The Soul Brothers Six were an American

rhythm and blues Rhythm and blues, frequently abbreviated as R&B or R'n'B, is a genre of popular music that originated within African American communities in the 1940s. The term was originally used by record companies to describe recordings marketed predomina ...

band formed in

Rochester, New York Rochester is a city in and the county seat, seat of government of Monroe County, New York, United States. It is the List of municipalities in New York, fourth-most populous city and 10th most-populated municipality in New York, with a populati ...

, during the mid-1960s. They are best remembered for their songs " Some Kind of Wonderful", which was later a hit for

Grand Funk Railroad Grand Funk Railroad (often shortened to Grand Funk) is an American rock band formed in Flint, Michigan, in 1969 by Mark Farner (vocals, guitar, keyboards, harmonica), Don Brewer (drums, vocals) and Mel Schacher (bass). The band achieved pea ...

and "I'll Be Loving You" which was a hit record on the 1970s

Northern soul Northern soul is a music and dance movement that emerged in Northern England and the Midlands in the early 1970s. It developed from the British Mod (subculture), mod scene, based on a particular style of African American music, Black American ...

scene in the UK.

History

The band was originally called the Soul Brothers Five and featured brothers Sam Armstrong, Charles Armstrong, Moses Armstrong, Harry Armstrong and Gene Armstrong. Shortly after the group's formation, vocalist John Ellison joined, prompting a name change. This line-up released two unsuccessful singles in 1965, "Stop Hurting Me" and "I Don't Want to Cry", before both Harry Armstrong and Gene Armstrong left the group, being replaced by Vonn Elle Benjamin and Lester Peleman. It was this line-up that released the single "Don't Neglect Your Baby" before Sam Armstrong left the group to be replaced by Joe Johnson. They then signed a deal with

Atlantic Records Atlantic Recording Corporation (simply known as Atlantic Records) is an American record label founded in October 1947 by Ahmet Ertegun and Herb Abramson. Over the course of its first two decades, starting from the release of its first recor ...

after being introduced to

Jerry Wexler Gerald Wexler (January 10, 1917 – August 15, 2008) was a music journalist turned music producer, and was a major influence on American popular music from the 1950s through the 1980s. He coined the term "rhythm and blues", and was integra ...

by a

Philadelphia Philadelphia ( ), colloquially referred to as Philly, is the List of municipalities in Pennsylvania, most populous city in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania and the List of United States cities by population, sixth-most populous city in the Unit ...

DJ and subsequently released " Some Kind of Wonderful" which reached No. 91 on the

Billboard Hot 100 The ''Billboard'' Hot 100, also known as simply the Hot 100, is the music industry standard record chart in the United States for songs, published weekly by '' Billboard'' magazine. Chart rankings are based on sales (physical and digital), ...

. They followed with several more unsuccessful singles before being dropped by Atlantic. This prompted Charles Armstrong, Harry Armstrong, Vonn Elle Benjamin and Lester Peleman to leave the group and be replaced by James Swails Jr, Charles Pevy and Eddie Reno. This line-up released four singles as John Ellison and the Soul Brothers Six (despite there only being five band members) during the 1970s, before disbanding. John Ellison continued on in the

music industry The music industry are individuals and organizations that earn money by Songwriter, writing songs and musical compositions, creating and selling Sound recording and reproduction, recorded music and sheet music, presenting live music, concerts, ...

and released two solo albums, ''Welcome Back'' in 1993 and ''Missing You'', in 2000.

Discography

References

External links

Answers.comSoul Brothers Six Discography
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. Database contents are user-generated, and described in ''T ...

. {{Authority control Atlantic Records artists American funk musical groups American soul musical groups Musical groups established in 1965 Musical groups disestablished in 1976 Musical groups from Rochester, New York