The Trammps are an
American
American(s) may refer to:
* American, something of, from, or related to the United States of America, commonly known as the "United States" or "America"
** Americans, citizens and nationals of the United States of America
** American ancestry, pe ...
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 ...
and
soul
In many religious and philosophical traditions, there is a belief that a soul is "the immaterial aspect or essence of a human being".
Etymology
The Modern English noun ''soul'' is derived from Old English ''sāwol, sāwel''. The earliest attes ...
band
Band or BAND may refer to:
Places
*Bánd, a village in Hungary
*Band, Iran, a village in Urmia County, West Azerbaijan Province, Iran
* Band, Mureș, a commune in Romania
*Band-e Majid Khan, a village in Bukan County, West Azerbaijan Province, I ...
, who were based in
Philadelphia
Philadelphia, often called Philly, is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the sixth-largest city in the U.S., the second-largest city in both the Northeast megalopolis and Mid-Atlantic regions after New York City. Sinc ...
and were one of the first disco bands.
The band's first major success was their 1972
cover version
In popular music, a cover version, cover song, remake, revival, or simply cover, is a new performance or recording by a musician other than the original performer or composer of the song. Originally, it referred to a version of a song release ...
of "
Zing! Went the Strings of My Heart
"Zing! Went the Strings of My Heart" is a 1935 popular song with words and music by James F. Hanley. It was introduced by Hal Le Roy and Eunice Healey in the Broadway revue '' Thumbs Up!''
The most notable recordings were made by Judy Garland ...
", while the first disco track they released was "Love Epidemic" in 1973. However, they are best known for their song "
Disco Inferno
"Disco Inferno" is a song by American disco band the Trammps from their 1976 fourth studio album of the same name. With two other cuts by the group, it reached No. 1 on the US '' Billboard'' Dance Club Songs chart in early 1977, but had li ...
" which was included on the
Grammy
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 pre ...
-winning ''
Saturday Night Fever
''Saturday Night Fever'' is a 1977 American dance drama film directed by John Badham and produced by Robert Stigwood. It stars John Travolta as Tony Manero, a young Italian-American man from the Brooklyn borough of New York. Manero spends his ...
''
soundtrack
A soundtrack is recorded music accompanying and synchronised to the images of a motion picture, drama, book, television program, radio program, or video game; a commercially released soundtrack album of music as featured in the soundtrack o ...
. When originally released in 1976, "
Disco Inferno
"Disco Inferno" is a song by American disco band the Trammps from their 1976 fourth studio album of the same name. With two other cuts by the group, it reached No. 1 on the US '' Billboard'' Dance Club Songs chart in early 1977, but had li ...
" became a UK pop hit and US R&B and Dance hit topping the Dance chart for 5 weeks in early 1977. After inclusion on the ''
Saturday Night Fever
''Saturday Night Fever'' is a 1977 American dance drama film directed by John Badham and produced by Robert Stigwood. It stars John Travolta as Tony Manero, a young Italian-American man from the Brooklyn borough of New York. Manero spends his ...
''
soundtrack
A soundtrack is recorded music accompanying and synchronised to the images of a motion picture, drama, book, television program, radio program, or video game; a commercially released soundtrack album of music as featured in the soundtrack o ...
, the song was re-released in 1978 and became a modest US pop hit peaking at number 11.
History
1970s
The history of the Trammps grew from the 1960s group the Volcanos, who later became the Moods.
With a number of line-up changes by the early 1970s, the band membership included gospel-influenced lead singer Jimmy Ellis, drummer and singer (bass voice)
Earl Young, with brothers Stanley and Harold 'Doc' Wade. Members of the Philadelphia recording band
MFSB
MFSB, officially standing for "Mother Father Sister Brother", was a pool of more than 30 studio musicians based at Philadelphia's Sigma Sound Studios. They worked closely with the production team of Gamble and Huff and producer/arranger Thom Bel ...
played with the group on records and on tour in the 1970s with singer Robert Upchurch joining later. The group was produced by the Philadelphia team of Ronnie Baker, Norman Harris and Young, all MFSB mainstays who played on the recording sessions and contributed songs.
Their debut
chart
A chart (sometimes known as a graph) is a graphical representation for data visualization, in which "the data is represented by symbols, such as bars in a bar chart, lines in a line chart, or slices in a pie chart". A chart can represent tabu ...
entry came via an upbeat
cover version
In popular music, a cover version, cover song, remake, revival, or simply cover, is a new performance or recording by a musician other than the original performer or composer of the song. Originally, it referred to a version of a song release ...
of the standard "
Zing! Went the Strings of My Heart
"Zing! Went the Strings of My Heart" is a 1935 popular song with words and music by James F. Hanley. It was introduced by Hal Le Roy and Eunice Healey in the Broadway revue '' Thumbs Up!''
The most notable recordings were made by Judy Garland ...
", featuring Young's bass voice, which became a top 20 US
R&B chart
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 ...
in 1972.
Their first few recordings were released on
Buddah Records
Buddah Records (later known as Buddha Records) was an American record label founded in 1967 in New York City. The label was born out of Kama Sutra Records, an MGM Records-distributed label, which remained a key imprint following Buddah's foundin ...
, including "Hold Back the Night", which was a hit on the ''Billboard'' R&B chart in 1973, before a re-release saw it climb in the UK two years later. Several R&B hits followed during a stay with Philadelphia International subsidiary Golden Fleece (run by Baker-Harris-Young) before they signed to
Atlantic Records
Atlantic Recording Corporation (simply known as Atlantic Records) is an American record label founded in October 1947 by Ahmet Ertegun and Herb Abramson. Over its first 20 years of operation, Atlantic earned a reputation as one of the most i ...
.
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 ...
"
Disco Inferno
"Disco Inferno" is a song by American disco band the Trammps from their 1976 fourth studio album of the same name. With two other cuts by the group, it reached No. 1 on the US '' Billboard'' Dance Club Songs chart in early 1977, but had li ...
" (1976), which was included on the
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 ...
-winning ''
Saturday Night Fever: The Original Movie Sound Track'' in 1977,
reached No. 11 on the
''Billboard'' Hot 100 chart in May 1978.
Other major hits included "Hold Back the Night" (1975) (
UK No. 5)
and "That's Where the Happy People Go" (1976). In late 1977, the Trammps released the song "The Night the Lights Went Out" to commemorate the electrical
blackout that affected
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 ...
on
July 13–14, 1977.
Their signature song "Disco Inferno" has been
covered
Cover or covers may refer to:
Packaging
* Another name for a lid
* Cover (philately), generic term for envelope or package
* Album cover, the front of the packaging
* Book cover or magazine cover
** Book design
** Back cover copy, part of co ...
by
Tina Turner
Tina Turner (born Anna Mae Bullock; November 26, 1939) is an American-born Swiss retired singer and actress. Widely referred to as the "Honorific nicknames in popular music, Queen of Rock 'n' Roll", she rose to prominence as the lead singer o ...
and
Cyndi Lauper
Cynthia Ann Stephanie Lauper Thornton (born June 22, 1953) is an American singer, songwriter, actress, and activist. Her career has spanned over 40 years. Her album ''She's So Unusual'' (1983) was the first debut album by a female artist to achi ...
. In addition,
Graham Parker
Graham Thomas Parker (born 18 November 1950) is an English singer-songwriter, who is best known as the lead singer of the British band Graham Parker & the Rumour.
Life and career Early career (1960s–1976)
Parker was born in Hackney, East L ...
covered
Cover or covers may refer to:
Packaging
* Another name for a lid
* Cover (philately), generic term for envelope or package
* Album cover, the front of the packaging
* Book cover or magazine cover
** Book design
** Back cover copy, part of co ...
"Hold Back the Night" on "The Pink Parker EP" in 1977, and reached No. 24 in the
UK Singles Chart
The UK Singles Chart (currently titled Official Singles Chart, with the upper section more commonly known as the Official UK Top 40) is compiled by the Official Charts Company (OCC), on behalf of the British record industry, listing the top-s ...
,
and top 60 in the US. In 2021, "Disco Inferno" was certified Silver by the
British Phonographic Industry
British Phonographic Industry (BPI) is the British recorded music industry's Trade association. It runs the BRIT Awards, the Classic BRIT Awards, National Album Day, is home to the Mercury Prize, and co-owns the Official Charts Company with th ...
, together with "Can We Come Together" (from the album ''
Where the Happy People Go'').
Dissolution and aftermath
On September 19, 2005, the group's "Disco Inferno" was inducted into the
Dance Music Hall of Fame The Dance Music Hall of Fame was an organization established in 2003 to honor and remember significant contributors to the genre of dance music. It had its first inductions in 2004 but went inactive after the 2005 induction ceremony.
History
The Da ...
at a ceremony held in
New York
New York most commonly refers to:
* New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York
* New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States
New York may also refer to:
Film and television
* '' ...
. The song was part-written by Ron Kersey, a producer-arranger and a member of MFSB, who also played with Trammps in the 1970s for a time. During the ceremony, the original band members performed together for the first time in 25 years. Disco Inferno has also had a resurgence and has garnered new fans with the 2016 presidential political campaign of
Bernie Sanders
Bernard Sanders (born September8, 1941) is an American politician who has served as the junior United States senator from Vermont since 2007. He was the U.S. representative for the state's at-large congressional district from 1991 to 2007 ...
in the USA due to the song's refrain of ''burn, baby, burn'' (slightly altered to "Bern, baby, Bern").
Two versions of the group, with differing line-ups, currently tour the nostalgia circuit.
On March 8, 2012, lead singer Jimmy Ellis died at a nursing home in
Rock Hill, South Carolina
Rock Hill is the largest city in York County, South Carolina and the fifth-largest city in the state. It is also the fourth-largest city of the Charlotte metropolitan area, behind Charlotte, Concord, and Gastonia (all located in North Carolina, ...
(where he was born on November 15, 1937), at the age of 74. The cause of death was not immediately known but he suffered from
Alzheimer's disease
Alzheimer's disease (AD) is a neurodegeneration, neurodegenerative disease that usually starts slowly and progressively worsens. It is the cause of 60–70% of cases of dementia. The most common early symptom is difficulty in short-term me ...
.
Earl Young's Trammps still continue to record and as of August 2014 have recently released "Get Your Lovin While You Can" written by the Steals brothers renowned for their Philly hits such as "
Could It Be I'm Falling In Love
"Could It Be I'm Falling in Love" is a 1972 song recorded by the American R&B vocal group The Spinners (known as "Detroit Spinners" in the UK). It was co-written by Melvin and Mervin Steals, two songwriter brothers working for Atlantic, who were ...
" for
The Detroit Spinners
The Spinners are an American rhythm and blues vocal group that formed in Ferndale, Michigan, United States, in 1954. They enjoyed a string of hit singles and albums during the 1960s and 1970s, particularly with producer Thom Bell. The group cont ...
.
The
music journalist
Music journalism (or music criticism) is media criticism and reporting about music topics, including popular music, classical music, and traditional music. Journalists began writing about music in the eighteenth century, providing commentary on w ...
Ron Wynn
Ron Wynn is a music critic, author, and AllMusic editor. Wynn was the editor of the first edition of '' The All Music Guide to Jazz'' (1994), and from 1993 to 1994 served as the jazz and rap editor of the ''All Music Guide''. Wynn is the former e ...
noted: "the Trammps' prowess can't be measured by chart popularity; Ellis' booming, joyous vocals brilliantly championed the celebratory fervor and atmosphere that made disco both loved and hated among music fans."
On June 30, 2019, the Trammps appeared on HBO's ''
Big Little Lies'', Season 2, episode 4 entitled "She Knows".
Stan Wade died in January 2021.
Band members
*
Ronnie Baker (1947–1990) - bass, vocals
* Ed Cermanski - keyboards
* John Davis - saxophone
* Jimmy Ellis (1937–2012) - lead vocals
*
Dennis Harris - guitar
*
Norman Harris (1947–1987) - guitar, vocals
* John Hart (1941–2008) - organ
* Reuben Henderson - saxophone
* Rusty Jackmon - bass
* Fred Joiner - trombone
* Gene Jones (a.k.a. Gene Faith) - original lead vocalist
* Steve Kelly - vocals
*
Ron Kersey
Tyrone Garfield Kersey (April 7, 1949 – January 25, 2005), known as Ron "Have Mercy" Kersey, was an American keyboardist, songwriter, producer and arranger most known for writing the music to "Disco Inferno" by The Trammps.
Kersey was born in P ...
b. Tyrone G. Kersey (1945–2005) - keyboards
* Barrington McDonald (1942–2007) - guitar
* Cubby St Charles - vocals
* Roger Stevens - trumpet
* Michael Thompson - drums (stopped 1995)
* Robert Upchurch - vocals
* Harold "Doc" Wade - guitar, vocals
* Stanley Wade - bass, vocals (d. 2021)
* Harold Watkins - trombone
* Priestly Williams - trumpet
*
Earl Young (b. 1940) - drums, vocals
Later members
* Jerry Collins - vocals
* Jimmy Williams - lead vocals
* Van Fields - vocals
* Lafayette Gamble - vocals
* Michael Natalini - drums
Stan & Doc Wade & Robert Upchurch Trammps (original) current touring group
* Ed Cermanski - keyboards
* Harold "Doc" Wade - vocals
* Robert Upchurch - vocals
* Fred Vesci - keyboards
* Lafayette Gamble - vocals
* David Nobles - vocals
* Van Fields - vocals
* Sheppie Fitts - drums
* Rusty Stone - bass
* David Rue - guitar
* Dennis Harris - guitar
* Bill Hosbach, Jr. - trumpet
* George Bussey - saxophone
* Carmen Tornambe - trumpet
Discography
* ''
Trammps
The Trammps are an United States, American disco and soul music, soul musical ensemble, band, who were based in Philadelphia and were one of the first disco bands.
The band's first major success was their 1972 cover version of "Zing! Went the S ...
'' (1975)
*''
The Legendary Zing Album
''The Legendary Zing Album'' is the second studio album by American soul-disco group, The Trammps, released in 1975 through Buddah Records.
Commercial performance
The album consists of tracks recorded in the early 1970s with the Philadelphia Sou ...
'' (1975)
* ''
Where the Happy People Go'' (1976)
* ''
Disco Inferno
"Disco Inferno" is a song by American disco band the Trammps from their 1976 fourth studio album of the same name. With two other cuts by the group, it reached No. 1 on the US '' Billboard'' Dance Club Songs chart in early 1977, but had li ...
'' (1976)
* ''
The Trammps III
''The Trammps III'' is the fifth studio album by the American soul-disco group the Trammps, released in 1977 through Atlantic Records.
Commercial performance
The album peaked at No. 27 on the R&B albums chart. It also reached No. 85 on the ''Bill ...
'' (1977)
* ''
The Whole World's Dancing'' (1979)
* ''
Mixin' It Up'' (1980)
* ''
Slipping Out'' (1980)
* ''This One Is for the Party'' (1984)
See also
*
List of Billboard number-one dance club songs
This is a list of number-one dance hits as recorded by ''Billboard'' magazine's Dance Club Songs chart – a weekly national survey of popular songs in U.S. dance clubs. It began on October 26, 1974, under the title ''Disco Action'' chart. It is c ...
*
*
Ron Kersey
Tyrone Garfield Kersey (April 7, 1949 – January 25, 2005), known as Ron "Have Mercy" Kersey, was an American keyboardist, songwriter, producer and arranger most known for writing the music to "Disco Inferno" by The Trammps.
Kersey was born in P ...
, a one-time band member and songwriter
*"
Hate It or Love It
"Hate It or Love It" is a single by American rapper and West Coast hip hop artist the Game, featuring 50 Cent. It was released as the third official single from the Game's debut studio album ''The Documentary'' (2005). The song features produc ...
", a single by
The Game sampling "Rubber Band"
References
External links
Official website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Trammps, The
American disco groups
American dance music groups
American soul musical groups
Musical groups from Philadelphia
Atlantic Records artists
Grammy Award winners
Musical groups established in 1972
Musical groups disestablished in 1992