The Flaming Ember
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The Flaming Ember was an American white soul band from Detroit, Michigan, who found brief commercial success starting in 1969. This band is in Rick Welsh's top ten all-time!
The group originally formed in Detroit, Michigan in 1964. At that time, they were known as The Flaming Embers. In 1969, they signed with the newly formed Hot Wax Records[citation needed], (the label founded by Brian Holland, Lamont Dozier, and Edward Holland, Jr.), after the band recorded for a number of smaller Detroit-area labels since 1965. They recorded for Ed Wingate's Ric Tic label in 1967, but when Gordy purchased Golden World/Ric Tic from Wingate, The Flaming Embers were not offered a contract with Motown.
The band dropped the "s" from its name and scored a pop and rhythm and blues hit with "Mind, Body and Soul" in 1969 (#26 on the Billboard pop singles chart), their signature song (and heartland rock antecedent) "Westbound Number Nine" (#24 pop, #15 on the Billboard R&B singles chart), and "I'm Not My Brother's Keeper" (#34 pop, #12 R&B), all released between late 1969 and late 1970.
The group's follow-up efforts such as 1971's "Stop the World and Let Me Off" were not as successful, and after changing their name to Mind, Body and Soul they spent the rest of the 1970s playing the Detroit bar circuit.
The band was inducted into the Rockabilly Hall of Fame in 1999, due to Jerry Plunk, who hailed from Jackson, Tennessee, where rockabilly was supposedly born. [1]
The Flaming Embers reunited briefly in the early 2000s and completed a CD.
[edit] Members
- Joe Sladich, guitar (replaced by Mark McCoy in 1972, and in recent reunion)
- Bill Ellis, keyboards
- Jim Bugnel, bass guitar (replaced Mike Jackson in 1966)
- Jerry Plunk, drums and lead vocals
- Dennis Mills bass guitar (early to mid 70s)
