Stargard was an American R&B,

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 ...

and soul

girl group A girl group is a music act featuring several female singers who generally harmonize together. The term "girl group" is also used in a narrower sense in the United States to denote the wave of American female pop music singing groups, many of who ...

Overview

At the group's inception Stargard's members were Rochelle Runnells, Debra Anderson and Janice Williams. The vocal trio issued the " Theme Song from 'Which Way Is Up'" on the soundtrack of the 1977 feature film ''

Which Way Is Up? ''Which Way is Up?'' is a 1977 American comedy film starring Richard Pryor and directed by Michael Schultz. It is a remake of the 1972 Italian comedy film ''The Seduction of Mimi''. Richard Pryor plays three roles: an orange picker who has two wom ...

''. The Norman Whitfield penned track also came upon Stargard's self-titled debut album released in 1978 on MCA Records. The album rose to numbers 12 & 26 upon the Top R&B Albums and Billboard 200 charts respectively. As a

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 ...

"Which Way Is Up" rose to numbers 1, 12 & 21 upon 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 ...

Hot R&B Songs,

Dance Club Songs Dance Club Songs is a chart published weekly by '' Billboard'' magazine in the United States. It is a national look over of club disc jockeys to determine the most popular songs being played in nightclubs across the country. It was launched as t ...

and

Hot 100 The ''Billboard'' Hot 100 is the music industry standard record chart in the United States for songs, published weekly by '' Billboard'' magazine. Chart rankings are based on sales (physical and digital), radio play, and online streaming ...

charts respectively. "Which Way Is Up" also reached No. 19 on the UK Singles chart. During 1978 Stargard released their sophomore album entitled ''What You Waitin' For''. The LP's title track reached No. 4 on the

Hot Soul Songs chart. The group then switched to Warner Bros. Records where in 1979 their third LP ''The Changing of the Gard'' was issued. The album was co-

produced Producer or producers may refer to: Occupations *Producer (agriculture), a farm operator *A stakeholder of economic production *Film producer, supervises the making of films **Executive producer, contributes to a film's budget and usually does not ...

Verdine White Verdine Adams White (born July 25, 1951) is an American musician, best known as a founding member and bassist for the band Earth, Wind & Fire. White was placed at No. 19 on Rolling Stone's list of The 50 Greatest Bassists of All Time. Early lif ...

Earth, Wind, & Fire Earth, Wind & Fire (EW&F or EWF) is an American band whose music spans the genres of jazz, R&B, soul, funk, disco, pop, big band, Latin, and Afro pop. They are among the best-selling bands of all time, with sales of over 90 million rec ...

. As a single "Wear It Out" rose to no. 4 upon the ''

chart. Stargard also lent background vocals to Junior Walker's 1979 album ''Back Street Boogie''. Anderson went on to leave Stargard shortly after ''The Changing of the Gards issue. With now only Williams and Runnells in tow the duo released their Whitfield produced fourth album entitled ''Back 2 Back'' in 1980. They thereafter returned to MCA upon which their fifth LP ''Nine Lives'' was issued in 1982.

Media appearances

Stargard appeared as 'the Diamonds' in the 1978 feature film ''

Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band ''Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band'' is the eighth studio album by the English rock band the Beatles. Released on 26May 1967, ''Sgt. Pepper'' is regarded by musicologists as an early concept album that advanced the roles of sound composi ...

''.

Discography

Studio albums

Singles

References

External links

Stargard Stargard (; 1945: ''Starogród'', 1950–2016: ''Stargard Szczeciński''; formerly German language, German: ''Stargard in Pommern'', or ''Stargard an der Ihna''; csb, Stôrgard) is a city in northwestern Poland, located in the West Pomeranian V ...

at Allmusic
Stargard
at Discogs American girl groups American dance music groups American funk musical groups American soul musical groups MCA Records artists Warner Records artists Musical groups established in 1976 Musical groups disestablished in 1983 {{US-R&B-band-stub