Chairmen of the Board is an American-Canadian,

Detroit Detroit ( , ; , ) is the largest city in the U.S. state of Michigan. It is also the largest U.S. city on the United States–Canada border, and the seat of government of Wayne County. The City of Detroit had a population of 639,111 at th ...

Michigan Michigan () is a state in the Great Lakes region of the upper Midwestern United States. With a population of nearly 10.12 million and an area of nearly , Michigan is the 10th-largest state by population, the 11th-largest by area, and the ...

-based

soul music Soul music is a popular music genre that originated in the African American community throughout the United States in the late 1950s and early 1960s. It has its roots in African-American gospel music and rhythm and blues. Soul music became po ...

group A group is a number of persons or things that are located, gathered, or classed together. Groups of people * Cultural group, a group whose members share the same cultural identity * Ethnic group, a group whose members share the same ethnic iden ...

, who saw their greatest commercial success in the 1970s.

Recording career

General Johnson (1941–2010) had a

hit Hit means to strike someone or something. Hit or HIT may also refer to: Arts, entertainment and media Fictional entities * Hit, a fictional character from '' Dragon Ball Super'' * Homicide International Trust, or HIT, a fictional organization ...

as the lead

singer Singing is the act of creating musical sounds with the voice. A person who sings is called a singer, artist or vocalist (in jazz and/or popular music). Singers perform music (arias, recitatives, songs, etc.) that can be sung with or without ...

of The Showmen in the early 1960s, with the

New Orleans New Orleans ( , ,New Orleans
Merriam-Webster. ; french: La Nouvelle-Orléans , es, Nuev ...

rock and roll Rock and roll (often written as rock & roll, rock 'n' roll, or rock 'n roll) is a Genre (music), genre of popular music that evolved in the United States during the late 1940s and early 1950s. It Origins of rock and roll, originated from Africa ...

anthem "It Will Stand" and

Carolina Beach Carolina Beach is a beach town in New Hanover County, North Carolina, United States, situated about south of Wilmington International Airport in southeastern coastal North Carolina. As of the 2020 census, the city population was 6,564. It is pa ...

classic "39-21-40 Shape". When Holland/Dozier/Holland left

Motown Motown Records is an American record label owned by the Universal Music Group. It was founded by Berry Gordy Jr. as Tamla Records on June 7, 1958, and incorporated as Motown Record Corporation on April 14, 1960. Its name, a portmanteau of ''moto ...

in 1967 to establish their own

Invictus "Invictus" is a short poem by the Victorian era British poet William Ernest Henley (1849–1903). It was written in 1875 and published in 1888 in his first volume of poems, ''Book of Verses'', in the section ''Life and Death (Echoes)''. Backgr ...

/ Hot Wax group of

record label A record label, or record company, is a brand or trademark of music recordings and music videos, or the company that owns it. Sometimes, a record label is also a publishing company that manages such brands and trademarks, coordinates the produ ...

s, they teamed Johnson up with Eddie Custis, Danny Woods and

Canadian Canadians (french: Canadiens) are people identified with the country of Canada. This connection may be residential, legal, historical or cultural. For most Canadians, many (or all) of these connections exist and are collectively the source of ...

born Harrison Kennedy as the new company's flagship act, under the appropriate name "Chairmen of the Board". Custis left the group after their second album. Although they all had a turn at lead vocals, it was Johnson's quirky hiccup-laden style and his

songwriting A songwriter is a musician who professionally composes musical compositions or writes lyrics for songs, or both. The writer of the music for a song can be called a composer, although this term tends to be used mainly in the classical music gen ...

that became increasingly showcased, with the group selling a million plus copies of their

single Single may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media * Single (music), a song release Songs * "Single" (Natasha Bedingfield song), 2004 * "Single" (New Kids on the Block and Ne-Yo song), 2008 * "Single" (William Wei song), 2016 * "Single", by ...

, "

Give Me Just a Little More Time "Give Me Just a Little More Time" is the debut single by Chairmen of the Board, released in 1970 through Capitol Records on Holland–Dozier–Holland's Invictus Records label. "Give Me Just a Little More Time", backed with "Since the Days of P ...

". The disc was released in December 1969, reached number three on the US ''Billboard'' Hot 100, with one million sales confirmed in May 1970, when the group were presented with a

gold record Gold is a chemical element with the symbol Au (from la, aurum) and atomic number 79. This makes it one of the higher atomic number elements that occur naturally. It is a bright, slightly orange-yellow, dense, soft, malleable, and ductile meta ...

by the

R.I.A.A. The Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) is a trade organization that represents the music recording industry in the United States. Its members consist of record labels and distributors that the RIAA says "create, manufacture, and/o ...

Chairmen of the Board also charted with " (You've Got Me) Dangling on a String", "

Everything's Tuesday "Everything's Tuesday" is a song, written by Holland-Dozier-Holland (using the pseudonym Edyth Wayne) with Daphne Dumas and Ron Dunbar. When released as a single, performed by American group Chairmen of the Board and produced by Holland-Dozier-Ho ...

", "Pay to the Piper", "Finders Keepers" and (in the UK) "Working on a Building of Love" and "Elmo James". They also recorded the original version of " Patches", co-written by Johnson, which became a 1970 hit for

Clarence Carter Clarence George Carter (born January 14, 1936) is an American singer, songwriter, musician and record producer. His most successful songs include " Slip Away", " Back Door Santa" (both released 1968), " Patches" (1970) and "Strokin" (1986). Ea ...

. The song received a

Grammy Award The Grammy Awards (stylized as GRAMMY), or simply known as the Grammys, are awards presented by the Recording Academy of the United States to recognize "outstanding" achievements in the music industry. They are regarded by many as the most pres ...

in 1971. Kennedy, Woods and Johnson all went on to record

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albums, whilst Johnson wrote and produced (with Greg Perry) for other Invictus/Hot Wax acts, notably

Honey Cone Honey Cone was an American R&B and soul girl group formed by lead singer Edna Wright (sister of Darlene Love) with Carolyn Willis and Shelly Clark in 1968. They are best remembered for their number-one ''Billboard'' Hot 100 single, "Want Ads" ...

. Kennedy having left, Johnson and Woods toured the UK in 1976 with six musicians as Chairmen of the Board. The final night of the tour was at Middleton Civic Hall on March 11, 1976. The act was broken up immediately afterwards, Johnson having signed for

Arista Records Arista Records () is an American record label owned by Sony Music Entertainment, a subsidiary of Sony Corporation of America, the North American division of the Japanese conglomerate Sony. The label was previously handled by BMG Entertainmen ...

as a solo artist. In 1978, Johnson reformed the Chairmen of the Board along with Danny Woods and Ken Knox. In 1980, the new Chairmen founded Surfside Records and began recording

beach music Beach music, also known as Carolina beach music, and to a lesser extent, Beach pop, is a regional genre of music in the United States which developed from rock/ R&B and pop music of the 1950s and 1960s. Beach music is most closely associate ...

. The group remain popular on the beach scene, and Surfside Records still exists as an

independent record label An independent record label (or indie label) is a record label that operates without the funding or distribution of major record labels; they are a type of small- to medium-sized enterprise, or SME. The labels and artists are often represented ...

based in

Charlotte, North Carolina Charlotte ( ) is the most populous city in the U.S. state of North Carolina. Located in the Piedmont region, it is the county seat of Mecklenburg County. The population was 874,579 at the 2020 census, making Charlotte the 16th-most populo ...

. The Chairmen of the Board (General Johnson, Danny Woods and Ken Knox) were inducted into the

North Carolina Music Hall of Fame The North Carolina Music Hall of Fame is a non-profit organization and museum in Kannapolis, North Carolina that was created to honor musicians, composers and artists with ties to North Carolina that have made significant impact in the music indus ...

in 1999. General Johnson continued to perform with Woods and Knox as the "Chairmen of the Board" until his death from

lung cancer Lung cancer, also known as lung carcinoma (since about 98–99% of all lung cancers are carcinomas), is a malignant lung tumor characterized by uncontrolled cell growth in tissue (biology), tissues of the lung. Lung carcinomas derive from tran ...

in 2010. In 2012, Chairmen of the Board released a single, "You", which was written and produced by Knox. In 2013, former member Harrison Kennedy was nominated for a

Blues Music Award The Blues Music Awards, formerly known as the W. C. Handy Awards (or "The Handys"), are awards presented by the Blues Foundation, a non-profit organization set up to foster blues heritage. The awards were originally named in honor of W. C. Handy, " ...

in the "Acoustic Artist" category. Danny Woods (born Daniel Woods, Jr. on March 27, 1942 in

Atlanta, Georgia Atlanta ( ) is the capital and most populous city of the U.S. state of Georgia. It is the seat of Fulton County, the most populous county in Georgia, but its territory falls in both Fulton and DeKalb counties. With a population of 498,715 ...

) died on January 12, 2018, at the age of 75. In 2021, Chairmen of the Board partnered with producer Wheeler del Torro to bring a new, modern edge to their trademark sound. Del Torro assembled group of remixers, including Severino Panzetta (Horse Meat Disco, Beating Cells) and Doug Gomez to remix their newest single, "Reach Out".

Discography

Albums

Singles

Bibliography

* ''The Illustrated Encyclopaedia of Black Music'' - Salamandar Books -

References

External links

*
General Johnson & The Chairmen Of The Board interview by Pete Lewis, 'Blues & Soul' August 1987 (reprinted December 2010)
{{DEFAULTSORT:Chairmen of the Board Musical groups from Detroit Northern soul musicians American soul musical groups 1967 establishments in Michigan