Another giant in the world of soul music, Ronald Isley, celebrated his
82nd birthday yesterday.
The Isley Brothers were formed in 1954 by O'Kelly, Rudolph, Vernon and
Ronald. Vernon was tragically killed aged 13 when knocked off his bike by a
car. The group disbanded and later reformed as a trio in 1957 with Ron
taking over lead vocal duties. They recorded several singles for various
labels before they achieved their first hit record with "Shout" in 1959 for
RCA and again in 1962 with a reissue followed by two more hits the same
year, one being their biggest to that date with a cover of "Twist And Shout"
(#2 R&B/ #17 Hot 100). Another eleven singles for various labels Wand,
Atlantic, United Artists, Veep and their own T-Neck between 1962-66 didn't
result it any more hits.
In 1965 they signed to Motown's Tamla imprint for who they had a R&B
Top 10 hit with their very first record "This Old Heart Of Mine (Is Weak For
You)" in 1966, now regarded as a Motown classic. They released two albums
and a compilation whilst at Motown but only eight singles and none could
emulate the success of their first, By 1968 they left Motown to resurrect
their own label T-Neck and had a #1 R&B / #2 Hot 100 hit with their
first single "It's Your Thing" in 1969 which was a complete departure from
the music they made at Motown, being more hard edged funk.
They continued into the 70s which would prove to be their most successful
decade commercially with around 16 R&B Top 10 hits such as "Love The One
You're With", "That Lady" (which was an updated version of the song "Who's
That Lady" recorded for United Artists in 1964), "Summer Breeze", "Live It
Up", "Fight The Power", "For The Love Of You", "Harvest For The
World" etc.
The hits began to slow down in the 80s although they did achieve a further
six Top 10 R&B hits.
Like we did with Stevie Wonder last week, whose music spans seven
decades, Ron Isley's spans one more (from the 50s) so we will pick through his 60s material with The Isley Brothers at Motown which is well know to the Northern Soul faithful, but possibly not many outside that world.
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