The Commodores are a legendary band, in the 1970s their music to the industry by storm. The founders of the band Lionel Richie and Thomas McClary met in the registration queue of the Tuskegee Institute and became friends. They started to work together as the band initially named was “The Mystics” another member who was the trumpet player (William King) was also added to the band. McClary played the guitar and Richie was a sax player.
The Commodores came into existence after two band disbanded. One was “The Mystics” the other was “The Jays”. Some other members were also added in the band “Milan William” and “Ronald LaPread” Bass player, Walter “Clyde” Orange played the drums.
In the pursuit for a new name for their band for quite long but were unable to decide upon any. One day Milan gave a dictionary to King and asked to find a name, and they found a name and agreed upon it. The name was “The Commodores”.
After getting a lot of success by playing in private cafes and clubs, the Commodores started for the big show in New York. At the Small Paradise. The club owner said they cannot play there but later on they were called there to fill in the last minute position after that the same owner of the club booked them for two whole weeks.
When the Commodores auditioned in New York for a high-profile gig in 1971 two weeks later they got a chance to make an appearance in the prized support slot which they played amazingly. This got them a contract with the Motown. They did their debuted with the up-tempo instrumental dance “Machine Gun” which got them a lot of attention and love from their fans. After this they did Top 20 single which included “Slippery when wet”, “I feel sanctified” they got the attention because of their different and animated voice and southern accent.
In 1976 they made “Just to be close to you” this was their 2nd #1 single , #7 pop hit. Later on they came up with “easy” and “Fancy Dancer”.
Later around 1980 all the founding members of the band left the band. The last number Lionel Richie made with the band was “Still” and “Three times the Lady” he left the band in 1981 and pursued a solo career in music industry and released a new number with Dianna Ross, this song stayed on the Billboard top for 7 weeks straight. Thomas McClary left in 1983 and released a Gospel album “A revolution not a Revival”.
