The Ohio Players
are a funk and R&B band. They are best known for their hit songs "Fire" and "Love Rollercoaster".
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THE OHIO PLAYERS TICKETS
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Biography
The band formed in
Dayton, Ohio in
1959 as the Ohio Untouchables, and initially included members
Robert Ward (
vocals/
guitar), Marshall "Rock" Jones (
bass), Clarence "Satch" Satchell (
saxophone/
guitar), Cornelius Johnson (
drums), and Ralph "Pee Wee" Middlebrooks (
trumpet/
trombone). The Ohio Untouchables broke up in
1963 with Ward leaving for a solo career, but the core members of the group returned to Dayton and added Gregory Webster (
drums) and Leroy "Sugarfoot" Bonner (
guitar) in
1964. The group added two more singers, Bobby Lee Fears and Dutch Robinson, and became the house band for New York City-based
Compass Records in
1967. They soon became one of the better known R&B bands of the 1970s. Their song "Runnin' from the Devil" inspired the
Van Halen song "
Runnin' With the Devil".
The group disbanded again in
1970. After again reforming with a line-up including Bonner, Satchell, Middlebrooks, Jones, Webster, trumpeter Bruce Napier, trombonist Marvin Pierce, and
keyboardist Walter "Junie" Morrison, the Players had a minor hit on the Detroit-based Westbound label in
1971 with "Pain" which reached the
Billboard
R&B Top 40. Detroit vocalist Dale Allen shared co-lead vocals on some of the early Westbound material, although not credited on the albums "Pain" and "Pleasure".
The band’s first big hit was "Funky Worm", which hit #1 on the
Billboard
R&B Charts and made the pop Top 15 in May
1973. The band signed with
Mercury Records in
1974. By this time, their lineup had changed again, with keyboardist Billy Beck instead of Morrison and Jimmy "Diamond" Williams on drums instead of Webster. On later album releases, they added second guitarist/vocalist Clarence 'Chet' Willis and conga player Robert "Rumba" Jones to the lineup. Bonner sang lead vocals on most of the band's hits.
The band had seven Top 40 hits between
1973 and
1976, including "
Fire" (#1 on both the R&B and pop charts for two weeks and one week respectively in February
1975) and "
Love Rollercoaster" (#1 on both the R&B and pop charts for 1 week in January 1976). The group's last big hit was "Who'd She Coo" a #1 R&B hit in August 1976.
The band became widely known not only for their sound, which has been sampled and copied by countless
R&B and
hip-hop artists since, but for their sexually provocative album covers, including the cover of 1974's
Ecstasy
, which featured a man and a woman in a pose of arousal wearing chains and leather, and 1975's
Honey
, which featured a nude woman holding an overflowing jar of honey and dropping some into her mouth with a ladle.
There is an
urban legend that has it that a scream on "Love Rollercoaster" that came during the break after the second verse was the sound of someone being murdered in the studio while the track was being recorded. It is widely believed to be the scream of a female model (the nude woman
Ester Cordet featured on the image for the
Honey
album) after being stabbed with a knife by the band's manager. She was complaining that the honey and fibre glass she was sitting on reacted when mixed causing permanent damage to her legs during the image photography, ending her modelling career. She then approached the manager seeking compensation during the recording of "Love Rollercoaster" only to be stabbed and attacked.
The Ohio Players then left the scream in as a sick tribute. The band did not discredit this rumor at the time, because, as one band member put it later, "that makes you sell more records." This is just an urban legend however, as are any other disturbing explanations, including a person murdered outside the recording studio (although recording studios are soundproof and the scream would not have been heard), a band member murdering his girlfriend or a cleaning woman in the recording studio, or a real scream taken from a 911 call or a Psychiatric ward.
Clarence Satchell died in January
1996 after he had a brain
aneurysm. Ralph Middlebrooks died in November
1997.
The
Red Hot Chili Peppers were one of the bands heavily influenced by the Ohio Players, covering "Love Rollercoaster" for the film
Beavis and Butt-head Do America
. In the
UK, there was a chain of music and DVD stores named after one of their hit songs, "Fopp". "Fopp" was also covered by
Soundgarden for an EP called
Fopp
.
Discography
Studio albums
Year
| Album
| Chart positions [1] [2]
| Record label
|
U.S.
| U.S. R&B
|
1968
| Observations in Time
| —
| —
| Capitol
|
1971
| Pain
| 177
| 21
| Westbound
|
1972
| Pleasure
| 63
| 4
|
1973
| Ecstasy
| 70
| 19
|
1974
| Climax
| 102
| 24
|
Skin Tight
| 11
| 1
| Mercury
|
Fire
| 1
| 1
|
1975
| Honey
| 2
| 1
|
Rattlesnake
| 61
| 8
| Westbound
|
1976
| Contradiction
| 12
| 1
| Mercury
|
1977
| Angel
| 41
| 9
|
Mr. Mean
| 68
| 11
|
1978
| Jass-Ay-Lay-Dee
| 69
| 15
|
1979
| Everybody Up
| 80
| 19
| Arista
|
1981
| Tenderness
| 165
| 49
| Boardwalk
|
Ouch!
| —
| —
|
1984
| Graduation
| —
| —
| Century Vista
|
1988
| Back
| —
| 55
| Track Record
|
"—" denotes the album failed to chart or was not released
|
Compilation and Live albums
Year
| Album
| Chart positions [2]
| Record label
|
U.S.
| U.S. R&B
|
1974
| First Impressions
| —
| 32
| Capitol
|
1975
| Greatest Hits
| 92
| 22
| Westbound
|
1976
| Gold
| 31
| 10
| Mercury
|
1977
| The Best of the Early Years, Vol. 1
| —
| 58
| Westbound
|
1995
| Funk on Fire: The Mercury Anthology
| —
| —
| Mercury
|
1996
| Jam
| —
| —
|
1997
| Ol' School
| —
| —
| Castle
|
1998
| Orgasm: The Very Best of the Westbound Years
| —
| —
| Westbound
|
2008
| Gold
(2008)
| —
| —
| Island/Mercury
|
"—" denotes the album failed to chart or was not released
|
Singles
Year
| Single
| Chart positions [1] [2]
| Album
|
U.S. Hot 100
| U.S. R&B
|
1971
| "Pain (Part 1)"
| 64
| 35
| Pain
|
1972
| "Pleasure"
| —
| 45
| Pleasure
|
1973
| "Funky Worm"
| 15
| 1
|
"Ecstasy"
| 31
| 12
| Ecstasy
|
1974
| "Jive Turkey (Part 1)"
| 47
| 6
| Skin Tight
|
"Skin Tight"
| 13
| 2
|
"Fire"
| 1
| 1
| Fire
|
1975
| "I Want to Be Free"
| 44
| 6
|
"Sweet Sticky Thing"
| 33
| 1
| Honey
|
"Love Rollercoaster"
| 1
| 1
|
1976
| "Fopp"
| 30
| 9
|
"Rattlesnake"
| 90
| —
| Rattlesnake
|
"Who'd She Coo?"
| 18
| 1
| Contradiction
|
"Far East Mississippi"
| —
| 26
|
"Feel the Beat (Everybody Disco)"
| 61
| 31
| Gold
|
1977
| "Body Vibes"
| —
| 19
| Angel
|
"O-H-I-O"
| 45
| 29
|
"Good Luck Charm (Part 1)"
| —
| 51
| Mr. Mean
|
"Magic Trick"
| —
| 93
|
1978
| "Funk-O-Nots"
| —
| 27
| Jass-Ay-Lay-Dee
|
"Times Slips Away"
| —
| 53
|
1979
| "Everybody Up"
| —
| 33
| Everybody Up
|
1981
| "Try a Little Tenderness"
| —
| 40
| Tenderness
|
"Skinny"
| —
| 46
|
1988
| "Sweat"
| —
| 50
| Back
|
"Let's Play (From Now On)"
| —
| 33
|
"—" denotes the single failed to chart or was not released
|
See also
- List of number-one hits (United States)
- List of artists who reached number one on the Hot 100 (U.S.)
References
- Ohio Players Chart History
- Ohio Players Chart History
- Ohio Players Chart History
- Ohio Players Chart History
- Ohio Players Chart History