Kool & the Gang is an American R&B, soul and funk band formed in Jersey City, New Jersey, in 1964. Its founding members include brothers Robert "Kool" Bell and Ronald Bell (also known as "Khalis Bayyan"), Dennis "Dee Tee" Thomas, Robert "Spike" Mickens, Charles Smith, George "Funky" Brown, Woodrow "Woody" Sparrow and Ricky Westfield. They have undergone numerous changes in personnel and have explored many musical styles throughout their history, including jazz, rhythm and blues, soul, funk, disco, rock and pop music. The group changed their name several times. Settling on Kool & the Gang, the group signed to De-Lite Records and released their debut album Kool and the Gang in 1969.
The band's first mainstream success came with the release of their fourth album Wild and Peaceful (1973); it contained the US top-ten singles "Jungle Boogie" and "Hollywood Swinging". The band entered a period of decline before they reached a second commercial peak between 1979 and 1986 following their partnership with Brazilian musician and producer Eumir Deodato and the addition of singer James "J.T." Taylor to the line-up. Their most successful albums of the time include Ladies' Night (1979), Celebrate! (1980) and Emergency (1984), the latter being their highest-selling album, with two million copies sold in the US. Their hit singles during the period include "Ladies' Night" (1979), the US No. 1 "Celebration" (1980), "Get Down on It" (1981), "Joanna" (1983), "Misled" (1984) and "Cherish" (1985). The group has continued to perform worldwide, including as a supporting act for Van Halen in 2012 and their fiftieth-anniversary tour in 2014.
Kool & the Gang have won numerous awards, including two Grammy Awards, seven American Music Awards and, in 2006, a Music Business Association Chairman's Award for artistic achievement. The group has been inducted into the New Jersey Hall of Fame and been given a MOBO Award for Outstanding Achievement, the Soul Train Legend Award, the Marian Anderson Award and a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. In 2007, the group was inducted into the Vocal Group Hall of Fame. Throughout 2018, the Bells, Brown and Taylor were also inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame and the group were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2024. Their discography includes 23 studio albums and nearly 70 singles. They have sold 7.5 million and 4.5 million Recording Industry Association of America-certified albums and singles, respectively, in the United States. Worldwide, they have sold over 70 million albums.
History 1964–1972: Formation and signing with De-Lite The band formed in Jersey City, New Jersey, in 1964 when seven school friends decided to perform together as an instrumental jazz and soul group named the Jazziacs. Among them were Robert "Kool" Bell on bass, his brother Ronald Bell on keyboards, both from Youngstown, Ohio originally, Robert "Spike" Mickens on trumpet, Dennis "Dee Tee" Thomas on saxophone, Ricky West on keyboards, George Brown on drums, and Charles Smith on guitar. Except Smith, all of them attended Lincoln High School in Jersey City. Robert Bell had given himself the nickname "Kool" as a way of adapting to the street gangs in his neighborhood after moving from Ohio. The Bells' father Bobby and uncle Tommy were boxers. They moved to New York to train and lived in the same apartment building as Thelonious Monk, who became Robert's godfather. Miles Davis would drop by because he wanted to be a boxer.
Their first gigs took place as the opening act to a weekly jazz night held in a local theatre every Sunday. They also played occasionally with McCoy Tyner, Pharoah Sanders, and Leon Thomas during their early years as a group. They then had several name changes, including "the Soul Town Band" and "the New Dimensions". They played Motown covers as the backing musicians for Soul Town, a small Jersey City-based organization similar to Motown. In 1967, they became regular performers at the Blue Note Lounge in Jersey, where one of the emcees advertised them with a new name, Kool & the Flames. However, since their manager, Gene Redd, advised against taking this name to avoid confusion with James Brown's band, the Famous Flames, the band settled on Kool & the Gang instead.
After selecting the new band name and line-up, Kool & the Gang signed a recording deal with Redd's new independent label, De-Lite Records. Redd wrote: "I discovered these eight super talented incomparable young musicians, [...and...] I immediately realized that their potential would earn them success unknown by most musicians". The group entered the studio and recorded their debut album, the all-instrumental Kool and the Gang (1969), with Redd as a producer, arranger, conductor, and partial songwriter. It would be their only album with guitarist Woody Sparrow. The album peaked at No. 46 on the Billboard R&B chart. Around this time, the group began to develop their stage performance after they witnessed a set by Willie (Feaster) and the Mighty Magnificents which, according to Robert Bell, "Blew us away[...] We thought, 'Wow, if we want to be in show business, we have to change our act. We can't just stand up there and play'." Also at this time, the group were asked to deliver songs with vocals. Despite Bell recalling the group sounding "real ragged" with lyrics at first, "Bit by bit we gained in confidence... we kinda learnt how to sing as we went along."
The group followed their debut with two live albums: Live at the Sex Machine, recorded the year before, and Live at PJ's, both released in 1971. These were their final albums before their amicable split with Redd. Their next album, Music Is the Message, was the first time the group self-produced one of their records. It was released in July 1972, and peaked at No. 25 on the R&B chart. It was followed with Good Times in November, which featured the band backed by a string section. The elements of jazz, rock, and instrumental styles on the record made it difficult for reviewers to categorize the band by genre. Since the album failed to generate the radio exposure the group had hoped for, they began to explore how to build a following without relying on airplay.
1973–1978: First commercial success and low period By the spring of 1973, Kool & the Gang was influenced by the growing disco music scene, driving it to create sound Robert Bell described as "a much harder, funkier, tighter" unit than before. He said band members mostly learned of disco culture from others, and didn't frequent discotheques.
With the change in musical direction came the band's first major commercial success. Their fourth studio album, Wild and Peaceful, went to No. 33 on the album chart. The album was certified "gold" by RIAA for selling 500,000 copies. It also spawned the Top-40 single "Funky Stuff". The album's next two singles, "Jungle Boogie" and "Hollywood Swinging", fared even better by entering the US top 10. This also marked the group's breakthrough to a white audience. The latter two songs sold over one million copies and were certified gold by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA).
Their success continued with Light of Worlds (1974), which contained the hit instrumental "Summer Madness". In October 1974, the group landed a spot on the national television music show Soul Train. In 1975 Kool & the Gang added Larry Gittens from the Stylistics, and released Spirit of the Boogie which contained the top 40 single "Spirit of the Boogie". That was followed by the part-studio part-live release Love & Understanding, in 1976.
By mid-1976, however, Kool & the Gang entered a period of commercial decline. Rolling Stone writer Geoff Himes wrote the fans "frowned on their loose and greasy approach to dance music." Their three albums released during this time, Open Sesame (1976), The Force (1977), and Everybody's Dancin' (1978) failed to generate the same commercial or critical acclaim as their previous records. Bell later said the albums "bent our style a bit, and we didn't feel at home with it". The Force and Everybody's Dancin displayed the group's attempt to adopt disco elements with female vocalists and a string section, but Robert Bell later said the group got "Too fancy and over-creative[...] We got away from the basic Kool & the Gang sound[...] and the public didn't like it". The change in style affected their ability to secure as many dates as before, working "just off and on" during this time. One review for Everybody's Dancin bore the headline, "Kool and the Gang have gone bland." Writer Mike Duffy opined, "They've joined the disco lemmings [...] The edge has gone. Say so long to the raw and raunchy."
During their low period, the group gained some mainstream attention with their contribution of "Open Sesame" to the soundtrack of Saturday Night Fever (1977). "Summer Madness" was also used in Rocky (1976), but not released on its soundtrack album.
1979–1988: J.T. Taylor, Deodato partnership, and commercial peak
By 1979, Kool & the Gang changed musical direction in two distinct ways. After several years of consideration, and at the suggestion of promoter turned SOLAR Records founder Dick Griffey, they brought in a dedicated lead vocalist to become a focal point of their music. James "J.T." Taylor from South Carolina was added; Taylor noted that vocals added more warmth to the songs, especially to ballads, which the group had previously avoided as no vocalist in the group could sing them properly. He recalled some resistance to his arrival from some group members and the female singers they had used on The Force and Everybody's Dancin. The change in style developed further when the group entered a four-album association with Brazilian musician, songwriter, and arranger Eumir Deodato as their producer, who helped them move towards mainstream pop and dance-oriented music with greater emphasis on catchy hooks and chorus lines. The group's first choice, Stevie Wonder, was too busy to work with them. Earl Toon Jr. was added to the group.
Kool & the Gang's first album with Deodato, Ladies' Night, was released in September 1979 and became their most successful album since their formation. This was helped by the hit singles "Too Hot" and "Ladies' Night", which went to No. 5 and No. 8 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart, respectively. In January 1980, Ladies' Night was certified platinum by the RIAA for selling one million copies in the US. Later that year, Celebrate! became a bigger commercial success than Ladies' Night; the lead single "Celebration" remains the band's only single to reach No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 singles chart. The song originated from the lyric "Come on, let's all celebrate" from "Ladies' Night", which inspired Robert Bell to write "an international anthem." The group developed the song on a tour bus after attending the American Music Awards. The song was used in national media coverage for the 1980 World Series, the 1981 Super Bowl, the 1981 NBA Finals, and the 1981 return of the Iran hostages.