almost became The Commodes!"
"Machine Gun", the
instrumental title track from the band's album, became a staple at
American sporting events, and is similarly featured in many
films, including
Boogie Nights and
Looking for Mr. Goodbar. It reached #24 on the
Billboard Hot 100 in 1975.
Another instrumental, "Cebu" (named after an
island in the
Philippines), later became a staple in the
Quiet storm radio format. Three albums released in years 1975 and 1976 (
Caught in the Act,
Movin' On,
Hot on the Tracks) are considered the peak of their harder funk period. Only one such hit from that era scored big, the funk-driven "
Brick House" which reached #5 in the US.
After those
recordings the group started to move towards softer sound. That move was hinted from their 1976 Top Ten hits "Sweet Love" and "
Just to Be Close to You".
In 1977 the Commodores scored a ballad hit with "
Easy", which became the group's biggest hit yet, reaching #4 in the US.
