''3 + 3'' is the eleventh album released by

the Isley Brothers The Isley Brothers ( ) are an American musical group originally from Cincinnati, Ohio, that began as a vocal trio consisting of brothers O'Kelly Isley Jr., Rudolph Isley and Ronald Isley in the 1950s. With a career spanning over seven decade ...

for the Epic label under their T-Neck imprint on August 7, 1973. In 2020, the album was ranked at 464 on ''Rolling Stone'' 500 Greatest Albums of All Time list.

Background

Their first album for the label after several years on

Buddah Records Buddah Records (later known as Buddha Records) was an American record label founded in 1967 in New York City. The label was born out of Kama Sutra Records, an MGM Records-distributed label, which remained a key imprint following Buddah's foun ...

, it was also the first time the family group, which had consisted of founding members

O'Kelly Isley, Jr. O'Kelly "Kelly" Isley Jr. (December 25, 1937 – March 31, 1986) was an American singer and one of the founding members of the family group the Isley Brothers. Biography The eldest of the Isley Brothers, Kelly started singing with his brothe ...

, Rudolph Isley and Ronald Isley, officially included six members instead of the standard three. Following the recording and release of ''

Brother, Brother, Brother ''Brother, Brother, Brother'' is the tenth album released by The Isley Brothers on their T-Neck imprint on May 2, 1972. It was to be the Isleys' last studio record with Buddah Records before moving on to Epic in the middle of 1973. The album ...

'' (1972) the previous year, this was the first album to officially include younger brothers

Ernie Ernie is a masculine given name, frequently a short form (hypocorism) of Ernest, Ernald, Ernesto, or Verner. It may refer to: People * Ernie Accorsi (born 1941), American football executive * Ernie Adams (disambiguation) * Ernie Afaganis (born c ...

and Marvin and in-law

Chris Jasper Christopher Howard Jasper (born December 30, 1951) Allmusic biography/ref> is an American singer, composer, and producer. Jasper is a former member of the Isley Brothers and Isley-Jasper-Isley and is responsible for writing and producing the ...

, even though all three had played on the previous several albums. The success of the album is attributed to their first Top 10 pop record since " It's Your Thing" (1969), with their own cover of the self-penned "Who's That Lady", now re-titled " That Lady, Pt. 1 & 2". Other hit singles included the top five R&B single "

What It Comes Down To "What It Comes Down To" is a song by The Isley Brothers, who released it in late 1973 as a follow-up to the group's crossover pop hit, " That Lady, Pt. 1 & 2". Song information Both songs were featured on the group's Epic debut, ''3 + 3''. It ...

", and their cover of

Seals & Crofts Seals and Crofts was an American soft rock duo made up of James Eugene Seals (October 17, 1942 – June 6, 2022) and Darrell George "Dash" Crofts (born August 14, 1938) They are best known for their hits " Summer Breeze" (1972), " Diamond Girl" ...

' folk hit " Summer Breeze" (1972), which was also a top ten R&B single. The album became their first

platinum album Music recording certification is a system of certifying that a music recording has shipped, sold, or streamed a certain number of units. The threshold quantity varies by type (such as album, single, music video) and by nation or territory (see ...

. The Isley Brothers recorded ''3 + 3'' in the

Record Plant The Record Plant is a recording studio established in New York City in 1968 and currently operating in Los Angeles, California. Known for innovations in the recording artists' workspace, it has produced highly influential albums, including Blo ...

at the same time as

Stevie Wonder Stevland Hardaway Morris ( Judkins; May 13, 1950), known professionally as Stevie Wonder, is an American singer-songwriter, who is credited as a pioneer and influence by musicians across a range of genres that include rhythm and blues, pop, s ...

was recording ''

Innervisions ''Innervisions'' is the sixteenth studio album by American singer, songwriter, and musician Stevie Wonder, released on August 3, 1973, by Tamla, a subsidiary of Motown Records. A landmark recording of Wonder's "classic period", the album has bee ...

'' (1973). In fact, they walked in on him recording " Don't You Worry 'bout a Thing". Both Chris Jasper of the Isley Brothers and Stevie Wonder were users of the ARP

synthesizer A synthesizer (also spelled synthesiser) is an electronic musical instrument that generates audio signals. Synthesizers typically create sounds by generating waveforms through methods including subtractive synthesis, additive synthesis a ...

and both worked with visionary engineers Robert Margouleff and

Malcolm Cecil Malcolm Cecil (9 January 193728 March 2021) was a British jazz bassist, record producer, engineer and electronic musician. He was a founding member of a leading UK jazz quintet of the late 1950s, the Jazz Couriers,

. In addition to a stereo record release, this album was mixed in quadraphonic and released in 1974 on SQ record: T-NECK PZQ – 32453. It was also released on

Super Audio CD Super Audio CD (SACD) is an optical disc format for audio storage introduced in 1999. It was developed jointly by Sony and Philips Electronics and intended to be the successor to the Compact Disc (CD) format. The SACD format allows multiple a ...

on December 4, 2001. The album was remastered and expanded for inclusion in the 2015 23-CD box set ''The RCA Victor & T-Neck Album Masters (1959-1983)''.

Reception

The album was included in the book ''

1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die ''1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die'' is a musical reference book first published in 2005 by Universe Publishing. Part of the ''1001 Before You Die'' series, it compiles writings and information on albums chosen by a panel of music critics ...

'' and is listed number 992 in ''

All-Time Top 1000 Albums ''All Time Top 1000 Albums'' is a book by Colin Larkin, creator and editor of the ''Encyclopedia of Popular Music''. The book was first published by Guinness Publishing in 1994. The list presented is the result of over 200,000 votes cast by the ...

'' (3rd. edition, 2000). In 2020, the album was ranked at 464 on ''Rolling Stone'' 500 Greatest Albums of All Time list.

Track listing

Unless otherwise noted, Information taken from

AllMusic AllMusic (previously known as All Music Guide and AMG) is an American online database, online music database. It catalogs more than three million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on Musical artist, musicians and Music ...

and based on album liner notes.Isley Brothers. "3 + 3". T-Neck / Epic. 1973.

Personnel

The Isley Brothers

* Ronald Isley – lead vocals, background vocals * Rudolph Isley – background vocals * O'Kelly Isley Jr. – background vocals *

Ernie Isley Ernest Isley (born March 7, 1952) is an American musician, best known as a member of the musical ensemble The Isley Brothers, and also the splinter group Isley-Jasper-Isley. Biography Ernie was born in Cincinnati, where his older brothers for ...

– background vocals (1,The Isley Brothers. "That Lady (Pt. 1 & 2)". YouTube: The Isley Brothers – Topic. 6 November 2014. https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=IM499-Q_DlA 6,The Isley Brothers. "What It Comes Down To". YouTube: Isley Brothers – Topic. 8 February 2017. https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=vBek7ExBqHE 8)The Isley Brothers. "Summer Breeze Pts 1 & 2". YouTube: The Isley Brothers – Topic. 9 February 2017. https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=w3o6ECdCZ7Q, maracas (6), tom-toms (6), acoustic guitar, electric guitar, 12-string guitar *

Marvin Isley Marvin Isley (August 18, 1953 – June 6, 2010)
– accessed June 2010 was the youngest member of the family music grou ...

– background vocals (1, 6, 8), bass guitar *

– background vocals (1, 6, 8), Hohner clavinet (3, 5–7),

Moog synthesizer The Moog synthesizer is a modular synthesizer developed by the American engineer Robert Moog. Moog debuted it in 1964, and Moog's company R. A. Moog Co. (later known as Moog Music) produced numerous models from 1965 to 1981, and again from 20 ...

(8-9),

ARP synthesizer ARP Instruments, Inc. was a Lexington, Massachusetts manufacturer of electronic musical instruments, founded by Alan Robert Pearlman in 1969. It created a popular and commercially successful range of synthesizers throughout the 1970s before de ...

, acoustic piano, electric piano, tambourine

Guest musicians

*George Moreland – drums (1-3, 5–7), tom-toms (6) *Truman Thomas – organ (1, 3–6) *

Rocky ''Rocky'' is a 1976 American sports drama film directed by John G. Avildsen and written by and starring Sylvester Stallone. It is the first installment in the ''Rocky'' franchise and stars Talia Shire, Burt Young, Carl Weathers, and Burges ...

– congas (1)

Production and design

*Produced by Ronald Isley, Rudolph Isley & O'Kelly Isley Jr. *

, Robert Margouleff – recording engineers *Ed Lee – cover design *Don Hunstein – photography

Charts

Weekly charts

Singles

References

External links

The Isley Brothers - ''3 + 3'' (1973) album releases & credits
at

Discogs Discogs (short for discographies) is a database of information about audio recordings, including commercial releases, promotional releases, and bootleg or off-label releases. While the site was originally created with a goal of becoming the ...

The Isley Brothers - ''3 + 3'' (1973) album to be listened
as stream on

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{{Authority control 1973 albums Albums recorded at Record Plant (Los Angeles) Epic Records albums The Isley Brothers albums T-Neck Records albums