Sammy Johns — Chevy Van

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B-6xdrNjJXs

Sammy Reginald Johns was born in Charlotte, North Carolina, on February 7, 1946. When he was nine years old, Johns’ father presented him with a guitar, and by the time he was a teenager he had established his own band, the Devilles. The group performed in local clubs and recorded a few records on the Dixie record label. After a move to Atlanta, Georgia, he was given a recording contract in 1973. General Recording Corporation put out Johns’ first solo record, “Early Morning Love”, that year.
Although he wrote a number of hit songs for other artists, Johns is best remembered for the one he recorded himself, “Chevy Van”. The single drove up to No. 5 in the Billboard Hot 100 chart. It remained in the chart for 17 weeks and was awarded a gold disc by the R.I.A.A. on 4 May 1975.
After his eponymous debut album on the GRC record label, which included “Chevy Van”, the singer signed a deal in 1976 with Warner-Curb, which resulted in Johns working on the soundtrack to The Van. The 1982 New World Records single “Falling for You” came to the attention of Elektra, and the company took Johns on board and issued “Love Me off the Road” and “Common Man”. When country artist John Conlee covered “Common Man”, the single went gold and topped the charts. Conlee made the song his theme, and Johns continued writing songs for others.
Those who have recorded Johns’ songs are Waylon Jennings, Sammy Kershaw, and Conway Twitty. In 1985, Jennings serenaded the Statue of Liberty with Johns’ song “America”, on a nationally broadcast event to mark the statue’s restoration. The performance helped turn the single gold, and “America” was nominated for song of the year in country music circles. Johns’ “Desperado Love” also brought Twitty his final gold record. Kershaw covered “Chevy Van” on his 1996 album Politics, Religion and Her.

 

Wild Cherry —- Play That Funky Music

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qe1ScoePqVA

 

The original lineup included: Ben Difabbio (drums and vocals), Louie Osso (guitar, lead and background vocals) from Steubenville, Ohio, Larry Brown (bass, lead and background vocals) from Weirton, West Virginia, Larry Mader (keyboards, lead and background vocals) from East Springfield, Ohio, Ron Vallera (guitar and background vocals) from Steubenville, Ohio and Rob Parissi (lead vocals and guitar). Over time, the band members changed, with Osso, Brown, and Mader leaving the band, replaced by Rob’s cousin, Coogie Stoddart (guitar, lead and background vocals) and Joe Buchmelter (bass). Buchmelter was soon replaced by Buckie Lusk.

Parissi re-formed the band with new musicians. The new lineup consisted of Bryan Bassett (guitar/vocals), Ron Beitle (drums) (both from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania), and Allen Wentz (bass guitar/synthesizer/vocals), who hailed from Detroit, Michigan. As the quartet began to perform non-stop and build a huge, devoted following in the Pittsburgh area, they were repeatedly asked by listeners to play more dance music. Disco was beginning its rule on the radio and the dance floor. At the 2001 Club in Pittsburgh, a table full of black fans kept coming to the stage and teasing: “Are you white boys gonna play some funky music?” One night during a break between sets, drummer Ron Beitle, in a group meeting in the dressing room, uttered the phrase: “Play That Funky Music, White Boy.” On the way back to the stage to play the next set, Rob Parissi was immediately inspired to write a song around the phrase, on a drink order pad with a pen borrowed from the bartender. The song took a total of 5 minutes to write. When the band went into the studio to record the song, studio engineer Ken Hamann was blown away by the potential hit and brought the band to the attention of Sweet City Records, distributed by Epic/CBS, which then immediately signed the group. Parissi had intended to record the song as the B-side to a cover version of the Commodores’ “I Feel Sanctified,” but the label suggested it as the A-side. During the recording of the first album, Mark Avsec was hired as a session keyboardist on two of the album’s tracks, “Nowhere To Run” and “The Lady Wants Your Money,” and was asked to join the band after the album was released and the group was about to embark on its first tour.

“Play That Funky Music” became a huge hit when released in 1976, peaking at number one on both the Billboard R&B and pop charts. Both the single and Wild Cherry’s self-titled debut album went platinum. “Play That Funky Music” was No. 1 on the Billboard charts for 3 weeks. The band was named Best Pop Group of the Year by Billboard, and received an American Music Award for Top R&B Single of the Year, as well as a pair of Grammy nominations for Best New Vocal Group and Best R&B Performance by a Group or Duo that year, adding to their success. Parissi did not attend the AMA awards and radio personality Wolfman Jack accepted the award on the band’s behalf.

Rob Parissi (lead vocals & guitar) was raised in the steel mill town of Mingo Junction, Ohio. Parissi graduated from Mingo High School in 1968. Rob formed the band Wild Cherry in 1970 in Steubenville, Ohio, one mile north of Mingo Junction along the Ohio River. The band’s name “Wild Cherry” was taken from a box of cough drops while Rob was recuperating from a brief hospital stay. The band played the Ohio Valley region, Wheeling, West Virginia and the rest of the Northern West Virginia panhandle, and Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

 

Stories — Brother Louie

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k-5Y5PX2qHQ

Stories was an early 1970s rock and pop music band based in New York. The band consisted of keyboardist Michael Brown, bassist/vocalist Ian Lloyd, guitarist Steve Love, and drummer Bryan Madey, and had a Number 1 hit with a cover of Hot Chocolate’s “Brother Louie.”

Ian Lloyd (b. Lloyd Buonconsiglio, 1947, Seattle) is an American rock singer and songwriter, best known as the lead singer of the band Stories, whose single “Brother Louie” was number one on the Billboard Hot 100 chart in 1973.[1]

In 1971 Michael Brown and Ian Lloyd formed Stories. They released two albums (“Stories” and “About Us”) with a handful of Billboard Top 100 charting singles. Brown left before the band recorded their third (and final) album, (Traveling Underground) which was released under the artist’s name, “Ian Lloyd and Stories”, and included the Billboard top 40 hit, “Mammy Blue”. After Stories he pursued a solo career, with six albums to his credit. Lloyd has performed with numerous recording artists, assuming the role of a session musician. His long discography of work includes background work with artists such as Foreigner, Billy Joel, Peter Frampton, and Yes.

Lloyd continues to record, perform, and was a backup singer, Lloyd worked with numerous major recording artists, most notably Foreigner, who used Lloyd’s vocals on hits like “Feels Like the First Time,” “Cold as Ice,” “Waiting for a Girl Like You,” “Juke Box Hero”, and “Double Vision.” Lloyd can also be heard on Billy Joel’s “I Go to Extremes”, as well as tracks by Yes, Peter Frampton, Survivor, and Ian McDonald.rite, his most recent release being “Everyone’s Happy Cause It’s Christmas Time”.

The Jaggerz — The Rapper

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ptZJuU0sFL8

The Jaggerz are a pop/rock band from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. They are a one-hit wonder, their only major success being the single “The Rapper”. Released on the Kama Sutra label, “The Rapper” was #2 in the Billboard Hot 100 chart for two weeks in March 1970, and sold over one million copies with the gold record awarded by the R.I.A.A..[1]
The band’s name derives from the Pittsburgh English slang term, “jagger bush,” meaning a thorny bush.[2] They were managed by The Skyliners manager, Joe Rock.

Donnie Iris (born Dominic Ierace on February 28, 1943) is an American rock musician known for his work with The Jaggerz and Wild Cherry during the 1970s, and for his solo albums since the 1980s with his backing band, the Cruisers. He wrote the #2 Billboard hit, “The Rapper”, with the Jaggerz in 1970 and was a member of Wild Cherry after the group had a #1 hit with “Play That Funky Music.” He became known as a solo artist in the early 1980s with the #29 hit “Ah! Leah! and the #37 hit “Love Is Like a Rock”.

In addition to performing on the first three Jaggerz albums and the fourth and final Wild Cherry album, Iris with his solo band has released eleven studio albums, one EP, two live albums, and two compilation albums. He continues to release new material and tours throughout the greater Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania and Youngstown and Cleveland, Ohio areas.

 

information from wikipedia

Lee Michaels —- Do You Know What I Mean

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JasHDzxaPYY

Lee Eugene Michaels (born Michael Olsen, November 24, 1945, Los Angeles, California) is a rock musician who performs vocals and accompanies himself on organ, piano, or guitar. He is best known for his energetic virtuosity on the Hammond organ, peaking in 1971 with his Top 10 pop hit single, “Do You Know What I Mean”.

One of the most interesting second-division California psychedelic musicians, keyboardist Lee Michaels was one of the most soulful white vocalists of the late ’60s and early ’70s. Between 1968 and 1972, he released half a dozen accomplished albums on A&M that encompassed baroque psychedelic pop and gritty white (sometimes gospel-ish) R&B with equal facility. A capable songwriter, Michaels was blessed with an astonishing upper range, occasionally letting loose some thrilling funky wails. In 1971, he landed a surprise Top Ten single with “Do You Know What I Mean,” one of the best and funkiest AM hits of the early ’70s.
But Michaels was really much more of an album-oriented artist, from the time he began recording in the late ’60s. Michaels started playing music in Southern California, where he was in a band with future members of Moby Grape, the Turtles, and Canned Heat. By the time he signed to A&M, however, he’d moved to San Francisco, joining the management stable of Matthew Katz (which also included, at various times, Jefferson Airplane, Moby Grape, and It’s a Beautiful Day). Michaels was unusual for a San Francisco act in that he relied mostly on an organ-based sound, especially after the first pair of albums, when for a time he played (live and in the studio) with the mammoth drummer “Frosty” as his only accompanist.
“Do You Know What I Mean,” ironically, was a throwaway tune that Michaels wrote hurriedly. Though Lee himself didn’t think much of it, the song was a first-rate blast of blue-eyed soul; around this time, the gospel influence that had often informed his sound came to the fore. His albums in the mid-’70s for Columbia, however, were both critical and commercial disappointments. Michaels moved to Hawaii for an extended retirement from the music business. In the early ’80s he announced the forthcoming independent release of a new solo album entitled Absolute Lee, which finally saw distribution through One Way Records in 1996; however, little has been heard from him since. ~ Richie Unterberger, Rovi

(information taken from wikipedia.org and billboard.com)