Kool & the Gang and Sister Sledge

From 1964 the band performed at jazz events most notably those which took place in a small theater every Sunday, this was the start of the career for 13 year old Robert Bell, his brother and five of their friends.

Originally the ensemble were called the "Jazzics" but changed their name in 1969 in order to avoid confusion which was caused when they called themselves "Kool and the Flames" which was a name extremely similar to one in which James Brown was using at the time. This then caused the group to rename themselves to "Kool & the Gang". 1969 saw them signed to De-Lite Records under Gene Redd who owned the label.

In 1969 under De-Lite records the band released their self titled debut album "Kool & The Gang". It is considered to be a classic in funk music and has been sampled by over 10 artists since its release.

In 1975 the band released their very well received alum "Light Of Worlds" this received 3.5 stars from rolling stone and contained the very successful song "Higher Plane" this song was able to reach number 1 on the R&B charts.

Many Kool and the gang songs have gone on to feature on multiple platforms. Songs have been used in films such as "Baby Boy", multiple commercials such as a Nike shoe commercial starring LeBron James and even the video game Grand Theft Auto: Vice City.

Sister Sledge were made up of the four daughters of famed Broadway tap-dancer Edwin Sledge and the actress Florez Sledge. Debbie, Joni, Kathy and Kim were not protégé’s of their parents, however, as they were given singing lessons by their grandmother, an ex lyric soprano opera singer called Viola Williams. The quartet cut their teeth performing live at church gatherings, before forming a band together (called Mrs. Williams’ Grandchildren, no less) and by 1971, they had embarked on their first tour all over the East Coast of the USA. Soon after they started building up a following thanks to their live performances, the band changed their name to Sister Sledge, and released “Time Will Tell”, their first single, in the same year.

Strangely enough, it was in the U.K that the band saw their first big success, with their single “Mama Never Told Me” hitting the top twenty of the singles chart. However, the best was yet to come. The band spent most of the seventies enjoying reasonable success all over the world, and even scored a huge hit in Japan with “Love Don’t Go Through No Changes On Me”. They’d had enough initial success to score a record deal with Atlantic Records but they weren’t capitalizing on it. That is, until the company pared the band with Nile Rogers and Bernard Edwards of the band Chic. Immediately the pairing paid off, with their single “He’s The Greatest Dancer” hurtling into the top ten of the Billboard Hot 100.

This paled in comparison to the follow up, however. The title track to their 1979 album “We Are Family” was an enormous smash hit all over the world, peaking at number two on the Hot 100. This propelled the album into a top three spot on the Billboard 200 and it was eventually certified Platinum in the U.S and Gold in the U.K. The band weren’t able to keep up that level of success in the U.S but spent the rest of the 1980’s as a huge name in the U.K. They were even able to beat the chart success of “We Are Family” twice over there, with 1984’s number four single “Lost In Music” and the following year’s number one hit “Frankie”. However, all the success in the world wasn’t enough to keep Kathy from leaving the group in 1989.

Fortunately, the split was very amicable, and not only did the band continue to have a few more hit singles in the U.K after she left, but she’s joined them for sporadic shows and releases in the 90’s and 2000’s. We’re living in the age of “Uptown Funk”, and so far it’s proving to be a pretty deathless hit. Hopefully, it’ll revive interest in the late seventies and early 80’s disco and funk that inspired it, and if you’re interested, then you can’t do much better than checking out one of that era’s finest groups, Sister Sledge. Highly recommended.