Para fãs de: Funk & Soul e R&B.
genre_page_link
Forming out of two Philadelphia groups, they wasted no time in recording the song “You’re a Big Girl Now”, which was written by their tour manager Marty Bryant with Robert Douglas. It became a hit single for the band making it to number 7 on the Billboard R&B chart in 1971. The Stylistics had arrived.
They signed to a label called Avco who approached Thom Bell to work with the group. Unimpressed at first, he saw a lot of potential in Russell Thompkins Jr’s nasal voice. Bell had creative control over the Stylistics, and would give all of the solos to Thompkins. The first collaborative single “Stop, Look, Listen” released on March 4th 1971 made it to number 25 in the UK Singles Chart. It was this era that they released a slew of hits including “Betcha by Golly, Wow” which peaked at number 3 on the Billboard Hot 100. “You Make Me Feel Brand New” gave the group their biggest hit maintaining the number 2 spot for two weeks. The single was certified Gold.
Unfortunately Bell ceased working with the Stylistics in 1974, which made it very difficult for the band to cut it in the US, as Bell was the driving force behind the band. Fortunately the band stumbled across producers Hugo & Luigi who after two singles that made the Top 40 gave the band their first UK number 1 in 1975 with the song “Can’t Give You Anything”. This made them one of the first US acts to achieve two chart topping greatest hits albums across the pond in the UK.
They reunited with Thom Bell and signed to Philadelphia International Records in 1980 and released the single “Hurry Up This Way Again” which peaked at number 18 in the R&B chart.
In October 2009, the band featured on the BBC One show, Friday Night with Jonathan Ross.
Originally performing under the name Hi-Lites, the band released a few singles through local labels. With a departure from Johnson in 1964 and after discovering that the name Hi-Lites was already in existence, the band reworked their name to also pay homage to their home town Chicago, becoming known as The Chi-Lites. In 1969 they released their debut album “Give It Away” through Brunswick Records and charted in Billboard’s Top Soul LP’s at number 16. Featuring the title single as well as “Let Me Be the Man My Daddy Was” and “24 Hours of Sadness”, it also included three Mo-town covers.
The 1971 single “Have You Seen Her” marked the start of the band’s climb to success as it peaked at number three in the Billboard charts and was smashed the following year with their number one single “Oh Girl” from the album “A Lonely Man”, which became their highest charting album at number five and saw the band go global. After the release of the 1977 album “The Fantastic Chi-Lites”, communication broke down between members and consequently forced the band to go on a brief break.
Returning in 1980 full force with Record, Thompson, Lester and Jones in the line-up, they released the album “Heavenly Body” featuring the title track and the single “The Only One For Me (One in a Million)”. Subsequent years would bring a string of unfortunate events which would once again impact the final line-up leaving it with Marshall Thompson, his wife Tara and Fred Simpson to continue the Chi-Lites legacy. With a number of hit singles and a repertoire spanning over five decades has seen The Chi-Lites recognised not only through Grammy nominations but sworn into the R&B Hall of Fame in 2013.
Don’t you just love R&B? You know those harmonic progressions paired with heartfelt lyrics that just make you melt? Lets talk about R&B super group veterans, The Stylistics, who has been doing their thing now for years and years. Their music has seen five decades, and a huge string of hits along the way. In the 70’s the group had twelve consecutive R&B top ten hits, and if we’re lucky, then tonight, we’ll hear most of them! The white suit-clad R&B group, walk out on stage to a huge amount of applause, and take their spots at the microphones. They blast into an a cappella version of “Break Up to Make Up”, which is completely riding the waves of applause, bouncing off the crowd who are supplying their energy through this complex and soulful section. This group rip through all of those top ten hits this evening, with the vibe being absolutely off the hook, backed by a live band who again, are a worthy source of energy for this band. A night to remember.
Chicago soul group, The Chi-Lites who have been doing their thing for five decades are STILL doing it, it’s amazing to experience what they’re all about as years of performing hasn’t hindered their ability in the slightest. They’re still performing, singing with a smile and they have still maintained their status over the many years. Tonight they indulge the audience in songs such as “Oh Girl” which of course was a huge number one hit for the band back in 72. There are a couple of things that this band have maintained and that’s their stage presence. They have such a natural charisma that reels in the audience making them hang onto every word that this group says or sings. They close on “Have You Seen Her”, doing a ten-minute version of the song. It almost feels as though they are each doing their own versions of the song, but no one has an issue since they’re all world-class singers! Well worth the ticket price.
Oh I love the show I love them I always listen to them they was one of the big things that wanted to see that I must see I'm so happy and we'll see them again great performance
Eddie Holman is soul personified and you would be hard pressed to argue otherwise. I was so excited to finally see him live in concert and the good feelings lasted right up to the show and throughout. This was helped along by the fact that not only were the tickets inexpensive, but the venue itself was large enough that it was extremely easy to find a parking space and even easier to find a seat close to the stage. I was a little worried that the stage being indoors would take a little bit away from Eddie's voice because of the reflection of sound against the walls, but I was pleasantly surprised when I found that the building was selected carefully and that the arches in the singing were created in such a way that it didn't affect his singing at all.
When singing "Hey there lonely girl" you can really tell the amount of vocal range that Eddie has and it was made funny by him because he stopped and told the audience that the reason he is able to sing like that according to his mother is because he wears tight clothes. He continues to tell the crowd that he hopes that he doesn't mess up and that even though he is much older he thinks that he can sing as high as he used to for a second time, but to not get upset if he can't. After completing the song he smiled widely to the crowd and thanked them very much for coming out to see him.
After hearing the song and watching him smile I couldn't help but do the same and I was extremely glad that I took the time to drive out and see him perform.