''Eternal'' is the 28th studio

album An album is a collection of audio recordings issued on compact disc (CD), Phonograph record, vinyl, audio tape, or another medium such as Digital distribution#Music, digital distribution. Albums of recorded sound were developed in the early ...

released by

The Isley Brothers The Isley Brothers ( ) are an American musical group originally from Cincinnati, Ohio, that began as a vocal trio consisting of brothers O'Kelly Isley Jr., Rudolph Isley and Ronald Isley in the 1950s. With a career spanning over seven decade ...

DreamWorks Records DreamWorks Records (often referred in copyright notices as SKG Music, LLC) was an American record label founded in 1996 by David Geffen, Steven Spielberg and Jeffrey Katzenberg as a subsidiary of DreamWorks Pictures. The label operated until 200 ...

on August 7, 2001. Now popular again with audiences, almost single-handledly for

Ronald Isley Ronald Isley (; born May 21, 1941) is an American recording artist, songwriter, record producer, and occasional actor. Isley is the lead singer and founding member of the family music group The Isley Brothers. Early life Born in 1941 to Sally ...

's "Mr. Biggs" persona, ''Eternal'' included production from not only

R. Kelly Robert Sylvester Kelly (born January 8, 1967) is an American singer, songwriter, record producer, and sex offender convicted of racketeering and multiple sex offenses. During his recording career, Kelly sold over 75 million records worldwi ...

who gave the Isleys their biggest hit as leading artists in over two decades with "

Contagious Contagious may refer to: * Contagious disease Literature * Contagious (magazine), a marketing publication * ''Contagious'' (novel), a science fiction thriller novel by Scott Sigler Music Albums *''Contagious'' (Peggy Scott-Adams album), 1997 * ...

" but also from

Jimmy Jam & Terry Lewis James Samuel "Jimmy Jam" Harris III (born June 6, 1959) and Terry Steven Lewis (born November 24, 1956) are an American R&B/pop songwriting and record production team. They have enjoyed great success since the 1980s with various artists, most ...

Raphael Saadiq Raphael Saadiq (; born Charles Ray Wiggins; May 14, 1966) is an American singer, songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, and record producer. He rose to fame as a member of the multiplatinum group Tony! Toni! Toné! In addition to his solo and group ...

and Ronald's wife at the time,

Angela Winbush Angela Lisa Winbush (born January 18, 1955) is an American R&B/soul singer-songwriter, musician and record producer who rose to fame first in the 1980s R&B duo René & Angela, also scoring hits as a solo artist. To date, Winbush has sold over ...

. Based on the mega-success of "Contagious", ''Eternal'' peaked at #3 on the '' Billboard''

Billboard Top 200 The ''Billboard'' 200 is a record chart ranking the 200 most popular music albums and EPs in the United States. It is published weekly by '' Billboard'' magazine and is frequently used to convey the popularity of an artist or groups of artis ...

album charts and #1 on the R&B album chart selling over two million copies having it certified

double-platinum Music recording certification is a system of certifying that a music recording has shipped, sold, or streamed a certain number of units. The threshold quantity varies by type (such as album, single, music video) and by nation or territory (see ...

. The first album the Isleys released as a duo in over a decade (the first as Ronald and Ernie),

Marvin Isley Marvin Isley (August 18, 1953 – June 6, 2010)
– accessed June 2010 was the youngest member of the family music grou ...

left the group after suffering a bout with diabetes, which later caused both of his legs to be amputated),

Ernie Isley Ernest Isley (born March 7, 1952) is an American musician, best known as a member of the musical ensemble The Isley Brothers, and also the splinter group Isley-Jasper-Isley. Biography Ernie was born in Cincinnati, where his older brothers for ...

also showcase his talents as a

guitarist A guitarist (or a guitar player) is a person who plays the guitar. Guitarists may play a variety of guitar family instruments such as classical guitars, acoustic guitars, electric guitars, and bass guitars. Some guitarists accompany themselv ...

in songs like "Move Your Body" and the aptly titled "Ernie's Jam" while Ronald was still as vocally strong on this album as he had been throughout the Isley Brothers' legendary catalogue.

Track listing

Notes * denotes co-producer

Personnel

– Lead and Background Vocals, Executive Producer *

– Guitar *Donnie Lyle – Bass, Guitar *

Peter Mokran Peter Mokran is an American mixer, producer, engineer and musician. Early life Mokran was born and raised in Chicago, Illinois. Growing up, he studied classical guitar, while also learning engineering and programming as a teen.Paul Tingen“Sec ...

– Engineer *Neil Pogue – Mixing * Alex Richbourg – Percussion, Drum Programming * Louil Silas, Jr. – Executive Producer *

– Keyboards, Producer, Drum Programming, Vocals *Tony Flores – Assistant Engineer *Michelle Lynn Forbes – Assistant Engineer *

– Bass, Background Vocals, Producer, Guitar *Chris Bellman – Mastering *Bradley Yoast – Assistant Engineer *

Jake and the Phatman Jake & the Phatman is an American record production and songwriting duo, composed of multi-instrumentalists Glenn Standridge and Robert C. "Bobby" Ozuna Jr. They won a Grammy Award for Best R&B Song at the 45th Annual Grammy Awards in 2003. Bot ...

– Drum Programming *Kelvin Wooten – Keyboards *Andre Harris – Producer *James "Big Jim" Wright – Keyboards, Background Vocals *Jeff Vereb – Engineer *

Avant AVANT, also known as AVANT street art guerrilla collective, was the artist group active in New York City from 1980 to 1984. By 1984 AVANT had produced thousands of acrylic on paper paintings and plastered them on walls, doors, bus-stops and gallerie ...

– Background Vocals * Jill Scott – Background Vocals *Vidal Davis – Producer, Engineer *Clint Roth – Engineer *Andy Gallas – Assistant *Ian Mereness – Programming, Engineer *Kevin Guarnieri – Engineer, Digital Editing, Assistant Engineer *Nick Monson – Assistant Engineer *Gary Brown – Engineer * The Johnson Sisters – Background Vocals *

– Arranger, Producer * Paulinho Da Costa – Percussion *Steve Hodge – Engineer, Mixing *Steve Huff – Producer, Instrumentation *Jimmy Jam – Arranger, Producer, Keyboards *Terry Lewis – Arranger, Producer, Instrumentation

Charts

Certifications

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Eternal (Isley Brothers Album) 2001 albums Albums produced by Angela Winbush Albums produced by R. Kelly Albums produced by Raphael Saadiq Albums produced by Ronald Isley The Isley Brothers albums DreamWorks Records albums