| The Brothers Johnson | |
|---|---|
Brothers Johnson in 1980 |
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| Background information | |
| Also known as | Brothers Johnson |
| Origin | Los Angeles, California, USA |
| Genres | R&B, funk |
| Years active | 1975–present |
| Labels | A&M, Capitol |
| Associated acts | Passage, David Diggs, Quincy Jones, Billy Preston |
| Members | |
| George Johnson Louis Johnson |
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| Past members | |
| Alex Weir Richard Heath Wayne Vaughn Ricky Lawson Richard Diamond Michael "Patches" Stewart Michael Perkins Malcolm Robinson Mark Johnson |
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The Brothers Johnson is a band consisting of American musicians and brothers George aka 'Lightnin' Licks' and Louis E. Johnson aka 'Thunder Thumbs'.
Contents |
Guitarist/vocalist George and bassist/vocalist Louis formed the band Johnson Three Plus One with older brother Tommy, and their cousin Alex Weir, while attending school in Los Angeles, California.[1][2] When they became professionals, the band backed such touring R&B acts as Bobby Womack and the Supremes. George and Louis Johnson later joined Billy Preston's band, and wrote Music in My Life and The Kids and Me for him before leaving his group in 1973. In 1976, The Brothers covered the Beatles' song, Hey Jude, for the ephemeral musical documentary All This and World War II.
Quincy Jones hired them to play on his LP Mellow Madness, and recorded four of their songs, including Is It Love That We're Missing? and Just a Taste of Me.
After touring with various artists like Bobby Womack and Billy Preston, Quincy Jones hired them for a tour in Japan and produced their debut album Look Out For #1, released in March 1976 (#9 U.S.) Their Right On Time album was released in May 1977 and reached number 13 on the Billboard Hot 200. Blam!! came out in August 1978 and reached number 7 on the Billboard 200.
Two of the duo's songs were featured on the soundtrack of the 1976 film Mother, Jugs & Speed. The instrumental track Thunder Thumbs and Lightnin' Licks refers to the brothers' nicknames. Get the Funk Out Ma Face was cowritten with Quincy Jones.
Their popular album Light Up The Night was released in March 1980 and rose to number 5 on the Billboard 200. It was number 46 on the "Top 100 LPs of 1980" list in Rolling Stone Magazine. The subsequent album, Winners, was self-produced by the brothers and released in July 1981, but was less successful, going only as high as number 48 on the Billboard 200.
Among their most popular songs are I'll Be Good to You (Billboard Hot 100 #3 in 1976), Strawberry Letter 23 (Hot 100 #5 in 1977, originally recorded by Shuggie Otis), Ain't We Funkin' Now (1978), and Stomp! (Hot 100 #7 and Hot Dance Music/Club Play #1 in 1980). Their styles include funk, and R&B ballads. In addition, each album would include an instrumental cut or more which would either be considered lite jazz (Tomorrow 1976, Q 1977 Similin' On Ya 1980 & Tokyo 1984) or Funk (Thunder Thumbs & Lightning Licks 1976, Brother Man 1976, Mista Cool 1978 & Celebrations 1980)
The duo split up in 1982 resulting in brief solo careers for the brothers.
They started doing separate ventures; Louis Johnson played bass on Michael Jackson's Thriller and recorded a gospel music album in 1981 with his own group Passage, which included his then-wife Valerie Johnson and former Brothers Johnson percussionist/singer, Richard Heath. Louis recorded a single in 1985 called "Kinky," released on Capitol Records. The track appears on his Evolution album, which was released that same year only in Europe. Louis then started to register his bass skills on video, and accomplished about 3 instructional lesson-tapes for the Starlicks video-distribution company, from which the first release was also in 1985. He continued this initiative by starting his bass academy during the 1990s and giving workshop clinics to this day, via his own website.
George Johnson released one single in 1985, titled "Back Against The Wall," on Quincy Jones' own Qwest label. There seems to be a complete album (recorded but unreleased) from that recording session, which George himself confirmed when he and Louis were interviewed around 1987/1988 for the Blues & Soul magazine in the United Kingdom (see link below). In addition to these solo projects, George delivered guitar work for Steve Arrington's album Dancing In The Key Of Life (1985) and had ad-libbed vocals on the track "Think Back And Remember" from the Galaxian album by the Jeff Lorber Fusion, released in 1981 on Arista Records.
The brothers did reunite briefly in 1984 to record an album. Produced by Leon Sylvers, the resulting LP, Out of Control did not equal their past success, but did garner them another R&B hit with "You Keep Me Coming Back." After an interim period, the duo regrouped again to record Kickin' in 1988. The album-title of the Kickin project was a collaboration with Irene Cara, who was then their neighbor. Although this album saw even more limited success, it did include the minor hit, "Kick it to the Curb."
In between those two albums, both George and Louis released their aforementioned solo material. The brothers also both appeared on the Street Shadows album of keyboard-player/arranger David Diggs, who formerly provided horn and string arrangements for albums like Winners, Blast, and the Passage project of Louis. "Last Night," the opening track on that David Diggs album, shows George's versatility to perform on the bass guitar as well. He previously showed his bass skills on tracks like "Teaser" from Winners and "The Great Awaking" from Blast, the same way that Louis shows his guitar skills on various compositions of the sibling duo.
In addition, during this time, the band's song "Tomorrow" (originally an instrumental on the B-side of "Get The Funk Out Ma Face") was recorded with vocals sung by Tevin Campbell for Quincy Jones' Back on the Block release in 1989. This album also included Jones' hit remake of the Brothers Johnson's "I'll Be Good to You," featuring Ray Charles and Chaka Khan.
Besides a brief appearance of the brothers in Japan around 1994, and George making a guest-appearance in the 1990s on a concert in Japan (including a released double-CD) of the Graham Central Station, the duo launched an expanded US tour in 2002 which got positive, wide exposure. It was visited by many fans and various artists in the entertainment business. Along with a website and discussion-forum, online visitors could share their experiences of the shows by reliving the hey-days of Funkadelala and wander through the Land of Ladies. A few years after that, a combi-release of live-CD + DVD came on the market under the name of Strawberry Letter 23: Live.
Until recently, the brothers have been doing performances on their own. In 2006, Louis gave a duo-show with a drummer, on the Poetry In Motion 1 Festival, Maryland. In late 2007, George performed with his own band at a Detroit-Festival, including a persona called Sir Nose. George also performs these days with a special band, including Adina Howard, Cherrelle, Ray Parker Jr., and a few more artists, which is an initiative of Michael Henderson.
| Year | Album | Peak chart positions [3][4] |
US certifications [5] |
Record label | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| US | US R&B |
UK | ||||
| 1976 | Look Out for #1 | 9 | 1 | — | Platinum | A&M |
| 1977 | Right On Time | 13 | 2 | — | Platinum | |
| 1978 | Blam! | 7 | 1 | 48 | Platinum | |
| 1980 | Light Up the Night | 5 | 1 | 22 | Platinum | |
| 1981 | Winners | 48 | 10 | 42 | — | |
| 1984 | Out of Control | 91 | 20 | — | — | |
| 1988 | Kickin' | — | — | — | — | |
| "—" denotes the album failed to chart or was not certified | ||||||
| Year | Album | Peak chart positions | Record label | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| US | US R&B |
UK | ||||
| 2004 | Strawberry Letter 23: Live | — | — | — | Goldenlane | |
| "—" denotes the album failed to chart | ||||||
| Year | Album | Peak chart positions [3] |
Record label | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| US | US R&B |
UK | ||||
| 1982 | Blast!: The Latest and the Greatest | 138 | 23 | — | A&M | |
| 1987 | Classics, Vol. 11 | — | — | — | ||
| 1996 | Greatest Hits | — | — | — | ||
| 1998 | The Best of the Brothers Johnson | — | — | — | PolyGram | |
| 2000 | The Millennium Collection: The Best of the Brothers Johnson | — | — | — | A&M | |
| 2003 | The Universal Masters Collection | — | — | — | UMG | |
| Strawberry Letter 23: The Best of the Brothers Johnson | — | — | — | A&M | ||
| "—" denotes the album failed to chart | ||||||
| Year | Single | Peak chart positions[4][6] | Album | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| US | US R&B |
US Dance |
UK | |||
| 1976 | "I'll Be Good to You" | 3 | 1 | — | — | Look Out for #1 |
| "Get the Funk Out Ma Face" | 30 | 4 | 11 | — | ||
| "Free and Single" | 103 | 26 | — | — | ||
| 1977 | "Strawberry Letter 23" | 5 | 1 | — | 35 | Right on Time |
| "Runnin' for Your Lovin'" | 107 | 20 | — | — | ||
| 1978 | "Love Is" | — | 50 | — | — | |
| "Ride-O-Rocket" | 104 | 45 | — | 50 | Blam!! | |
| "Ain't We Funkin' Now" | 102 | 45 | — | 43 | ||
| 1980 | "Stomp!" | 7 | 1 | 1 | 6 | Light Up the Night |
| "Light Up the Night" | — | 16 | — | 47 | ||
| "Treasure" | 73 | 36 | — | — | ||
| 1981 | "The Real Thing" | 67 | 11 | — | 50 | Winners |
| "Dancin' Free" | — | 51 | — | — | ||
| 1982 | "Welcome to the Club" | — | 13 | — | — | Blast!: The Latest and the Greatest |
| 1983 | "I'm Giving You All of My Love" | — | 75 | — | — | |
| 1984 | "You Keep Me Coming Back" | 102 | 12 | 22 | 77 | Out of Control |
| 1988 | "Kick It to the Curb" | — | 52 | — | — | Kickin' |
| "Party Avenue" | — | — | — | — | ||
| "—" denotes the single failed to chart | ||||||
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