Stories was an American early 1970s

rock Rock most often refers to: * Rock (geology), a naturally occurring solid aggregate of minerals or mineraloids * Rock music, a genre of popular music Rock or Rocks may also refer to: Places United Kingdom * Rock, Caerphilly, a location in Wale ...

and

pop music Pop music is a genre of popular music that originated in its modern form during the mid-1950s in the United States and the United Kingdom.S. Frith, W. Straw, and J. Street, eds, ''iarchive:cambridgecompani00frit, The Cambridge Companion to Pop ...

band Band or BAND may refer to: Places *Bánd, a village in Hungary * Band, Iran, a village in Urmia County, West Azerbaijan Province, Iran * Band, Mureș, a commune in Romania * Band-e Majid Khan, a village in Bukan County, West Azerbaijan Province, ...

based in New York City. The band consisted of

keyboardist A keyboardist or keyboard player is a musician who plays keyboard instruments. Until the early 1960s musicians who played keyboards were generally classified as either pianists or organists. Since the mid-1960s, a plethora of new musical instru ...

Michael Brown,

bassist A bassist (also known as a bass player or bass guitarist) is a musician who plays a bass instrument such as a double bass (upright bass, contrabass, wood bass), bass guitar (electric bass, acoustic bass), keyboard bass (synth bass) or a low br ...

vocalist Singing is the art of creating music with the voice. It is the oldest form of musical expression, and the human voice can be considered the first musical instrument. The definition of singing varies across sources. Some sources define singi ...

Ian Lloyd,

guitarist A guitarist (or a guitar player) is a person who plays the guitar. Guitarists may play a variety of guitar family instruments such as classical guitars, acoustic guitars, electric guitars, and bass guitars. Some guitarists accompany themselve ...

Steve Love, and

drummer A drummer is a percussionist who creates music using drums. Most contemporary western music ensemble, bands that play Rock music, rock, Pop music, pop, jazz, or Contemporary R&B, R&B music include a drummer for purposes including timekeepi ...

Bryan Madey, and had a Number 1 hit with a cover of

Hot Chocolate Hot Chocolate are a British soul band formed by Errol Brown and Tony Wilson. The group had at least one hit song every year on the UK Singles Chart from 1970 to 1984. Their hits include " You Sexy Thing", a UK number two which also made ...

's " Brother Louie."

Band history

Ian Lloyd (born Lloyd Buonconsiglio, 1947,

Seattle Seattle ( ) is the most populous city in the U.S. state of Washington and in the Pacific Northwest region of North America. With a population of 780,995 in 2024, it is the 18th-most populous city in the United States. The city is the cou ...

) and Michael Brown (b. Michael Lookofsky, April 25, 1949, Brooklyn) were introduced by their fathers, Peter Buonconsiglio and

Harry Lookofsky Harry William Lookofsky (1 October 1913 – 8 June 1998) was an American jazz violinist. He was also the father of keyboardist-songwriter Michael Brown, who most notably was a founding member of the Left Banke and Stories. Early life and fa ...

, two old friends who had worked together for years as session

violin The violin, sometimes referred to as a fiddle, is a wooden chordophone, and is the smallest, and thus highest-pitched instrument (soprano) in regular use in the violin family. Smaller violin-type instruments exist, including the violino picc ...

ists. Lloyd had been singing for years and had attracted local notice

recording A record, recording or records may refer to: An item or collection of data Computing * Record (computer science), a data structure ** Record, or row (database), a set of fields in a database related to one entity ** Boot sector or boot record, re ...

as Lloyd London. Brown had already experienced substantial mainstream success, having led and performed with his group

The Left Banke The Left Banke was an American baroque pop band, formed in New York City in 1965. They are best remembered for their two U.S. hit singles, "Walk Away Renée" and "Pretty Ballerina". The band often used what the Music journalism, music press refer ...

, which had made the

U.S. The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 contiguous ...

charts A chart (sometimes known as a graph) is a graphical representation for data visualization, in which "the data is represented by symbols, such as bars in a bar chart, lines in a line chart, or slices in a pie chart". A chart can represent t ...

with the Brown-penned singles " Walk Away Renee" (No. 5, 1966) and "

Pretty Ballerina "Pretty Ballerina" is a song written by pianist Michael Brown that was released as a single by his band The Left Banke in December 1966. It peaked at number 15 on the ''Billboard'' Hot 100 chart and number 4 on the Canadian '' RPM'' chart. Co ...

" (No. 15, 1967). The two set about becoming a

Beatles The Beatles were an English Rock music, rock band formed in Liverpool in 1960. The core lineup of the band comprised John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr. They are widely regarded as the Cultural impact of the Beatle ...

que band. They recruited New Yorkers Steve Love and Brian Madey and located an interested

record label "Big Three" music labels A record label or record company is a brand or trademark of Sound recording and reproduction, music recordings and music videos, or the company that owns it. Sometimes, a record label is also a Music publisher, ...

Kama Sutra The ''Kama Sutra'' (; , , ; ) is an ancient Indian Hindu Sanskrit text on sexuality, eroticism and emotional fulfillment. Attributed to Vātsyāyana, the ''Kamasutra'' is neither exclusively nor predominantly a sex manual on sex positions ...

. A self-titled

album An album is a collection of audio recordings (e.g., music) issued on a medium such as compact disc (CD), Phonograph record, vinyl (record), audio tape (like 8-track cartridge, 8-track or Cassette tape, cassette), or digital distribution, dig ...

and a single – "I'm Coming Home" (No. 42, 1972) – followed. Afterward, the band started work on their second LP with producer

Eddie Kramer Edwin H. Kramer (born 19 April 1942) is a South African-born recording producer and engineer. He has collaborated with several artists now in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, including Jimi Hendrix, the Beatles, David Bowie, the Rolling Stones, L ...

, ''About Us'' (1973). After the album's release, Brown left the band to pursue another project. ''About Us'' did relatively well, but it did not initially include the group's new single, "Brother Louie." The song about a black woman and her white boyfriend had been a UK hit for

earlier that year. (The group's soon-to-be new bassist,

Kenny Aaronson Kenny Aaronson (born April 14, 1952, in Brooklyn, New York) is an American bass guitar player. He has recorded or performed with several notable artists such as Bob Dylan, Rick Derringer, Billy Idol, Joan Jett and the Blackhearts, Foghat, Samm ...

, was responsible for the Motown-like bass line that helped give the song its funky character.) Once issued as the Stories' fifth single, it became a big hit, reaching No. 1 in the

United States The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...

. It spent two weeks at No. 1 and remained on the Billboard chart for 18 weeks, with an

R.I.A.A. The Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) is a trade organization that represents the music recording industry in the United States. Its members consist of record labels and distributors that the RIAA says "create, manufacture, and/o ...

gold disc 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 ...

awarded on August 22, 1973. A new version of the LP was issued which did include the hit single, and the album proceeded to sell well. In some cases, old copies of the LP which did not include the single were shipped inside album covers that did list the single. Lloyd did remain with Stories for one more album – ''Traveling Underground'' (1973) before leaving the group. Bassist Kenny Aaronson (b. April 14, 1952,

Brooklyn Brooklyn is a Boroughs of New York City, borough of New York City located at the westernmost end of Long Island in the New York (state), State of New York. Formerly an independent city, the borough is coextensive with Kings County, one of twelv ...

) (formerly of

Dust Dust is made of particle size, fine particles of solid matter. On Earth, it generally consists of particles in the atmosphere that come from various sources such as soil lifted by wind (an aeolian processes, aeolian process), Types of volcan ...

), who had performed bass on the "Brother Louie" cover, and keyboardist

Ken Bichel Ken Bichel is an American actor, composer, conductor, pianist, and synthesizer musician. Musical career Bichel attended the Juilliard School where he graduated with a master's degree in piano performance in 1969. While at Juilliard he met Gersh ...

(b. 1945,

Detroit Detroit ( , ) is the List of municipalities in Michigan, most populous city in the U.S. state of Michigan. It is situated on the bank of the Detroit River across from Windsor, Ontario. It had a population of 639,111 at the 2020 United State ...

) stepped in to fill the void. The new group made the ''Billboard'' Hot 100 with "Mammy Blue" (No. 50, 1973) and "If It Feels Good, Do It" which was a cover of a song by the band

Climax Climax may refer to: Language arts * Climax (narrative), the point of highest tension in a narrative work * Climax (rhetoric), a figure of speech that lists items in order of importance Biology * Climax community, a biological community th ...

(No. 88, 1974). Before the group's break-up, Love left and was replaced by Richie Ranno. Lloyd has since recorded several solo albums and done

studio A studio is a space set aside for creative work of any kind, including art, dance, music and theater. The word ''studio'' is derived from the , from , from ''studere'', meaning to study or zeal. Types Art The studio of any artist, esp ...

work for Foreigner,

Fotomaker Fotomaker was a power pop group from Long Island, NY, Long Island, New York who released three albums between 1978 and 1979. History The band was formed in 1977 by bassist Gene Cornish and drummer Dino Danelli, former members of The Rascals (a ...

, and

Peter Frampton Peter Kenneth Frampton (born 22 April 1950) is an English-American guitarist, singer, and songwriter who rose to prominence as a member of the rock bands the Herd and Humble Pie. Later in his career, Frampton found significant success as a s ...

. Lloyd was also one of the first artists to perform songs written by

Bryan Adams Bryan Guy Adams (born November 5, 1959) is a British and Canadian singer-songwriter, musician, record producer, and photographer. He is estimated to have sold between 75 million and more than 100 million album, records and Single (music), si ...

that Adams would later record himself, which led to the 1984 formation of Fast Forward, which included Lloyd and several other persons directly or indirectly associated with Adams. The resulting album, '' Living in Fiction'', featured several of Adams' songs.Including "Tonight", which originally appeared on Adams'

You Want It You Got It ''You Want It, You Got It'' is the second studio album by Canadian singer-songwriter Bryan Adams, released on July 28, 1981 by A&M Records. Background and recording This was the album that created Adams' signature sound, which he has maintai ...

, plus three other songs co-written with Jim Vallance and not otherwise recorded by Adams. See Robert Eckeryd
List of Bryan Adams Songs Co-Written for Other Acts
Brown went on to form The Beckies, another Beatlesque band. Love reappeared in the early 1980s as Landscape. Madey, after a two album stay with the Earl Slick Band, provided accompaniment for

Peggy Lee Norma Deloris Egstrom (May 26, 1920 – January 21, 2002), known professionally as Peggy Lee, was an American jazz and popular music singer, songwriter, and actress whose career spanned seven decades. From her beginning as a vocalist on local r ...

. Aaronson has remained busy. He was co-founder (with

Carmine Appice Carmine Appice ( ; born December 15, 1946) is an American rock drummer. He is best known for his associations with Vanilla Fudge; Cactus; the power trio Beck, Bogert & Appice; Rod Stewart; King Kobra; and Blue Murder. He is the older brother ...

's brother Vinnie) of Axis, and he did sessions for

Hall & Oates Daryl Hall & John Oates, commonly known as Hall & Oates, were an American Rock music, rock duo formed in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, in 1970. Daryl Hall was generally the lead vocalist, while John Oates primarily supplied electric guitar and ba ...

Billy Squier William Haislip Squier (, born May 12, 1950) is an American musician, singer, and songwriter who had a string of arena rock and crossover hits in the early 1980s. His best-known songs include " The Stroke", " Lonely Is the Night", " My Kinda Love ...

, ex-

Mountain A mountain is an elevated portion of the Earth's crust, generally with steep sides that show significant exposed bedrock. Although definitions vary, a mountain may differ from a plateau in having a limited summit area, and is usually higher t ...

Leslie West Leslie Abel West (born Weinstein; October 22, 1945 – December 23, 2020) was an American guitarist, singer and songwriter. He was the co-founder, guitarist and co-lead vocalist of the rock band Mountain. West was named the 245th greatest guit ...

Foghat Foghat are an English Rock music, rock band formed in London in 1971. The band is known for the use of electric slide guitar in its music. Their best known song is the 1975 hit "Slow Ride". The band has released 17 studio albums, including ei ...

Bob Dylan Bob Dylan (legally Robert Dylan; born Robert Allen Zimmerman, May 24, 1941) is an American singer-songwriter. Described as one of the greatest songwriters of all time, Dylan has been a major figure in popular culture over his nearly 70-year ...

Tom Guerra Tom Guerra (born 1963) is an American guitarist, songwriter, and vintage guitar preservationist. He has been a member of Mambo Sons and Dirty Bones Band, has appeared as a guest on recordings by other notable artists, and has released albums unde ...

, and

Rick Derringer Richard Dean Zehringer (August 5, 1947 – May 26, 2025), known professionally as Rick Derringer, was an American musician, producer and songwriter. He gained success in the 1960s with his band, the McCoys. Their debut single, " Hang On Sloopy", ...

. Bichel has done session work, and so has Love. Ranno found later success as a member of

Starz Starz (stylized in all caps as STARZ; pronounced "stars") is an American pay television network owned by Starz Entertainment, and is the flagship property of Starz Inc. Launched in 1994 as a multiplex service of what is now Starz Encore, ...

Raven Records Raven Records was an Australian record label that specialised in retrospectives and reissues or recordings by American, British and Australian artists. Raven Records was established in 1979 by Glenn A. Baker, Kevin Mueller and Peter Shillito ...

released ''Stories'' and ''About Us'' on a single CD, including the bonus track "Another Love" (for its time a fairly suggestive song about

bisexuality Bisexuality is romantic attraction, sexual attraction, or Human sexual activity, sexual behavior toward both males and females. It may also be defined as the attraction to more than one gender, to people of both the same and different gender, ...

), being the last single by the group, released in 1974. A re-recording featuring elements of the original Hot Chocolate version and their cover of "Brother Louie" featuring Ian Lloyd and produced by Reggie Watts is used as the theme song for the American TV series '' Louie'', starring Louis C.K.

Discography

Albums

Singles

Notes

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Stories American pop music groups Kama Sutra Records artists Musical groups established in 1972 Musical groups from New York City Rock music groups from New York (state)