Alex Henderson

The Ohio Players
Everybody Up

Funk was popular all over the United States during the 1970s, but one state that was especially famous for its hardcore funk bands was Ohio—which gave us the likes of Slave, Zapp, Bootsy’s Rubber Band, Lakeside, the Dazz Band (originally Kinsman Dazz), Sun and Midnight Star. And Ohio, of course, was the home of Dayton’s legendary Ohio Players. Originally called the Ohio Untouchables, the Ohio Players were formed in 1959 and had a minor hit in 1968 with the Sam & Dave-ish “Trespassin’” (which reached #50 R&B in Billboard). But it wasn’t until the 1970s that they became well-known.

Signed to Westbound Records, the Ohio Players enjoyed a few hits in the early 1970s—most notably, “Funky Worm” (which made it to #1 on Billboard’s R&B singles chart), although “Pain” and “Pleasure” were minor hits. It was after the Ohio Players signed with Mercury Records in 1974, however, that they reached the height of their popularity and burned up the charts with a string of major hits that included “Fire,” “Skin Tight” (a #2 R&B smash in Billboard), “Love Rollercoaster,” “Jive Turkey,” “Who’d She Coo,” “I Want to Be Free,” “Fopp” and “O-H-I-O.”

“Fire,” “Love Rollercoaster,” “Sweet Sticky Thing” and “Who’d She Coo” all made it to #1 on Billboard’s R&B singles chart, and “Fire” and “Love Rollercoaster” were also #1 pop hits. Three of their Mercury albums (Skin Tight and Fire in 1974 and Honey in 1975) soared to #1 on Billboard’s R&B albums chart and were certified platinum in the United States for sales of over one million copies, and 1976’s Contradiction was a #1 R&B album that went gold for U.S. sales exceeding half a million. No doubt about it: the Ohio Players were huge in the mid-1970s.

But the music industry can be volatile, to say the least—and by the time they recorded Everybody Up for Arista Records in 1979 (1978’s Jass-Ay-Lay-Dee was their last album for Mercury), the Ohio Players were no longer having the gold and platinum sales they had enjoyed several years earlier. Nonetheless, they still had their hardcore fans, who enabled Everybody Up to reach #19 R&B in Billboard. And the title track, which was released as a single, made it to #33 on Billboard’s R&B singles chart.

The Players had numerous lineup changes along the way. On Everybody Up, the lineup consists of Leroy “Sugarfoot” Bonner (born March 14, 1943) on lead vocals and guitar, Billy Beck on lead vocals and keyboards, Clarence “Satch” Satchell (born April 15, 1940) on saxophone and background vocals, Ralph “Pee Wee” Middlebrooks (born August 20, 1939) and Marvin “Merv” Pierce on trumpet, Clarence “Chet” Willis on guitar and background vocals, Marshall “Rock” Jones (born January 1, 1941) on bass and James “Diamond” Williams (born March 27, 1950) on drums and background vocals. And with that lineup, the Ohio Players made a concerted effort to be more disco-ish than they had been in the past.  Some people blamed the popularity of disco on the Players’ commercial decline, which is a questionable claim considering that in 1978 and 1979, hardcore gutbucket funk (as opposed to disco-funk) was still huge. Rick James, Parliament/Funkadelic, the Gap Band, Cameo, Con-Funk-Shun and the Bar-Kays (just to give a few examples) were selling plenty of albums at the end of the 1970s. Nonetheless, the Players were determined to try something different, and they bring a major awareness of disco to their funk on danceable grooves such as “Make Me Feel,” “Something Special,” “Say It” and the title track. 

“Take de Funk Off, Fly” and the bluesy “Don’t Say Goodbye” are the album’s least disco-minded offerings, but Everybody Up is disco-minded more often than not—and stylistically, much of the material inspires comparisons to Earth, Wind & Fire’s “Boogie Wonderland” and Kool & the Gang’s “Ladies Night,” two of the big disco-funk hits of 1979. But that is not to say the Ohio Players are any less distinctive on Everybody Up than they are on Skin Tight, Fire or Honey. The lead vocals of Bonner and Beck are as recognizable as ever, and the Ohio Players still sound like the Ohio Players just as EWF still sound like EWF on “Boogie Wonderland” (which was their most overtly disco-flavored hit).

Everybody Up turned out to be the Ohio Players’ only album for Arista. In 1981, they resurfaced on the Boardwalk label with Tenderness, which was followed by another Boardwalk album, Ouch!, that same year. After that, the Players recorded two more albums in the 1980s: 1984’s Graduation on Century Vista and 1988’s Back (a #55 R&B album in Billboard) on the Seattle-based Track label. The Players never recaptured the gold and platinum sales of their mid-1970s heyday, but they continued to perform live in the 1990s, 2000s and early 2010s and have been sampled extensively in hip-hop. In fact, some of the Players teamed up with Los Angeles-based rapper Madrok in 1992 for a hip-hop remake of “Skin Tight” (which was the lead single from the MC’s Knowledge to Noise album on AVC Entertainment).

2012 saw the release of a new Ohio Players single titled “This Is Your Night.” Sadly, many people who were part of the band over the years have passed away, including Satchell in 1995, Middlebrooks in 1996, guitarist Robert Ward (born October 15, 1938) in 2008 and drummer Cornelius Johnson (b. July 12, 1937) in 2009. Ward and Johnson were both members of the original 1959 lineup, and Ward left in 1965 (the year after Bonner joined). On January 26, 2013, funk lovers all over the world mourned the passing of Bonner, who sang lead on so many of the Players’ 1970s smashes (including “Skin Tight,” “Fire,” “Love Rollercoaster,” “Funky Worm,” “I Want to Be Free” and “Fopp”) and was a prominent contributor to Everybody Up.

But the Ohio Players’ sizeable catalogue remains. They will continue to be recognized as vital contributors to Midwestern funk, and Everybody Up demonstrates that in 1979, they maintained their funkiness while having a serious case of disco fever.

—Alex Henderson, November 2013

Alex Henderson’s work has appeared in Billboard, Spin, Creem, The L.A. Weekly, JazzTimes, Jazziz, Salon.com, AlterNet, Cash Box, HITS, CD Review, Skin Two, Black Beat, The Pasadena Weekly, Black Radio Exclusive (BRE), Music Connection, Latin Style, The New York City Jazz Record, Jazz Inside Magazine and many other well-known publications. Henderson (alexvhenderson.com) also contributed several thousand CD reviews to The All Music Guide’s popular website and series of music reference books.