John F. Wilson (Sly), Charles Still (Slick) and Marc Sexton (Wicked) founded their group in 1970 in Cleveland, Ohio. Their Stay My Love got Paramount Records interested, and in March 1971 they got signed to the label. Heavily promoted by Paramount as the "hottest newest group," Stay My Love made it to # 1 on different charts. Nevertheless, Marc Sexton left the group at that time and Terry Stubbs replaced him.
In 1973 James Brown, having heard the group's debut single as well as its follow-up, It's Not Easy, made them part of his "First Family of Soul." He then produced Sho Nuff, a song written by the group; this song's success lead to an invitation to appear on Soul Train by the mighty Don Cornelius.
Sho Nuff, (People Records, 1973)
In 1974 they changed labels again, signing with the O'Jays owned Shaker Records. Once again, they released a hit with Turn On Your Lovelight. When Motown called via the Ju-par subsidiary, they of course moved again. There, in 1976, they released their first album Sly, Slick and Wicked. A second album for the label has never been released since Ju-par folded right after the first album had come out.
When they released All I Want Is You in 1979 for Epic, Sly, Slick and Wicked's star was already dimming.
The group kept performing into the 2000's while its members worked as songwriters and producers for such greats as the O'Jays, Janet Jackson (not so great lol) and Barry White.
The group clearly shows a way too obvious attempt to sound like the O'Jays -- which was not a good idea, in my opinion, simply because nobody will ever be able to come anywhere close to Walter Williams or Eddie LeVert.
7 comments:
This song is actually a cover!! it was originally done by a group called the Marvellos (sp). I know this cause believe it or don't I was tasked to sing the lead by my first group when I was a teenager. Now don't that just beat all..lol
I sure wish I had the orginal so we could contrast the difference, although the lead is virtually the same, as I remember, their harmony sounds better than the original.
Janet Jackson...Not so great? Why is that...
Hi jay! Well, Janet does not really belong in the same league with voices such as the O'Jay's, for example, or Barry White's. She has not much going for her in that department ... *smiles
Female singers that could compete with those of Eddie, Sammy or Barry would be Gladys Knigth, Aretha Franklin, Carla Thomas -- in short, voices with more substance than Janet's.
Blogger's playing tricks on me ... I just can't get the right comments to be posted.
Okay: ((Gua)) you did it again! You think we could find a copy of the original somewhere? That would be something else!
Raggedy, I will start searching, I seem to remember having it a long time ago, but I'll look around.
BTW, I agree with your assessment of Janet. Her voice is basically weak. She is more the entertainer than singer. I need to add that I like Janet, she was smart enough to get producers that could help her like Jimmy Jamm and Terry Lewis.
You wouldn't have the Sho Nuff Youtube song on here for download do you?
@Stretch: Here's "Sho-Nuff" for you: http://www.limelinx.com/files/db5f314c966c8fffcd21e2535b0d311d
Enjoy the music!
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