The Commodores is an American funk soul band of the 1970s and 1980s. The members of the group met as mostly freshmen at Tuskegee Institute (now Tuskegee University) in 1968, and signed with Motown in November 1972, having first caught the public eye opening for The Jackson 5 while on tour. The Commodores have sold over 75 million records worldwide.
In Tuskegee, they played local parties and fraternity parties playing mostly cover tunes and some original songs with their original singer, James Ingram (another “James Ingram” – not the more famous solo artist Ingram). Ingram, older than the rest of the members of the band, left to serve active duty in Vietnam, and was later replaced by Walter “Clyde” Orange, the second lead singer who wrote or co-wrote many of their hit tunes before Lionel Richie came on board. Lionel and Clyde alternated as lead singers. Clyde was also the lead singer on the Top 10 hits,”Nightshift” and “Brick House” among others.
After Richie left to pursue a solo career, former Heatwave singer J.D. Nicholas assumed co-lead vocal duties with drummer Walter “Clyde” Orange. However, with the exception of the Grammy-winning “Nightshift” the band never achieved the same level of success it had enjoyed with Richie.
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Bernard Belle is notable for his partnership with producer Teddy Riley and his collaborations with Michael Jackson. He is credited with writing and co-writing Remember the Time, Privacy and Why You Wanna Trip On Me.
REMOVE THAT SCARF! YOUR HANDSOME!
Awww…
