Ohio Players


Ohio Players were an American funk band, most popular in the 1970s. They are best known for their songs "Fire" and "Love Rollercoaster"; as well as for their erotic album covers that featured nude or nearly nude women. Many of the women were models featured in Playboy.
The singles "Funky Worm", "Skin Tight", "Fire", and "Love Rollercoaster"; as well as their albums Skin Tight, Fire, and Honey, were awarded Gold certifications.
On August 17, 2013, Ohio Players were inducted into the inaugural class of the Rhythm and Blues Music Hall of Fame that took place at Cleveland State University in Cleveland, Ohio.

History

The band formed in Dayton, Ohio, United States, in 1959 as the Ohio Untouchables and initially included members Robert Ward, Marshall "Rock" Jones, Clarence "Satch" Satchell, Cornelius Johnson, and Ralph "Pee Wee" Middlebrooks. They were best known at the time as a backing group for The Falcons.
Ward had proved to be an unreliable leader, who would sometimes walk off the stage during gigs, forcing the group to stop playing. Eventually, the group vowed to keep playing even after he left. Ward and Jones got into a fistfight in 1964, after which the group broke up.
Ward found new backups, and the group's core members returned to Dayton. They replaced Ward with 21-year-old Leroy "Sugarfoot" Bonner, who would become the group's front man, and added Gregory Webster. To accommodate Bonner's musical style preferences for the group and to avoid competing with Ward, the group changed their format. By 1965, the group had renamed themselves Ohio Players, reflecting its members' self-perceptions as musicians and as ladies' men.
The group added two more singers, Bobby Lee Fears and Dutch Robinson, and became the house band for the New York-based Compass Records. In 1967, they added vocalist Helena Ferguson Kilpatrick.
The group disbanded again in 1970. After again re-forming with a line-up including Bonner, Satchell, Middlebrooks, Jones, Webster, trumpeter Bruce Napier, vocalist Charles Dale Allen, trombonist Marvin Pierce, and keyboardist Walter "Junie" Morrison, the Players had a minor hit on the Detroit-based Westbound label with "Pain", which reached the Top 40 of the Billboard R&B chart. James Johnson joined the group at this time as vocalist and saxophonist. Dale Allen shared co-lead vocals on some of the early Westbound material, although he was not credited on their albums Pain and Pleasure. It was at Westbound Records where the group met George Clinton, who admired their music. The two albums' avant-garde covers featured a spiked-black leather-bikini clad, bald model Pat "Running Bear" Evans, who would later grace additional Ohio Players albums, including Climax, Ecstasy, and Rattlesnake.
The band's first big hit single was "Funky Worm", which reached No. 1 on the Billboard R&B chart and peaked at #15 on the Hot 100 on 26 May 1973. It sold over one million copies and was awarded a gold disc by the R.I.A.A. in May 1973. The band signed with Mercury Records in 1974. By then, their line-up had changed again, with keyboardist Billy Beck instead of Morrison and Jimmy "Diamond" Williams on drums instead of Webster. On later album releases, they added second guitarist/vocalist Clarence "Chet" Willis and conguero Robert "Kuumba" Jones. Meanwhile, keyboardist Walter "Junie" Morrison recorded three albums on his own before joining Funkadelic as the force behind their hit One Nation Under a Groove. An internet story in advance of a June, 2017 concert indicated that Billy Beck, Jimmy "Diamond" Williams, Clarence "Chet" Willis, and Robert "Rumba" Jones are still performing.
The band had seven Top 40 hits between 1973 and 1976. These included "Fire" and "Love Rollercoaster". The group also took on saxophonist James Johnson. The group's last big hit was "Who'd She Coo?" a No. 1 R&B hit in August 1976. It was their only success in the United Kingdom, where it peaked at No. 43 on the UK Singles Chart in July 1976. Their title track "Ecstasy" from the 1973 album "Ecstasy " was sampled by "Jay-Z" on "Brooklyn's Finest" featuring "The Notorious B.I.G." from the 1996 album "Reasonable Doubt".
In 1979, three members of the group went on to form Shadow, which released three albums. A reconfigured Ohio Players recorded across the 1980s, enjoying a minor hit single with "Sweat". They also released three albums in that decade, Tenderness, Ouch! and Graduation. Another collection, Orgasm, followed in 1993.
In August 2013, the Ohio Players were inducted into the Rhythm and Blues Hall of Fame at the Waetjen Auditorium of Cleveland State University as part of the inaugural class.

Personnel

Classic lineup
Other members

ImageSize = width:1000 height:auto barincrement:18
PlotArea = left:95 bottom:100 top:0 right:10
Alignbars = justify
DateFormat = mm/dd/yyyy
Period = from:01/01/1959 till:01/01/2020
TimeAxis = orientation:horizontal format:yyyy
Legend = orientation:vertical position:bottom columns:4
ScaleMajor = increment:4 start:1959
ScaleMinor = unit:year increment:1 start:1960
Colors =
id:vocals value:red legend:Vocals
id:wind value:gray legend:Wind_instruments
id:guitar value:green legend:Guitar
id:keys value:purple legend:Keyboards
id:bass value:blue legend:Bass
id:drums value:orange legend:Drums
id:perc value:claret legend:Percussion
id:album value:black legend:Studio_album
BarData=
bar:Robert text: Robert Ward
bar:Sugarfoot text: Sugarfoot Bonner
bar:Bobby text: Bobby Lee Fears
bar:Charles text: Charles Dale Allen
bar:James text: James Johnson
bar:Odeen text: Odeen Mays
bar:Peewee text: Pee Wee Middlebrooks
bar:Satch text: Satch Satchell
bar:Merv text: Merv Pierce
bar:Bruce text: Bruce Napier
bar:Chet text: Chet Willis
bar:Rock text: Rock Jones
bar:Darwin text: Darwin Dortch
bar:Dutch text: Dutch Robinson
bar:Junie text: Junie Morrison
bar:Billy text: Billy Beck
bar:Ronald text: Ronald Nooks
bar:Cornelius text: Cornelius Johnson
bar:Greg text: Greg Webster
bar:Diamond text: Diamond Williams
bar:Kuumba text: Kuumba Jones
PlotData =
width:11
bar:Rock from:01/01/1959 till:07/01/1984 color:bass
bar:Peewee from:01/01/1959 till:07/01/1984 color:wind
bar:Satch from:01/01/1959 till:09/01/1979 color:wind
bar:Cornelius from:01/01/1959 till:06/01/1963 color:drums
bar:Robert from:01/01/1959 till:06/01/1963 color:vocals
bar:Sugarfoot from:06/01/1963 till:01/01/2013 color:vocals
bar:Greg from:06/01/1963 till:01/01/1974 color:drums
bar:Dutch from:06/01/1963 till:06/01/1970 color:keys
bar:Bobby from:06/01/1963 till:06/01/1970 color:vocals
bar:Merv from:06/01/1970 till:06/01/1982 color:wind
bar:Bruce from:06/01/1970 till:01/01/1974 color:wind
bar:Junie from:06/01/1970 till:01/01/1974 color:keys
bar:Charles from:06/01/1970 till:06/01/1972 color:vocals
bar:James from:06/01/1972 till:01/01/1974 color:vocals
bar:Diamond from:01/01/1974 till:end color:drums
bar:Chet from:01/01/1974 till:end color:guitar
bar:Kuumba from:01/01/1974 till:end color:perc
bar:Billy from:01/01/1974 till:02/01/1988 color:keys
bar:Billy from:06/01/2009 till:end color:keys
bar:Darwin from:07/01/1984 till:end color:bass
bar:Ronald from:02/01/1988 till:06/01/2009 color:keys
bar:Odeen from:01/01/1995 till:end color:vocals
width:7
bar:Satch from:01/01/1959 till:09/01/1979 color:guitar
bar:Diamond from:01/01/1974 till:end color:perc
width:3
bar:Satch from:01/01/1959 till:09/01/1979 color:vocals
bar:Robert from:01/01/1959 till:06/01/1963 color:guitar
bar:Sugarfoot from:06/01/1963 till:01/01/2013 color:guitar
bar:Dutch from:06/01/1963 till:06/01/1970 color:vocals
bar:James from:06/01/1972 till:01/01/1974 color:wind
bar:Diamond from:01/01/1974 till:end color:vocals
bar:Chet from:01/01/1974 till:end color:vocals
bar:Billy from:01/01/1974 till:02/01/1988 color:vocals
bar:Billy from:06/01/2009 till:end color:vocals
bar:Darwin from:07/01/1984 till:end color:vocals
bar:Odeen from:01/01/1995 till:end color:keys
LineData =
at:05/01/1969 layer:back
at:02/01/1972
at:12/01/1972
at:09/01/1973
at:04/01/1974
at:11/01/1974
at:08/16/1975
at:03/01/1976
at:03/01/1977
at:12/01/1977
at:08/01/1978
at:01/01/1979
at:01/01/1981
at:12/01/1981
at:06/01/1984
at:08/01/1988

Deaths

Studio albums

Live albums

Singles

Notes