Following the birthday post for Atlantic Starr lead singer
Barbara Weathers, I felt it appropriate to do a feature on the group as well as many
of their earlier recordings were done without her as she replaced
Sharon Bryant in 1984 after they had already recorded five
albums.
Atlantic Starr evolved from Newban who
were classmates at Woodland High School, Hartsdale NY, who recorded two albums,
"Newban" and "Newban 2" which were unofficially released on Guinness in 1977. They moved to
L.A. (Westwood) and were spotted performing in a nightclub as Newban
and were signed to Herb Alpert and Jerry Moss' A&M Records in
1977. Upon signing they were asked to change their name and chose the
name Atlantic Starr to represent their east coast connection.
The group initially consisted of nine, trimming down to seven and
then five and I think eventually a quartet. The embryo of the group
began in the early 70s when the three Lewis brothers (David, Jonathan
and Wayne) all led separate groups, Newban, Exact Change and Unchained
Youth. The groups amalgamated into one with the Lewis brothers, Wayne (keyboards / vocals), Jonathan (trombone / percussion) and
David (guitar / vocals) along with William Suddeeth III
(trumpet), Clifford Archer (bass), Joseph Phillips (congas / flute /
percussion), Porter Carrol Jr. (drums / vocals) and Sharon Bryant
(vocals / percussion) and Damon Rentie (sax) who was later replaced by Koran Daniels (sax).
The two Newban albums were combined and reissued by BBE in 2012 on
vinyl and CD. Soul4Real also released two tracks from "Newban2" as a 7" single earlier this year.
Their first album as Atlantic Starr was self-titled,
produced by MFSB's Bobby Eli and released in 1978 on A&M. They
released a further five albums for A&M until 1985 then switching
to Warner Bros. for two albums between 1987-89. Another four albums
were released in the 90s all on different labels and finally one as
recently as 2017.
Five members left the group in 1984 leaving the three Lewis brothers and Phillips. They recruited Barbara Weathers to replace Sharon Bryant (who went on to a solo career) and hit with the ballad "Secret Lovers". Inevitably, due to the success of that single, the group tended to focus on slushy ballads and had a #1 hit with another, "Always", in 1987 and "Masterpiece" in 1991 reaching #3 (their three most successful singles). Weathers and Wayne Lewis got engaged which caused further tension in the group leading to disputes over royalties and she left in 1988.
The group continued recording through the 90s with different female leads releasing four more albums, Porscha Martin on "We're Movin' Up", Rachel Oliver on "Love Crazy" and Aisha Tanner for "Time" with Oliver returning for "Legacy".
After an almost twenty year hiatus, they released "Metamorphosis" in 2017.
Album Discography
1978 - Atlantic Starr
1979 - Straight To The Point
1980 - Radiant
1982 - Brilliance
1983 - Yours Forever
1985 - As The Band Turns
1987 - All In The Name Of Love
1989 - We're Movin' Up
1991 - Love Crazy
1994 - Time
1998 - All Because Of You
1998 - Legacy
2017 - Metamorphosis
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