Thursday is here. One more day until the weekend! This week I am enjoying the sounds of The Isley Brothers.
In 1975, the group released their landmark album, The Heat Is On, which included some lead vocals from O’Kelly and Rudolph though Ronald continued to contribute most of the lead vocals especially with ballads such as “For the Love of You” and “Make Me Say It Again, Girl”. The album peaked at number-one on the Billboard 200 and eventually sold more than two million singles. “Fight the Power, Pt. 1” (written by Ernie and sung in unison by Ronald and Rudolph) and “For the Love of You” (written by Ernie and Chris) became top 40 smash hits on the pop chart. This success continued into the mid-1970s with follow-ups such as Harvest for the World (1976, another Ernie composition), Go for Your Guns (1977), Showdown (1978), the double album Winner Takes All (1979) and Go All the Way (1980). By the late 1970s, the group had included disco elements into their music and had also began to produce more ballads. By the early 1980s, the group struggled to find pop success and three albums released between 1981 and 1982 including Grand Slam, Inside You and The Real Deal, failed to chart successfully even in the group’s trusted R&B; fan base. In 1979 , Aberdeen, Scotland, DJ , Alan Nicholson persuaded CBS Records to release “Its a disco Night ( Rock don’t stop )” as a single to promote the Winner Takes All album but it failed to chart in the US and only reached number 14 in the UK.
https://youtube.com/watch?v=PRkw9UnVhug%3Fversion%3D3%26hl%3Den_US%26rel%3D0
“Voyage to Atlantis” is a 1977 slow jam released by The Isley Brothers on the T-Neck label. The single, which was off their multi-platinum album, Go for Your Guns, is about two lovers going their separate ways, depicting their eventual reunion as a journey to “a paradise out beyond the sea”(i.e. Atlantis). However, the narrator in the song is in effect telling his lover that this reunion will never happen; it is, in fact, as mythical as the “paradise” for which the song is named.(“Atlantis…is back to you.”) For Isley fans, the memorable moment is in the beginning of the song when guitarist Ernie Isley revs up his guitar and partakes on the beginning of the song until lead singer Ronald Isley performs in his trademark buttery tenor followed by his brothers backing him up. The song charted at number fifty on the Billboard Hot Soul Singles chart but the song is regarded as one of the brothers’ best songs to date.
