Old School Cool is an occasional feature that, for those of a certain age, retraces the journeys of a musical lifetime in a way that keeps the memories flooding back. This time it is that timeless R & B classic ‘And The Beat Goes On’ from the 1980 self-titled platinum selling album by The Whispers. It’s the track by which many still identify the band yet at the time of its release The Whispers had already been in the business for over seventeen years. It was in 1963 that The Whispers began their legendary career. Formed in Los Angeles by twins Walter and Wallace Scott, Nicholas Caldwell, Marcus Hutson and Gordy Harmon, their big break came when they were discovered by Lou Bedell of Dore Records. It was Bedell who came up with the name of The Whispers and the group recorded nine singles on the Dore label between 1964 and 1967. At that time they were working predominately in the Bay Area and their fame grew while performing in a series of what was known as ‘The Battle of the Bands’ where they competed against other local acts. In 1969 they released ‘The Time Will Come’ for the small L.A. based label Soul Clock Records and in 1971, following a switch to Janus Records, enjoyed their first Top 10 R&B hit with ‘Seems Like I Gotta Do Wrong’. In that same year Gordy Harmon decided to leave the group. Leaveil Degree who, previously, had sung with The Friends of Distinction replaced him.
Over the next two decades The Whispers produced a string of hits and emerged as one of their generations leading protagonists of quiet storm. They were the first artists featured on the newly formed Soul Train label and the bands seventies albums ‘One For The Money’ and ‘Open Up Your Love’ both caught the eye. Even better, their 1978 release ‘Headlights’ produced two Billboard Top 20 R&B chart singles, ‘(Let's Go) All the Way’ and ‘(Olivia) Lost and Turned Out’. It was a clear breakthrough as although The Whispers had scored a couple top ten hits prior to this album most of their songs, in spite of their quality, had floundered in the latter half of the Top 100.
That said, by 1980, and the release of the album ‘The Whispers’, the band was at a low ebb. Soul Train Records had morphed into Solar Records and, despite being the flagship act of manager Dick Griffey, The Whispers had, in common with other soul bands of the time, become sidelined by the disco boom that continued to dominate the charts. Solar Records had expanded its roster to include Shalamar, and Dynasty and most of the label's hits came courtesy of songwriter/producer Leon F Sylvers III. He was assigned to work with the group and chose for them a song he had co-written with Stephen Shockley and Willam Shelby called ‘And the Beat Goes On’. As a single it went on to sell a million, enjoyed 5 weeks at number one on the R&B charts and climbed to 19 on the pop charts in the spring of 1980.
I am indebted to Ian Phillips for coming up with the idea for this feature on ‘And the Beat Goes On’. Ian writes some great music related Twitter posts and is well worth a follow.