The Isleys had top forty hits in the sixties, seventies, eighties, nineties, and two thousands, and as recently as 2006 they had an album go to number one on the R&B charts.īut today, we’re going to look back at the group’s very first hit, from 1959. Of course, the version of the Isley Brothers touring today isn’t quite the same as the group from the 1950s, but Ronald Isley, the group’s lead singer, remains in the group - and, indeed, has remained artistically relevant, with collaborations with several prominent hip-hop artists. Of course, events have overtaken that, and it’s extremely unlikely that anyone will be going to any shows then, but it shows a fundamental difference between the Isley Brothers and most of the other acts we’ve looked at, as even those who are still active now mostly concentrate on performing locally rather than doing international tours playing major venues. Indeed, when I started writing this script back in February, I started by saying that I would soon be seeing them live in concert, as I have a ticket for an Isley Brothers show in a couple of months. Today we’re going to take one of our rare looks - at this point in the story anyway - at an act that is still touring today. This podcast is brought to you by the generosity of my backers on Patreon. There are many compilations of the public-domain recordings of the Isleys.

The information on Hugo and Luigi comes mostly from two books - Dream Boogie: The Triumph of Sam Cooke by Peter Guralnick, and Godfather of the Music Business: Morris Levy by Richard Carlin. The ones I relied on most were this section of a very long article on Richie Barrett, this interview with Ronald Isley, and Icons of R&B and Soul by Bob Gulla.

Check out Tilt’s irregular podcasts at and Īs always, I’ve created a Mixcloud streaming playlist with full versions of all the songs in the episode.Īmazingly, there are no books on the Isley Brothers, unless you count a seventy-two page self-published pamphlet by Rudolph Isley’s daughter, so I’ve had to piece this together from literally dozens of different sources. Tilt Araiza has assisted invaluably by doing a first-pass edit, and will hopefully be doing so from now on. Patreon backers also have a ten-minute bonus episode available, on “Tell Laura I Love Her” by Ray Peterson. Click the full post to read liner notes, links to more information, and a transcript of the episode.

Download file | Play in new window | Recorded on May 4, 2020Įpisode eighty-one of A History of Rock Music in Five Hundred Songs looks at “Shout” by the Isley Brothers, and the beginnings of a career that would lead to six decades of hit singles.

All isley brothers songs