Charles Wright was born on April 6, 1940, in Clarksdale, Mississippi.[1] He moved to Los Angeles in the early 1950s, playing guitar and singing in several doo-wop groups including the Turks, the Twilighters, the Shields and the Gallahads. He also briefly worked in A&R for Del-Fi Records and was responsible for the 1961 hit record "Those Oldies but Goodies (Remind Me of You)" by Little Caesar & the Romans. In 1962, he formed his own band Charles Wright & the Wright Sounds, which included future Watts Band member John Raynford, along with Daryl Dragon, later known as the "Captain" of Captain & Tennille. Over the course of the next six years, Wright added more musicians to his group and these were the players who would eventually become known as the Watts 103rd Street Rhythm Band, at least by 1968. Several of those members, including drummer James Gadson, bassist Melvin Dunlap, trombonist/arranger Ray Jackson, and both guitarists Al McKay and Benorce Blackmon, played on several Dyke and the Blazers charting singles, including "We Got More Soul" (1969) and "Let a Woman Be a Woman, Let a Man Be a Man" (1969).
The Wright Sounds played in several venues across Los Angeles, but their best known stint was three years (ending in 1968) at Hollywood's Haunted House nightclub. Originally located at Hollywood and Vine, the Haunted House was a popular club in the 1960s and appears in several popular culture artifacts, most notably the 1969 go-go dancing B-movie, Girl in Gold Boots.
First Watts 103rd Band
The name, Watts 103rd Street Rhythm Band was originally coined by Los Angeles record producer, and Keymen Records owner, Fred Smith in 1967. However, between 1967 and 1968, the Watts 103rd name applied to three, arguably four different personnel configurations, before settling into the final band, who played on every Watts 103rd album from 1968 onwards.[2]
Smith produced a theme song for KGFJ radio personality, DJ Magnificent Montague. The song became so popular that Smith released it as a single in 1967 and created the name, Watts 103rd St. Rhythm Band for the studio group who had recorded it. Purportedly, the players on the single included Wright, James Carmichael, Leon Haywood, and Bobby Womack.[3]
There is some confusion because, after "Spreadin' Honey" became a success, Montague re-released the single on the MoSoul label (a Keyman subsidiary), and credited to a different group altogether, the Soul Runners.[4] It has been long assumed that the Soul Runners were simply an earlier line-up of the Watts Band however, according to Wright, the two groups had nothing to do with one another whatsoever.[5]
Second Watts 103rd Band
In 1966, Carmichael and Wright were both working as session players for the Nashville West recording studio. Their group of studio players was discovered by Fred Smith and comedian Bill Cosby who needed a backing band for his upcoming album, Silver Throat. Smith hired the Nashville West players and gave them the Watts 103rd name. This group included (but was not necessarily limited to): Arthur Wright (bass), Pete Fox (guitar), Streamline Ewing (trombone), Herman Riley (tenor sax), Jackie Kelso (tenor sax), Melvin Jernigan (tenor sax), Mel Brown (guitar), and Abraham Mills (drums).[2]
Due to their association with Cosby, the new Watts 103rd band landed a deal with Warner Bros. Records,[4] becoming the first R&B band to sign with them. They released a debut album in 1967. Technically self-titled, the album has also come to be called Hot Heat and Sweet Groove after a sub-title found on the back cover. "Spreadin' Honey" was included on this album, per Warner Bros. insistence, even though none of the players on the album, save for Wright, had actually played on the "Spreadin' Honey" single.[2]
Wright generally disavows this album as a true Watts 103rd project, preferring to describe the second album, Together as the "first" Watts 103rd LP.
Third Watts 103rd Band
When Cosby went on tour, Wright was put in charge with creating a Watts 103rd touring band, which included both the musicians he had recorded Hot Heat with, but also added in the Wright Sounds as well. The Haunted House also began to bill Wright and the Wright Sounds as the Watts 103rd St. Rhythm Band.
Final Watts 103rd Band
Creative disagreements led to Smith selling his interest in the group to Wright. Newly freed, Wright reformed the Watts 103rd exclusively out of his Wright Sounds players, and broke ties with the musicians that recorded Hot Heat.
A May 18, 1968, recording of a live session at the Haunted House, became the partial basis for the second Warner Bros. album, Together.[2] That album yielded the group's first major national hit, "Do Your Thing."
Their next album, In the Jungle Babe, is best known for both "Love Land," an uptempo, doo-wop-influenced soul ballad,[citation needed] as well as "Comment," where Wright discussed the state of racial affairs in America. Though the album was credited to the Watts 103rd St. Rhythm Band, the singles from this album and the group's next two albums, would be listed under "Charles Wright and the Watts 103rd Street Rhythm Band".[4]
In the band's early years, they were mostly known for playing covers of popular R&B hits but, by the late 1960s, the group began to create original songs, resulting in a sound that was, as Charles Wright put it, "the middle ground between Otis Redding and James Brown",[6] reflecting the group's musical blend of different regional R&B and funk styles. Their experiments in long, loosely structured grooves, best heard on the Express Yourself and You're So Beautiful albums, could be heard as both influences on and influenced by contemporaries such as Sly and the Family Stone, the Isley Brothers and Parliament-Funkadelic.
Dissolution
As early as 1969, the Watts Band began to lose members. Al McKay left the Watts Band in 1969, and joined Earth, Wind & Fire. He was replaced by Benorce Blackmon. After recording the 1971, You're So Beautiful album, Gadson, Dunlap, Jackson, and Blackmon left the Watts Band to work with Bill Withers, playing on his albums Still Bill (1972) and Live at Carnegie Hall (1973).
Charles Wright went on to record four solo records after the departure of the Watts Band's core rhythm section,[4]Rhythm and Poetry (1972), Doin' What Comes Naturally (1973), Ninety Day Cycle People (1974), and Lil' Encouragement (1975). In 2007, he released a new album, Finally Got It Wright, which includes an updated version of "Express Yourself."
"Express Yourself" was sampled by Los Angeles rap group N.W.A in 1988, and has been used for many soundtracks of movies, including Remember the Titans, Cheaper by the Dozen 2, and Mr. & Mrs. Smith, plus numerous television commercials. "Do Your Thing" was featured on the soundtrack to Boogie Nights. "65 Bars and a Taste of Soul" serves as the theme music for the Chuck character Roan Montgomery.
Larry Graham Jr. is an American bassist and baritone singer, both with the psychedelic soul/funk band Sly and the Family Stone and as the founder and frontman of Graham Central Station. In 1980, he released the single "One in a Million You", which reached the top ten on the US Billboard Hot 100. He is credited with the invention of the slapping technique on the electric bass guitar, which radically expanded the tonal palette of the bass, although he himself refers to the technique as "thumpin' and pluckin' ". In 1993, he was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as a member of the Sly and the Family Stone. He is also the uncle of rapper Drake.
The Association is an American sunshine pop band from California. During the late 1960s, the band had numerous hits at or near the top of the Billboard charts and were the lead-off band at 1967's Monterey Pop Festival. They are known for intricate vocal harmonies by the band's multiple singers.
Ernest James Watts is an American jazz and rhythm and blues saxophonist who plays soprano, alto, and tenor saxophone. He has worked with Charlie Haden's Quartet West and toured with the Rolling Stones. On Frank Zappa's album The Grand Wazoo he played the "Mystery Horn", a straight-necked C melody saxophone. He played the notable saxophone riff on "The One You Love" by Glenn Frey.
"Papa's Got a Brand New Bag" is a song written and recorded by James Brown. Released as a two-part single in 1965, it was Brown's first song to reach the Billboard Hot 100 Top Ten, peaking at number eight, and was a number-one R&B hit, topping the charts for eight weeks. It won Brown his first Grammy Award, for Best Rhythm & Blues Recording.
Express Yourself may refer to:
"Express Yourself" is a song recorded by American hip hop group N.W.A, performed solo by Dr. Dre. The song, off their 1988 album Straight Outta Compton, samples Charles Wright & the Watts 103rd Street Rhythm Band's song of the same name. Unlike most songs on the album and by N.W.A, the song is devoid of profanity and violence. "Express Yourself" was released in 1989 as the album's last single, the album version of the track features rap vocals from Dr. Dre only whereas the 2002 reissue, single edition and video version features small verses from MC Ren and Ice Cube, the writer of the song. The song reached number 26 in the UK in September 1989.
Still Bill is the second studio album by American soul singer-songwriter and producer Bill Withers, released in 1972 by Sussex Records. The album was recorded and produced by Withers with musicians from the Watts 103rd Street Rhythm Band. The rhythmic music produced for the record features soul, funk, and blues sounds, backing lyrics that explore themes of human nature, emotion, and sex from a middle-class male perspective. It also features some of Withers' most popular songs, including the hit singles "Lean on Me" and "Use Me". A commercial and critical success at the time of its release, Still Bill has since been regarded by music journalists as a highlight of the singer's recording career and a classic of 1970s R&B.
Stuff was an American jazz-funk band during the late 1970s and early 1980s. The members were Gordon Edwards, Richard Tee (keyboards), Eric Gale (guitar), Cornell Dupree (guitar), Chris Parker (drums), and later Steve Gadd (drums).
James Gadson is an American drummer and session musician. Beginning his career in the late 1960s, Gadson has since become one of the most-recorded drummers in the history of R&B. He is also a singer and songwriter.
A Black Man's Soul is an instrumental album by musician Ike Turner & the Kings of Rhythm released by Pompeii Records in 1969.
Lettuce is a funk band that originated in Boston, Massachusetts in 1992. Its members are guitarist Adam "Shmeeans" Smirnoff, Nigel Hall, Adam Deitch (drums/percussion), Erick "Jesus" Coomes (bass), Ryan Zoidis (saxophone) and Eric "Benny" Bloom (trumpet).
"Express Yourself" is a song by English musician Labrinth. Written by Labrinth and Charles Wright, it was released as the fourth single from his debut studio album, Electronic Earth on 7 May 2012. It interpolates "Express Yourself" by Charles Wright & the Watts 103rd Street Rhythm Band, which was the same song sampled by N.W.A. in their 1988 song of the same name, and the famous drum break from James Brown's "Funky Drummer".
"Love Land" is a song written by Rose Marie McCoy and Luther Dixon. It was first recorded by Al Hibbler in 1958.
"Express Yourself" was written by Charles Wright and performed by Charles Wright & the Watts 103rd Street Rhythm Band. It became their signature song after its release in 1970 on their album, Express Yourself. The song was produced by Wright.
Fred Sledge Smith, often credited as Fred Smith, was an American R&B songwriter and record producer, who worked in particular with The Olympics, Bob & Earl, Bill Cosby, and the Watts 103rd Street Rhythm Band.
"Do Your Thing" is a song written by Charles Wright and performed by Charles Wright & the Watts 103rd Street Rhythm Band. It reached #11 on the Billboard Hot 100 and #12 on the R&B chart in 1969. The song was featured on their 1968 album, Together.
"Till You Get Enough" is a song written by Al McKay, Charles Wright, James Gadson, John Rayford, and Melvin Dunlap and performed by the Watts 103rd Street Rhythm Band. The song was produced by Wright and arranged by Wright, Rayford, Gabe Flemings, and Ray Jackson, and was featured on their 1969 album, In the Jungle, Babe.
"Your Love (Means Everything to Me)" is a song written by Charles Wright and performed by Charles Wright & the Watts 103rd Street Rhythm Band. It reached #9 on the R&B chart and #73 on the Billboard Hot 100 in 1971. The song was featured on their 1971 album, You're So Beautiful.
Charles Williams Wright is an American singer, instrumentalist and songwriter. He has been a member of various doo wop groups in the late 1950s and early 1960s as well as a solo artist in his own right. He is also the former leader and writer of hits for the group, Watts 103rd Street Rhythm Band.
Melvin Carl Dunlap was an American bass player, noted for his work with Charles Wright and Bill Withers.
1 2 3 4 Wang, Oliver (2008). Charles Wright and the Watts 103rd St. Rhythm Band: Live at the Haunted House - May 18, 1968 [CD liner notes]. Rhino Handmade.
↑ Hill, Edward (2006). "The Watts 103rd Street Rhythm Band." [CD liner notes]. Water Records.
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