The Stylistics are an American,

Philadelphia soul Philadelphia soul, sometimes called Philly soul, the Philadelphia sound, Phillysound, or The Sound of Philadelphia TSOP, is a genre of late 1960s–1970s soul music characterized by funk influences and lush instrumental arrangements, often feat ...

group that achieved their greatest chart success in the 1970s. They formed in 1968, with a lineup of singers

Russell Thompkins Jr. Russell Allen Thompkins Jr. (born March 21, 1951) is an American soul singer. Best known as the original lead singer of the vocal group The Stylistics and noted for his high tenor, countertenor, and falsetto vocals. With Russell as lead singer, ...

, Herb Murrell, Airrion Love, James Smith and James Dunn. All of their US hits were ballads characterized by the falsetto of Russell Thompkins Jr. and the production of

Thom Bell Thomas Randolph Bell (January 27th, 1943 – December 22, 2022) was an American singer, songwriter, record producer, arranger, pianist, and composer known as one of the creators of Philadelphia soul in the 1970s. He found success as a producer ...

. During the early 1970s, the group had twelve consecutive R&B top ten hits, including " Stop, Look, Listen", "

You Are Everything "You Are Everything" is a soul song written by Thom Bell and Linda Creed and originally recorded by the Philadelphia soul group The Stylistics. The Stylistics version An R&B ballad, it was the sixth track from their 1971 debut self-titled albu ...

", "

Betcha by Golly, Wow "Betcha by Golly, Wow" is a song written by Thom Bell and Linda Creed, originally titled "Keep Growing Strong" and recorded by Connie Stevens under the Bell label in 1970. Stevens' recording runs two minutes and thirty seconds. The composition la ...

", " I'm Stone in Love with You", " Break Up to Make Up" and "

You Make Me Feel Brand New "You Make Me Feel Brand New" is a 1974 single by the Philadelphia soul group The Stylistics. An R&B ballad, the song was written by Thom Bell and Linda Creed. Background Stylistics tenor Airrion Love starts out the song and then alternates with ...

", which earned them 5 gold singles and 3 gold albums.

Career

Early years

The Stylistics were created from two Philadelphia groups, The Percussions and The Monarchs. Russell Thompkins Jr., James Smith and Airrion Love came from the Monarchs, and James Dunn and Herb Murrell came from the Percussions. In 1970, the group recorded "You're a Big Girl Now", a song their

road manager In the music industry, a road manager is a person who works with small to mid-size tours (in terms of personnel involved, based on the size of the production). Job responsibilities include (but are not limited to): *advancing show dates *making t ...

Marty Bryant co-wrote with Robert Douglas, a member of their

backing band A backup band or backing band is a musical ensemble that typically accompanies a single artist who is the featured performer. The situation may be a live performance or in a recording session, and the group may or may not have its own name, such ...

Slim and the Boys, and the single became a regional hit for Sebring Records. Producer Bill Perry spent $400 to record the song in the Virtue Studios in Philadelphia. The larger

Avco Records Avco Records was a record label started by music producers/composers Hugo Peretti and Luigi Creatore together with film and TV producer Joseph E. Levine in 1968 as Avco Embassy Records. History Hugo and Luigi had previously worked together fr ...

soon signed the Stylistics, and the single eventually climbed to No. 7 on the US ''

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 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 ...

in early 1971.

Success: The Bell/Creed years

After signing to Avco, the record label approached producer

, who had already produced a catalogue of hits for

The Delfonics The Delfonics were an American R&B/soul vocal group from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The Delfonics were most popular in the late 1960s and early 1970s. Their most notable hits include " La-La (Means I Love You)", " Didn't I (Blow Your Mind Thi ...

, to work with the group.Jackson, John A (2004). ''A House on Fire: The Rise and Fall of Philadelphia Soul''. USA: Oxford University Press. . The Stylistics auditioned for Bell, but he was initially unimpressed. He ultimately agreed to produce the group because he believed in the potential of lead singer

Russell Thompkins, Jr. Russell Allen Thompkins Jr. (born March 21, 1951) is an American soul singer. Best known as the original lead singer of the vocal group The Stylistics and noted for his high tenor, countertenor, and falsetto vocals. With Russell as lead singer ...

's distinctive, nasal high

tenor A tenor is a type of classical music, classical male singing human voice, voice whose vocal range lies between the countertenor and baritone voice types. It is the highest male chest voice type. The tenor's vocal range extends up to C5. The lo ...

and

falsetto ''Falsetto'' (, ; Italian diminutive of , "false") is the vocal register occupying the frequency range just above the modal voice register and overlapping with it by approximately one octave. It is produced by the vibration of the ligamentous ed ...

voice. Avco gave Bell complete creative control over the Stylistics and he proceeded to focus the group's sound exclusively around Thompkins's voice. On most of the group hits, Bell would have Thompkins sing virtually solo. The first song recorded with Bell and his collaborator, lyricist

Linda Creed Linda Diane Creed (December 6, 1948 – April 10, 1986), also known by her married name Linda Epstein, was an American songwriter and lyricist who teamed up with Thom Bell to produce some of the most successful Philadelphia soul groups of the 19 ...

, was " Stop, Look, Listen". Their hits from this period — distilled from three albums — included "

" (U.S. No. 3), " I'm Stone in Love with You", " Break Up to Make Up" (U.S. No. 5), "

" featuring Thompkins singing a lead vocal duet with Airrion Love, "Stop, Look, Listen (To Your Heart)", "

" and the Top 20 pop chart hit " Rockin' Roll Baby" (U.S. No. 14). "You Make Me Feel Brand New", the group's biggest U.S. hit, holding at No. 2 for two weeks in 1974, was one of the group's five U.S.

gold 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 met ...

singles. The Stylistics also found a path on to

adult contemporary Adult contemporary music (AC) is a form of radio-played popular music, ranging from 1960s vocal and 1970s soft rock music to predominantly ballad-heavy music of the present day, with varying degrees of easy listening, pop, soul, R&B, quie ...

airwaves, and the group made ''

'' magazine's Easy Listening singles chart twelve times from 1971 to 1976, with three entries ("Betcha by Golly, Wow", "You Make Me Feel Brand New" and "

You'll Never Get to Heaven (If You Break My Heart) "You'll Never Get to Heaven (If You Break My Heart)" is a song composed by Burt Bacharach, with lyrics by Hal David. It was originally recorded by Dionne Warwick in 1964, who charted at number 34 in the US ''Billboard'' Hot 100 with her version. ...

") reaching the Top 10. Every single that Bell produced for the Stylistics was a Top Ten R&B hit, and several — "You Are Everything", "Betcha by Golly Wow!", "I'm Stone in Love with You", "Break Up to Make Up" and "You Make Me Feel Brand New" — were also Top Ten pop

hits. The group also enjoyed commercial success with hits with this material throughout Europe.

Changing style: Continuing international success

Thom Bell stopped working with the Stylistics in 1974, and the split proved commercially difficult for the group in the U.S. They struggled to find the right material, although their partnership with label owners

Hugo & Luigi Hugo & Luigi were an American record producing team, made up of songwriters and producers Hugo Peretti and Luigi Creatore, who shared an office in New York's Brill Building. Besides their working relationship, they were cousins. Background Firs ...

as producers and arranger

Van McCoy Van Allen Clinton McCoy (January 6, 1940 – July 6, 1979) was an American musician, record producer, arranger, songwriter, singer and orchestra conductor. He is known for his 1975 internationally successful song " The Hustle". He has approximat ...

started well, with "Let's Put It All Together" (No. 18 pop, No. 8 R&B) and "Heavy Fallin' Out" (No. 4 R&B, No. 41 pop). Later singles were notably less successful, but as U.S. success began to wane, their popularity in Europe, and especially the United Kingdom, increased. Indeed, the lighter 'pop' sound fashioned by McCoy and Hugo & Luigi gave the group a U.K. No. 1 in 1975 with "

Can't Give You Anything (But My Love) "Can't Give You Anything (But My Love)" is a 1975 single by The Stylistics. It reached number one for three weeks in the UK in August 1975. After splitting from record producer Thom Bell in 1974, songwriters/producers Hugo & Luigi and George Davi ...

". Further successes with "Sing Baby Sing", "Na Na Is The Saddest Word", "Funky Weekend" and " Can't Help Falling in Love" consolidated the group's European popularity. The Stylistics recorded "Disco Baby", "Love is the Answer" and "16 Bars" also. They are one of the few U.S. acts to have two chart-topping

greatest hits A greatest hits album or best-of album is a type of compilation album that collects popular and commercially successful songs by a particular artist or band. While greatest hits albums are typically supported by the artist, they can also be crea ...

albums in the U.K. The Stylistics switched record labels during this period as Avco Records transitioned into

H&L Records H&L Records (1976–1979) was a record label founded by Hugo Peretti and Luigi Creatore after they left Avco Records. They took The Stylistics with them. History Releases The dual artist record, "That Old Black Magic" by The Softones backed with " ...

in 1976. Notwithstanding this, the band began to struggle with increasingly weak material, and although the singles and albums came out as before, by 1978 chart success had vanished; even a move to Mercury in 1978, for two albums produced by Teddy Randazzo, failed to produce any major success. Russell Thompkins Jr. wrote (in the sleevenotes for the re-issue of the 1976 album, ''Fabulous'') that the group began to feel that the music they were recording was becoming dated, and not in keeping with the popular

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 ...

sound of the late 1970s. In 1979, they had a small part in the movie ''

Hair Hair is a protein filament that grows from follicles found in the dermis. Hair is one of the defining characteristics of mammals. The human body, apart from areas of glabrous skin, is covered in follicles which produce thick terminal and f ...

'', directed by

Miloš Forman Jan Tomáš "Miloš" Forman (; ; 18 February 1932 – 13 April 2018) was a Czech and American film director, screenwriter, actor, and professor who rose to fame in his native Czechoslovakia before emigrating to the United States in 1968. Forman ...

, where they play conservative army officers. They double

Nell Carter Nell Carter (born Nell Ruth Hardy; September 13, 1948 – January 23, 2003) was an American singer and actress. Carter began her career in 1970, singing in the theater, and later crossed over to television. She was best known for her role as Ne ...

in singing a song called "White Boys".

Later years

The Stylistics at the Ford Amphitheater in Coney Island, 2019

In 1980, the group reunited with Thom Bell and signed with

Philadelphia International Records Philadelphia International Records (PIR) was an American record label based in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. It was founded in 1971 by songwriting and production duo Kenneth Gamble and Leon Huff along with their longtime collaborator Thom Bell. ...

subsidiary, TSOP Records. They released the single " Hurry Up This Way Again" that year which brought them back into the R&B Top 20 (peaking at No. 18). Both James Dunn and James Smith departed due to conflicts over the direction of the group; Dunn left before the recording of the album ''Hurry Up This Way Again'' (1980) and Smith after the recording of ''Closer Than Close'' in 1981. Nevertheless, the group continued, recruiting new member Raymond Johnson, but Johnson departed in 1985, leaving the group as a trio. Love, Murrell and Thompkins continued to

tour Tour or Tours may refer to: Travel * Tourism, travel for pleasure * Tour of duty, a period of time spent in military service * Campus tour, a journey through a college or university's campus * Guided tour, a journey through a location, directed ...

until 2000, when Thompkins, Jr. left the group. In 2000, singer Eban Brown (formerly of The Delfonics, The Manhattans, and Ray, Goodman and Brown) replaced Thompkins as lead singer. That same year, tenor singer Van Fields, who had previously sung with the A Cappella group "A Perfect Blend", joined, enabling The Stylistics to grow from a trio back to a quartet. The group was featured live on the DVD ''The Stylistics Live at the Convocation Center'' (2006), as well as with other artists of the 1970s on the DVD, ''70s Soul Jam''. In 2004, after having left The Stylistics in 2000, former lead singer Thompkins launched his own group called Russell Thompkins Jr, & The New Stylistics, returning with former member Johnson, plus James Ranton and Jonathan Buckson. They were featured on the DVD ''Old School Soul Party Live!,'' which was part of the

PBS The Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) is an American public broadcasting, public broadcaster and Non-commercial activity, non-commercial, Terrestrial television, free-to-air television network based in Arlington, Virginia. PBS is a publicly fu ...

''My Music'' series. In 2010, they released an album entitled, ''That Same Way'' by LAC Management. In 2011, Fields departed from the group after 11 years, due to creative differences, and was replaced by singer Jason Sharp. In January 2018, after 18 years with The Stylistics, Brown, who is also a jazz guitarist and composer, announced his departure to concentrate on his solo career. He since performed at venues in the States and overseas as a solo artist. Brown was initially replaced by Michael Muse, and after a few months, he was replaced by former

Temptation Temptation is a desire to engage in short-term urges for enjoyment that threatens long-term goals.Webb, J.R. (Sep 2014). Incorporating Spirituality into Psychology of temptation: Conceptualization, measurement, and clinical implications. Sp ...

Barrington "Bo" Henderson. In 2018, The Stylistics celebrated their 50th. anniversary in the music industry. Their milestone was acknowledged at venues throughout the year during their 50th. Anniversary tour in the States and overseas. As of 2020, the remaining members of the original group, Love and Murrell were still performing, continuing the Stylistics' legacy with their unit, while Thompkins and his New Stylistics continue to perform as well.

Personnel

;Current members * Airrion Love (1968–Present) * Herb Murrell (1968–Present) * Jason Sharp (2011–Present) * Barrington "Bo" Henderson (2018–Present) ;Former members * Russell Thompkins, Jr. (Lead) (1968 - 2000) * James Dunn (1968 - 1980) * James Smith (1968 - 1981) * Raymond Johnson (1981 - 1985) * Harold Eban Brown (Lead) (2000 - 2018) * Van Fields (2000 - 2011)

Discography

Awards and recognition

Inductions

*In 1994, The Stylistics were inducted into The Philadelphia Music Alliance Walk of Fame. *The Stylistics were inducted into the

Vocal Group Hall of Fame The Vocal Group Hall of Fame (VGHF) is an American-based hall of fame that honors vocal groups throughout the world in every genre of music. Headquartered in the Columbia Theatre in Sharon, Pennsylvania, it includes a theater and a museum. It was ...

in 2004.

RIAA Gold Certifications

Between January 1972 and August 1974 The Stylistics were awarded 5 gold singles and 3 gold albums. *January 3, 1972 - Single/"You Are Everything". *April 17, 1972 - Single/"Betcha By Golly Wow". *December 13, 1972 - Single/"I'm Stone In Love With You". *February 16, 1973 - Album/"The Stylistics". *April 6, 1973 - Single/"Break Up To Make Up". *June 14, 1973 - Album/"Round Two". *May 22, 1974 - Single/"You Make Me Feel Brand New". *August 12, 1974 - Album/"Let's Put It All Together".

Film/Television Appearances

The Stylistics television appearances.
Top of the Pops (TV Series)
The Stylistics appeared 10 times on Top of the Pops between 1972 and 1978. *Episode #15.14 (1978) *Episode #14.39 (1977) *Episode #14.15 (1977) *Episode #14.13 (1977) *Episode #13.16 (1976) *Top of the Pops '75: Part 2 (1975) *Episode #11.18 (1974) *Episode #11.4 (1974) *Episode #9.42 (1972) *Episode #9.30 (1972) The Mike Douglas Show (TV Series)
The Stylistics appeared 6 times on the show between 1972 and 1978. *Episode #17.219 (1978) *Episode #15.217 (1976) *Episode #15.143 (1976) *Episode #14.155 (1975) *Episode #14.40 (1974) *Episode #12.80 (1972) The Midnight Special (TV Series)
The Stylistics appeared in 4 episodes of the show. *4th appearance (1974) *3rd appearance (1973) *2nd appearance (1973) *1st appearance (1973) Soul Train TV Series
The Stylistic appeared in 2 episodes of Soul Train. *Episode #10.15 (1984) *Episode #3.27 (1974) Friday Night with Jonathan Ross (TV Series) *Episode #17.9 (2009) Showtime at the Apollo TV Series *Episode #17.15 (2004) Sinbad's "Soul Music Festival: Part 5 1999" *The Stylistics appeared on the TV Special that took place in St. Thomas, Virgin Islands and was aired on

HBO Home Box Office (HBO) is an American premium television network, which is the flagship property of namesake parent subsidiary Home Box Office, Inc., itself a unit owned by Warner Bros. Discovery. The overall Home Box Office business unit is ba ...

The Vera Lynn Show (TV Series) *Episode #2.1 (1975) Saturday Night Live TV Series
In 1975, The Stylistics appeared on the 1st season of Saturday Night Live. *Episode #1.8 (1975) Dinah! TV Series
The Stylistics appeared on the 1st season of The Dinah Shore TV Show. *Episode #1.181 (1974) Your Hit Parade (TV Series) *Episode #2 (1974) Don Kirshner's Rock Concert TV Show *Episode #2.3 (1974)

In popular culture

The Tower of Power referenced The Stylistics in their song, "Sexy Soul" from their 1995 album, "Souled Out." The song was written by Emilio Castillo and Steve Kupka. The song 'People Make The World Go Around' was used in a first season episode (#6) of the ''

Luke Cage Lucas "Luke" Cage, born Carl Lucas and also known as Power Man, is a fictional character appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics. He first appeared in ''Luke Cage, Hero for Hire'' #1 (June 1972) and was created by Archie Go ...

'' TV series, 'Suckas Need Bodyguards'.

References

External links

Official website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Stylistics, The African-American musical groups American soul musical groups Vocal quintets Musical groups established in 1968 Musical groups from Philadelphia Philadelphia International Records artists Ballad music groups Avco Records artists