The group won a freshman talent competition at Tuskegee, and started playing frat parties and area night clubs. An important addition early on was Walter "Clyde" Orange, who would ultimately split lead vocal duties with Richie. After the members graduated from Tuskegee, they were test-marketed. They signed with Motown in November 1972, and got their first work opening for The Jackson 5 while working their way up the charts in the mid-1970s.
After scoring some decent hits on their first four albums, they made a double name for themselves in 1977 with the Richie-led R&B standard "Easy" and the Orange-led Funk standard "Brick House" off their self-titled fifth album. Their next album, Natural High, brought their first Billboard #1 with "Three Times a Lady". They would get a second #1 off the next album, Midnight Magic, with "Still".
Following the 1981 album In the Pocket, which brought the post-disco R&B hit "Lady (You Bring Me Up)", Lionel Richie left the band to start a solo career. The Commodores eventually hired J.D. Nicholas to join Orange at lead vocals. Their biggest post-Richie hit would be the 1985 song "Nightshift", a salute to then-recently-deceased musicians Marvin Gaye and Jackie Wilson. It would hit #3 on the Billboard Hot 100, and to date is their last Top-40 hit. The eponymous album was their last with Motown.
Other members of the group would eventually depart, and the Commodores recorded their last studio album in 1993. Today, Orange, King, and Nicholas tour under the Commodores name with a five-piece backing band named "The Mean Machine".
Milan Williams died of cancer in 2006.
Discography
- Machine Gun (1974)
- Caught in the Act (1975)
- Movin' On (1975)
- Hot on the Tracks (1976)
- Commodores (1977)
- Natural High (1978)
- Midnight Magic (1979)
- Heroes (1980)
- In the Pocket (1981)
- Commodores 13 (1983)
- Nightshift (1985)
- United (1986)
- Rock Solid (1988)
- No Tricks (1993)
Principal members (founding members in bold, current in italics)
- Andre Callahan - drums, vocals, keyboards (1968-70)
- Michael Gilbert - bass guitar, trumpet (1968-70)
- James Ingram - vocals, drums (1970-86)
- Skyler Jett - vocals, keyboards (1982-84)
- William King - trumpet, guitar, keyboards, vocals (1968-)
- Eugene LaPread - bass guitar (1970-86)
- Mikael Manley - lead guitar (1995-2005)
- Thomas McClary - lead guitar, vocals (1968-83)
- James Dean Nicholas - vocals, keyboards (1984-)
- Walter Orange - drums, vocals (1972-)
- Skeldon Reynolds - lead guitar (1983-87)
- Lionel Richie - vocals, keyboards, saxophone (1968-82)
- Eugene Ward - keyboards (1968-70)
- Milan Williams - keyboards, rhythm guitar (1968-89; died 2006)
Ow, she's a trope...house!
- Amazonian Beauty: "Brick House" is about attraction to a strong and confident woman. The song even compared her to an Amazon.
- Celebrity Elegy: "Night Shift" is this to Marvin Gaye and Jackie Wilson.
- Shaped Like Itself: From their song "Sail On": "Good times never felt so good"
- Vocal Tag Team: The Commodores at first had numerous lead singers, but they didn't achieve big success until Lionel Richie became their lead singer (he would go on to have a very successful solo career when he left the band in 1982).
