''United'' is the 12th studio album by the

Commodores Commodores are an American funk and soul band, which were at their peak in the late 1970s through the mid 1980s. The members of the group met as mostly freshmen at Tuskegee Institute (now Tuskegee University) in 1968, and signed with Motown in ...

, released on October 7, 1986 on

Polydor Records Polydor Records Ltd. is a German-British record label that operates as part of Universal Music Group. It has a close relationship with Universal's Interscope Geffen A&M Records label, which distributes Polydor's releases in the United States. ...

Overview

The album reached number 17 on the ''

Billboard A billboard (also called a hoarding in the UK and many other parts of the world) is a large outdoor advertising structure (a billing board), typically found in high-traffic areas such as alongside busy roads. Billboards present large adverti ...

Top R&B Albums Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums is a music chart published weekly by ''Billboard'' magazine that ranks R&B and hip hop albums based on sales in the United States and is compiled by Nielsen SoundScan. The chart debuted as Hot R&B LPs in the issue dated Ja ...

chart. " Goin' to the Bank" and " Take It from Me" climbed to number two on Billboard's R&B singles charts. Another single, "United in Love," peaked at #22 on the

Adult Contemporary chart The Adult Contemporary chart is published weekly by ''Billboard'' magazine and lists the most popular songs on adult contemporary radio stations in the United States. The chart is compiled based on airplay data submitted to ''Billboard'' by stat ...

Covers

The Commodores covered

Peabo Bryson Robert Peapo "Peabo" Bryson (born April 13, 1951) is an American singer and songwriter. He is known for singing soul ballads (often as a duet with female singers) including the 1983 hit "Tonight, I Celebrate My Love" with Roberta Flack. Bryson ...

's "Let's Apologize" from his 1985 studio album '' Take No Prisoners''.

Track listing

Personnel

Commodores * Walter Orange – drums, lead vocals (1, 2, 4, 5, 9, 10), backing vocals (4), arrangements (10) * J.D. Nicholas – rap (1), lead vocals (2, 3, 4, 6-9), backing vocals (3, 4, 6) *

William King William King may refer to: Arts * Willie King (1943–2009), American blues guitarist and singer *William King (author) (born 1959), British science fiction author and game designer, also known as Bill King *William King (artist) (1925–2015), Am ...

– keyboards, arrangements (7), BGV arrangements (7) *

Milan Williams Milan B. Williams (March 28, 1948 – July 9, 2006) was an American keyboardist and a founding member of The Commodores. Biography Williams was born in Okolona, Mississippi, and began playing the piano after being inspired by his older brother Ea ...

– keyboards, arrangements (8), BGV arrangements (8) Additional musicians * Claude Gaudette – keyboards (1-4, 6), electronic programming (1-4, 6), arrangements (2, 3, 4, 6) * Casey Young – special effects (1), keyboards (5, 9, 10), electronic programming (5, 9, 10) * Greg Mathieson – keyboards (5, 10), arrangements (5, 9, 10) * John Barnes – synthesizers (7, 8) *

Michael Boddicker Michael Lehmann Boddicker (born January 19, 1953) is an American film composer and session musician, specializing in electronic music. He is a three times National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences (N.A.R.A.S.) Most Valuable Player "Synthe ...

– synthesizers (7, 8) * Harold Hudson – synthesizers (7, 8), arrangements (7), BGV arrangements (7), backing vocals (7, 8) * Sheldon Reynolds – guitars (1, 2, 6, 7, 8, 10), arrangements (2, 6),

guitar synthesizer A guitar synthesizer is any one of a number of musical instrument systems that allow a guitarist to access synthesizer capabilities. Overview Today's guitar synths are direct descendants of 1970s devices from manufacturers (often in partnersh ...

(6), backing vocals (6, 7, 8) *

Paul Jackson Jr. Paul Milton Jackson Jr. (born December 30, 1959) is an American fusion/urban jazz composer, arranger, producer and guitarist. He was born and raised in Los Angeles. Jackson knew by the age of fifteen that he wanted to become a professional musi ...

– guitars (3, 5, 9, 10) *

Dann Huff Dann Lee Huff (born November 15, 1960) is an American record producer and songwriter. For his work as a producer in the country music genre, he has won several awards, including the ''Musician of the Year'' award in 2001, 2004, and 2016 at the Co ...

– guitars (4) * Michael Thompson – guitars (9) * Paulinho da Costa – percussion (5, 7, 8, 10) * Isaac Morris – arrangements (6), drum overdubs (7) * Gary Herbig – saxophone solo (10) *

James Anthony Carmichael James Anthony Carmichael (born September 14, 1941) is an American Grammy-winning musician, arranger, and record producer. At first he started off in Los Angeles as an arranger and producer for Motown acts like The Temptations and the Jackson 5. ...

– arrangements (7, 8) *

Siedah Garrett Deborah Christine "Siedah" Garrett (born June 24, 1960) is an American singer and songwriter who has written songs and performed backing vocals for many recording artists in the music industry, such as Michael Jackson, the Pointer Sisters, Brand N ...

– backing vocals (1, 2, 3, 6), rap (1) *

Dennis Lambert Dennis Earle Lambert (born 1947 in Brooklyn, New York) is an American musician, songwriter and record producer. Career Lambert began his music career in 1960 when he signed to Capitol Records as a recording artist. By the mid-1960s, he was w ...

– backing vocals (1, 2), BGV arrangements (1, 2, 3) * Phil Perry – backing vocals (1, 2) * Darryl Phinnessee – backing vocals (1, 2) * Julia Tillman Waters – backing vocals (3, 9, 10) * Maxine Willard Waters – backing vocals (3, 9, 10) *

Bill Champlin William Bradford Champlin (born May 21, 1947) is an American singer, musician, arranger, producer, and songwriter. He formed the band Sons of Champlin in 1965, which still performs today, and was a member of the band Chicago from 1981–2009. ...

– backing vocals (5, 9, 10) * Jason Scheff – backing vocals (9, 10)

Production

* Dennis Lambert – producer (1-4, 6) * Jeremy Smith – producer (1, 2, 6), recording (1, 2, 3, 6), mixing (1-4, 6) * Greg Mathieson – producer (5, 9, 10) * James Anthony Carmichael – producer (7, 8) * Lloyd Tolbert – assistant producer (7, 8) * Milan Williams – producer (8) * Paul Ericksen – assistant engineer (1, 2, 6), mixing (3, 4), recording (4) *

Mick Guzauski Nathan "Mick" Guzauski is an American multi-platinum mixing engineer and sound engineer. His work spans a wide range of styles, including jazz, R&B, Latin, rock, pop, easy listening, funk and hip hop. He won a 2002 Latin Grammy for Thalí ...

– recording (5, 9, 10), mixing (5, 9, 10) * Bino Espinoza – assistant engineer (5, 10) * Don Murray – assistant engineer (5, 10) *

Calvin Harris Adam Richard Wiles (born 17 January 1984), known professionally as Calvin Harris, is a Scottish DJ, record producer, singer, and songwriter who has released six studio albums. His debut studio album, ''I Created Disco'', was released in June ...

– recording (7, 8), mixing (7, 8) * Fred Law – additional recording (7, 8) * Karen Siegel – assistant engineer (7, 8) *

Stephen Marcussen Stephen Marcussen is the founder and chief mastering engineer at Marcussen Mastering in Hollywood, California, United States. He has been mastering music since 1979. Biography Marcussen's introduction to music recording happened in 1976 when, at ...

– mastering at Precision Lacquer (Los Angeles, California). * Bill Levy – art direction *

John Kosh John Kosh, known simply as Kosh, is an English art director, album cover designer, graphic artist, and documentary producer/director. He was born in London, England and rose to prominence in the mid-1960s while designing for the Royal Ballet a ...

– package design * Chris Callis – photography

References

Commodores albums 1986 albums Polydor Records albums {{1980s-R&B-album-stub