Isley Brothers

The Isley Brothers were a blues and rock band who began their career in the late 1950’s, and reached peaks in the ‘60s and ‘70s, creating music in a wide range of genres, including blues, soul, and funk. The group was made up of 5 brothers: O’Kelly, Rudolph, Ronald, Ernie, and Marvin Isley and their friend Chris Jasper. Three of the five brothers, Kelly, Rodolph and Ronald, performed gospel songs with their mother Sallye and was introduced to recognition in 1959 because of it,with their composition “Shout”. The three brothers were the original members of the Isley Brothers group before the other three joined. The Isley Brothers began their own record company in 1964, called T-Neck Records, soon short after welcoming Jimi Hendrix on to their team as their guitarist. Pretty cool right ? Well, the record company didn’t work out as they had hoped so they let it go and signed with Motown the following year. This was a success for the group as they had a hit only one year later called “This Old Heart of Mine”. One can only assume that the boys just didn’t like sharing their talent outside of the family, so T-Neck Records was jump started again in 1969. Developing their own sound with a fusion of rock and soul, this was the year the boys expanded the group with 3 more members. The group went off to do great things such as having their song “Twist and Shout” remain in the Billboard’s pop charts for 11 week! They were also inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1992 and received a lifetime achievement Grammy award in 2014. The group is still listed to by many to this day, and they remain relevant in the industry as they recently put out an album in 2017 with Santana, a lantin rock group. The Isley brothers gave us beautiful songs like “It’s Your Thing”, “That Lady”, “Fight the Power”, and “For the Love of You (Part 1 and 2)