The Gary Toms Empire was an American

funk Funk is a music genre that originated in African American communities in the mid-1960s when musicians created a rhythmic, danceable new form of music through a mixture of various music genres that were popular among African Americans in the m ...

, R&B and

disco Disco is a genre of dance music and a subculture that emerged in the 1970s from the United States' urban nightlife scene. Its sound is typified by four-on-the-floor beats, syncopated basslines, string sections, brass and horns, electric pia ...

band from

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

, whose hit records in the 1970s included "7-6-5-4-3-2-1 (Blow Your Whistle)".

Career

The band was formed by keyboardist Gary Toms, who had been performing and touring since the 1950s with Jimmy Smith and others. When he set up the Gary Toms Empire in 1973, other band members included Helen Jacobs (vocals), Rick Kenny (guitar), Eric Oliver (trumpet), Les Rose (saxophone), John Freeman (bass), Rick Murray (drums), and Warren Tesoro (percussion). Their first record was a version of British songwriter Roger Cook's composition, which had originally been recorded as "Get Up" by

Blue Mink Blue Mink were a British six-piece pop group that existed from 1969 to 1977. Over that period they had six Top 20 hit singles in the UK Singles Chart, and released five studio based albums. According to AllMusic: "they have been immortalised on ...

, on their 1974 album ''Fruity''. "7-6-5-4-3-2-1 (Blow Your Whistle)", ''SecondhandSongs''
Retrieved 3 January 2016 Retitled "7-6-5-4-3-2-1 (Blow Your Whistle)", and with production by Bill Stahl and Rick Bleiweiss, the song was recorded by the Gary Toms Empire and reached number 5 on the ''

Billboard A billboard (also called a hoarding in the UK and many other parts of the world) is a large outdoor advertising structure (a billing board), typically found in high-traffic areas such as alongside busy roads. Billboards present large advertise ...

R&B chart The Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs chart ranks the most popular R&B and hip hop songs in the United States and is published weekly by ''Billboard''. Rankings are based on a measure of radio airplay, sales data, and streaming activity. The chart had 100 p ...

in 1975 and sold over 30.000 copies in the first week alone. The band followed up its success with a disco version of

the Beatles The Beatles were an English Rock music, rock band, formed in Liverpool in 1960, that comprised John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr. They are regarded as the Cultural impact of the Beatles, most influential band of al ...

' " Drive My Car", one of the first promotional

12-inch single The twelve-inch single (often written as 12-inch or 12″) is a type of vinyl ( polyvinyl chloride or PVC) gramophone record that has wider groove spacing and shorter playing time with a 'single' or a few related sound tracks on each surfac ...

s, which reached number 32 on the R&B chart and number 69 on the pop chart. They also released an album, ''7-6-5-4-3-2-1 Blow Your Whistle'', on the

Pickwick Records Pickwick Records was an American record label and British record distributor known for its budget album releases of sound-alike recordings, bargain bin reissues and repackagings under the brands Design, Bravo (later changing its name to Internati ...

subsidiary P.I.P. label. Gary Toms Empire, ''Discogs.com''
Retrieved 3 January 2016 They played the Apollo Theater, American Bandstand with Dick Clark, and toured the US. Gary Toms had a minor solo hit in 1976 with "Stand Up and Shout", but re-established the group name before their final chart hit, "Welcome to Harlem", which reached number 78 on the R&B chart in 1978. The group also released a second album, ''Let's Do It Again'', on

Mercury Records Mercury Records is an American record label owned by Universal Music Group. It had significant success as an independent operation in the 1940s and 1950s. Smash Records and Fontana Records were sub labels of Mercury. In the United States, it is ...

in 1978, and singles on the Chaz Ro and Dejon labels in the early 1980s.

References

American disco groups {{US-R&B-band-stub

Career

See also

References