| Genres: |
Funk,
Holiday & Seasonal,
Pop / Rock,
R&B / Soul
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| Descriptive "tags": |
soul, funk, motown, rhythm and blues, rnb
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| Decades Active: |
1950s,
1960s,
1970s,
1980s,
1990s,
2000s
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| Links online: |
BBC Music,
Facebook,
MySpace,
Official Homepage,
Wikipedia
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Biography
Three brothers, O’Kelly (25 December 1937, d. 31 March 1986), Rudolph (b. 1 April 1939) and Ronald Isley (b. 21 May 1941), began singing gospel in their home-town of Cincinnati, USA, in the early 50s, accompanied by their brother Vernon, who died in a car crash around 1957. Moving to New York the following year, the trio issued one-off singles before being signed by the RCA Records production team, Hugo And Luigi. The Isleys had already developed a tight vocal unit, with Rudolph and O’Kelly supporting Ronald’s strident tenor leads in a call-and-response style taken directly from the church. The self-composed ‘Shout’ - with a chorus based on an ad-libbed refrain that had won an enthusiastic response in concert - epitomized this approach, building to a frantic crescendo as the brothers screamed out to each other across the simple chord changes. ‘Shout’ sold heavily in the black market, and has since become an R&B standard, but...
Read the Full Biography of The Isley Brothers
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Products by The Isley Brothers
OLDIES.com on
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