| The Stylistics | |
| Img Capt: | Stylistics in 1980. From left to right: Airrion Love, Herbie Murrell, Russell Thompkins, Jr., and Raymond Johnson. |
| Background: | group_or_band |
| Origin: | Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States |
| Genre: | R&B, soul |
| Years Active: | 1968 — present |
| Label: | Avco Records H&L Records |
| Current Members: | Herbie Murrell Airrion Love Van Fields Harold 'Eban' Brown |
| Past Members: | Russell Thompkins, Jr. James Dunn James Smith Raymond Johnson |
The Stylistics were one of the best-known Philadelphia soul groups of the 1970s. They formed in 1968, and comprised lead Russell Thompkins, Jr., Herbie Murrell, Airrion Love, James Smith, and James Dunn. According to Stephen Thomas Erlewine at Allmusic, "after The Spinners and The O'Jays, the Stylistics were the leading Philly soul group produced by Thom Bell".[1] Equally, "of all their peers, the Stylistics were one of the smoothest and sweetest soul groups of their era. All of their U.S. hits were ballads, graced by the soaring falsetto of Russell Thompkins, Jr. and the lush yet graceful productions of Bell, which helped make the Stylistics one of the most successful soul groups of the first half of the 1970s."[1] During the early 1970s, the band had 12 straight U.S. R&B Top 10 hits, including "You Are Everything," "Betcha by Golly Wow!," "I'm Stone in Love With You," "Break Up to Make Up," and "You Make Me Feel Brand New."[1]
The Stylistics were created from the leftovers of two defunct Philadelphia groups, The Percussions and The Monarchs.[2] In 1970, the group recorded "You're a Big Girl Now," a song their road manager Marty Bryant co-wrote with Robert Douglas, a member of their backing band Slim and the Boys, and the single became a regional hita for Sebring Records.[1] Producer Bill Perry spent $400 to record the number in the Virtue Studios in Philadelphia. The larger Avco Records soon signed the Stylistics, and single eventually climbed to number seven in early 1971.[1]
After signing to Avco, The Stylistics began working with producer Thom Bell, who had already produced a catalogue of hits for The Delfonics, and songwriter Linda Creed.[1] The first song they recorded together with Bell/Creed was the lush "Stop, Look, Listen (To Your Heart)"[3] . Bell imported the sweet soul techniques he had perfected with The Delfonics, and his arrangements worked perfectly with Thompkins' falsetto. The bittersweet lyrics from Creed were a key factor in creating memorable music.
Their hits — distilled from three albums — from this period included "Betcha by Golly Wow!" (U.S. #3), "I'm Stone in Love with You", "Break Up To Make Up" (U.S. #5), "You Make Me Feel Brand New" featuring a double lead with Love, the aforementioned "Stop, Look, Listen (To Your Heart)", "You Are Everything", and the minor hit "Rockin' Roll Baby" (U.S. #14). "You Make Me Feel Brand New" was the group's biggest U.S. hit, holding at #2 for two weeks in the spring of 1974, and was one of five U.S. gold singles the Stylistics collected. The Stylistics' smooth sound also found an easier path onto adult contemporary airwaves than other soul artists, and the group made Billboard magazine's Easy Listening singles chart twelve times from 1971 to 1976, with three entries ("Betcha by Golly Wow!," "You Make Me Feel Brand New," and "You'll Never Get To Heaven (If You Break My Heart)") reaching the Top 10. Every single that Bell produced for the Stylistics was a Top Ten R&B hit, and several — "You Are Everything," "Betcha by Golly Wow!," "I'm Stone in Love With You," "Break Up to Make Up," and "You Make Me Feel Brand New" — were also Top Ten pop chart hits.[1] This commercial success was not confined only to the U.S., with the band also having big hits with this material throughout Europe.
The group split with Thom Bell in 1974,[1] and the split proved commercially devastating to the group's success in the U.S. Just as with The Delfonics, The Stylistics were to some extent a vehicle for Bell's own creativity. They struggled hard to find producers who could come up with the right material, and partnerships with Hugo & Luigi and Van McCoy were notably less successful. One noticeable difference between those recordings and the Thom Bell hits was a heavier focus on Thompkin's falsetto vocals. They left Avco for H&L Records in 1976[1] and the Stylistics' popularity rapidly declined in the U.S. However, just as that success began to wane, their popularity in Europe, and especially the United Kingdom, increased.[1] Indeed, the lighter 'pop' sound fashioned by Van McCoy and Hugo & Luigi gave the band a UK
in 1975 with "Can't Give You Anything (But My Love)".[1] [4] Further successes with "Na Na is the Saddest Word", "Funky Weekend" and "Can't Help Falling in Love" consolidated the band's European popularity.[1] [4] They are one of the few U.S. acts to have two chart-topping Greatest Hits albums in the UK.[4]
Notwithstanding this, the Stylistics began to struggle with what many saw as increasingly weak material after 1976. Although the singles and albums came out as before, chart success vanished. This decline also coincided with the rise of New Wave in Europe around this time. It was also stated by Russell Thompkins Jr. (in the re-issue sleevenotes for the 1976 album Fabulous) that the band began to feel that the music they were recording was becoming increasingly dated, and not in keeping with the emerging disco sound of the late 1970s.
In 1980, James Dunn departed due to health problems, and James Smith left shortly thereafter.[1] The group continued, recruiting new member Raymond Johnson, and releasing the album Some Things Never Change, in 1985. Johnson departed shortly afterward, leaving the group a trio. Love, Murrell, and Thompkins continued to tour until 2000, when original lead Russell Thompkins, Jr. left. Love and Murrell brought in two new members, Harold "Eban" Brown, formerly of the Delfonics, as lead and tenor Van Fields. The present group is featured live on the DVD The Stylistics Live at the Convention Center (2006), as well as along with other artists of the 1970s on the DVD, The Big Show.
In 2004, Russell Thompkins, Jr. started a new group, the New Stylistics, with the returning Raymond Johnson, James Ranton, and Jonathan Buckson. They are featured on the DVD Old School Soul Party Live!, which was part of the PBS My Music series.
In 2006, their hit single "Can't Give You Anything (But My Love)" was used as the base for a Japanese advertisement campaign by Gatsby, to launch their new male hair styling product, 'Moving Rubber'. The campaign was successful and featured one of Japan's most popular celebrities Takuya Kimura of the pop group SMAP. They were also featured guests on SMAP's television show, SMAP×SMAP, one of the highest rated shows in Japan to promote the 'Moving Rubber' product.
Their song, "People Make the World Go Round", was used by Spike Lee in the soundtrack for his movie, Crooklyn, made in 1994.
The Stylistics' catalog of hits has been mined frequently by other artists in recent years. Notable examples include:
Some of the Stylistics' hits were themselves cover versions, including "You'll Never Get to Heaven (If You Break My Heart)" (a 1964 hit for Dionne Warwick) and "Can't Help Falling In Love."
| Year | Title | Chart positions | RIAA Certification | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| U.S. Hot 100[5] | U.S. R&B | UK Singles Chart | |||
| 1971 | "You're a Big Girl Now" | 73 | 7 | - | Gold[6] |
| 1971 | "Stop, Look, Listen (To Your Heart)" | 39 | 6 | - | - |
| 1971 | "You Are Everything" | 9 | 10 | - | Gold |
| 1971 | "Betcha by Golly Wow!" | 3 | 2 | 13 | Gold |
| 1972 | "People Make the World Go Round" | 25 | 6 | - | - |
| 1972 | "I'm Stone in Love With You" | 10 | 4 | 9 | Gold |
| 1973 | "Break Up to Make Up" | 5 | 5 | 34 | Gold |
| 1973 | "You'll Never Get to Heaven (If You Break My Heart)" | 23 | 8 | - | - |
| 1973 | "Peek-a-Boo" | - | - | 35 | - |
| 1973 | "Rockin' Roll Baby" | 14 | 3 | 6 | - |
| 1974 | "You Make Me Feel Brand New" | 2 | 5 | 2 | Gold |
| 1974 | "Let's Put It All Together" | 18 | 8 | 9 | - |
| 1974 | "Heavy Fallin' Out" | 41 | 4 | - | - |
| 1975 | "Star on a TV Show" | 47 | 13 | 12 | - |
| 1975 | "Thank You Baby" | 70 | 7 | - | - |
| 1975 | "Sing Baby Sing" | - | - | 3 | - |
| 1975 | "Can't Give You Anything (But My Love)" | 51 | 18 | 1 | - |
| 1975 | "Na-Na Is the Saddest Word" | - | - | 5 | - |
| 1975 | "Funky Weekend" | 76 | 23 | 10 | - |
| 1976 | "Because I Love You, Girl" | - | 43 | - | - |
| 1976 | "You Are Beautiful" | 79 | 17 | - | - |
| 1976 | "Can't Help Falling in Love" | - | 52 | 4 | - |
| 1976 | "Sixteen Bars" | - | - | 7 | - |
| 1976 | "You'll Never Get to Heaven" (EP) | - | - | 24 | - |
| 1977 | "$7,000 and You" | - | - | 24 | - |
| 1978 | "First Impressions" | - | 22 | - | - |
| 1980 | "Hurry Up This Way Again" | - | 18 | - | - |
| 1981 | "And I'll See You No More" | - | 70 | - | - |
| 1981 | "What's Your Name?" | - | 79 | - | - |
| 1984 | "Give a Little Love for Love" | - | 47 | - | - |
| 1985 | "Some Things Never Change" | - | 86 | - | - |
| 1985 | "Love Is Not the Answer" | - | - | - | - |
| 1991 | "Love Talk" | - | 68 | - | - |
| 1992 | "Always on My Mind" | - | 89 | - | - |
| Year | Title | Chart positions | RIAA Certification | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| U.S. Pop[7] | U.S. R&B | UK Albums Chart | |||
| 1971 | The Stylistics | 23 | 3 | - | Gold |
| 1972 | Round 2 | 32 | 3 | - | Gold |
| 1973 | Rockin' Roll Baby | 66 | 5 | 42 | - |
| 1974 | Let's Put It All Together | 14 | 4 | 26 | Gold |
| 1974 | Heavy | 43 | 8 | - | - |
| 1975 | From the Mountain | - | - | 36 | - |
| 1975 | Thank You Baby | 72 | 9 | 5 | - |
| 1975 | You are Beautiful | 99 | 12 | 26 | - |
| 1976 | Fabulous | 117 | 32 | 21 | - |
| 1977 | Once Upon a Juke Box | - | 45 | - | - |
| 1978 | In Fashion | - | 43 | - | - |
| 1978 | Wonder Woman | - | - | - | - |
| 1979 | Love Spell | - | - | - | - |
| 1980 | Hurry Up This Way Again | 127 | 11 | - | - |
| 1981 | Closer Than Close | - | 44 | - | - |
| 1982 | 1982 | - | - | - | - |
| 1985 | Some Things Never Change | - | 63 | - | - |
| 1991 | Love Talk | - | 65 | - | - |
| 1992 | Christmas | - | - | - | - |
| 1996 | Love Is Back in Style | - | - | - | - |
| Year | Title | Chart positions | RIAA Certification | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| U.S. Pop[8] | U.S. R&B | UK Albums Chart | |||
| 1975 | The Best of the Stylistics | 41 | 13 | 1 | Gold |
| 1976 | The Best of the Stylistics Volume II | - | - | 1 | - |
| 1991 | The Greatest Hits of the Stylistics - Let's Put It All Together | - | - | 34 | - |
| 2005 | The Very Best of the Stylistics...and More! | - | - | - | - |
| 2007 | The Very Best of the Stylistics | - | - | 30 | - |