By 1959, the trio had developed a reputation for powerful live performances, and signed for booking with General Artists Corporation. Gordy composed that tune with Tyran Carlo this was the partnership behind several of Jackie Wilson’s biggest hits, including ‘Lonely Teardrops.’Īnd it was an improvisation from ‘Lonely Teardrops’ which gave the Isleys their breakthrough. Coincidentally, the last of these was where a young Detroit songwriter, Berry Gordy Jr., also placed his early work: ‘Ooh Shucks’ by the Five Stars. In New York, the brothers hustled for the big time, recording for such independent companies as Teenage, Cindy and George Goldner’s Gone and Mark-X imprints.

In 1954, the fourth brother, Vernon, was killed in a car accident. As youngsters, the Isleys had grown up with gospel music, performing as a quartet in churches in Ohio and Kentucky. Aged 15, 17 and 18, respectively, they left their hometown of Cincinnati, Ohio, aboard a Greyhound bus, bound for New York. On April 17, 1956, Ronald, Rudolph and O’Kelly Isley made a career move. The Isleys’ story began innocently enough.

The sensation is the same three years later when the Isleys deliver another message from hell ‘Twist And Shout’ and a further five years on, when they record ‘Got To Have You Back’ in Motown’s Studio A in Detroit.Īnd in the late 1960s, when the Isleys finally became self-sufficient with their own successful record label, T-Neck, they continued to spread their deranged gospel with the likes of ‘It’s Your Thing.’ Of course, where there’s a hit, there’s also a writ, but more of that later. He sounds like a man twice his age, going over the edge and taking everyone else with him. The brothers’ first case for certification is ‘Shout,’ cut in New York City when lead tenor Ronald Isley was merely 18.

And that’s why the Isleys cast a spell over a generation of rock & roll musicians worldwide.

The essential isley brothers songs