![]() The Mascots’ popularity grew as their songs could be heard with increased frequency on Cleveland radio stations. King Records President Sid Nathan, immediately impressed, changed their name to The Mascots and signed them to his label. Their big break came when The Triumphs traveled to Cincinnati to canvas King Records. The Triumps played locally in Canton opening for different acts, playing sock hops and just about everything that came up. As Eddie continued singing into his teenage years, he became a recognized voice in the church choir, sang in school plays and performed regularly on a gospel radio show.īy the time he reached high school, young Eddie Levert knew that singing was what he wanted to do, teaming up with classmates Walter Williams, William Powell, Bobby Massey and Bill Isles to form a group called the Triumps. He attended church regularly and eventually joined the church choir. Levert is best known as the lead vocalist of the group, The O'Jays.Įddie Levert was born in Bessemer, Alabama, but was raised in Canton, Ohio, where he moved to at the age of 6. The new single, “I Got You,” is an avowal of love and support for these anxious and uncertain times.Edward Willis "Eddie" Levert (born June 16, 1942) is an American singer–songwriter and actor. The good news, at least for fans of a certain age, is that after years of chasing trends, the O’Jays sound like the O’Jays again, big orchestrations and social commentary you can dance to. Now time brings possible retirement and “The Last Word,” their first album - excluding a 2010 Christmas collection - in 15 years. “Little snafus here and there, but I’m good.” “My physical condition is good,” he says. Williams was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis in 1983. Levert has suffered the death of two sons: Gerald in 2006, Sean in 2008. More substantively, time has brought tragedy and challenge. The electrical storm is now more of a hard rain with occasional blasts of thunder. And there have no been no knee drops since. Knight Center, a roadie surreptitiously brought out a pillow for his then-49-year-old knees to land on. Levert, for example, used to fall to his knees in a dramatic gesture of “baby please” during “Let Me Make Love To You.” In a 1992 show at the James L. You can see it on stage if you’ve been watching for awhile and know where to look. This was the heyday of so-called “message music,” and the O’Jays were as likely to be found singing about social evils (“For the Love of Money”) and politics (“Give The People What They Want”) as they were sex (“Let Me Make Love To You”) and love (“Use Ta Be My Girl”). It was a lushly orchestrated, big-city sound, strings sweeping high, horns punching like Ali, rhythm section carving a groove in the floor. The O’Jays ruled what came to be called Philly soul, and Philly soul ruled R&B for much of the 1970s. Along the way, Isles and Massey both left the group and were not replaced.įinally, in 1972, the Philadelphia-based production team of Kenneth Gamble and Leon Huff brought the trio a song of paranoid love called “Backstabbers,” which smashed its way to the top of the charts. In 1963, the group renamed itself yet again, this time in honor of a mentor, Cleveland disc jockey Eddie O’Jay. Then they became the Mascots, but that didn’t change their fortune either. They called themselves the Triumphs back then. I think it would only seat about maybe 300 people. And hired us and realized that we had really, really good drawing power, and he would sell out weekends. “There was a very nice nightclub in town on Cherry Street called the Baby Grand. We would sing in the hallways in the school because the marble made it sound like you were in somewhat of an echo chamber and it sounded really good, good harmonies. “We sang at sweater parties, anywhere anyone would listen, pretty much. Eventually, together with William Powell, Bobby Massey and Bill Isles, they took their act out of the church. They first sang together under the tutelage of Williams’ father, John “J.W.” Williams, in the junior choir at St. My family didn’t have a TV yet, so I used to watch the ‘Lone Ranger,’ Roy Rogers.” The face of the TV might have been a foot wide. “I think they may have been one of the first families in the neighborhood to have a real TV,” says Williams, “with the the antenna on top of the house. It wasn’t music that bonded them initially. I didn’t have a whole lot of guys and people my age. He moved into the neighborhood, he and two brothers. “I met him,” says Williams, “when I was probably 7 or 8. Though the group formed in 1958, its true origin might be said to lie in the moment, years earlier, when a boy named Eddie Levert moved with his family from Bessemer, Alabama, up to Canton, Ohio.
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