The O'Jays

Genres:	Comedy • Holiday & Seasonal • Music Videos & Concerts • Pop / Rock • R&B / Soul • Television • Vocals
Descriptive "tags":	soul • funk • motown • philly soul • rnb
Decades Active:	1960s • 1970s • 1980s • 1990s • 2000s
Links online:	BBC Music • Biography • IMDb • MusicMoz • Wikipedia

Biography

The core of this long-standing soul group, Eddie LeVert (16 June 1942, Birmingham, Alabama, USA) and Walter Williams (b. 25 August 1942, USA), sang together as a gospel duo prior to forming the Triumphs in 1958. This doo-wop-influenced quintet was completed by William Powell (b. 20 January 1942, USA, d. 26 May 1977), Bill Isles and Bobby Massey and quickly grew popular around its home town of Canton, Ohio, USA. The same line-up then recorded as the Mascots before taking the name the O’Jays after Cleveland disc jockey Eddie O’Jay, who had given them considerable help and advice. Having signed to Imperial Records in 1963, the O’Jays secured their first R&B hit with ‘Lonely Drifter’, which was followed by an imaginative reworking of Benny Spellman’s ‘Lipstick Traces (On A Cigarette)’, ‘Let It All Out’ and ‘Stand In For Love’. Despite gaining their first R&B Top 10 entry with ‘I’ll Be Sweeter...

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