Wed tried our hand at our version of disco, drummer George Funky Brown wrote in his 2023 memoir.
Reviews at the time were unsparingly harsh.
Kool and the Ganghave gone bland, theDetroit Free Presswrote in one typical piece on 1978sEverybodys Dancin.
Taylor (middle with red tie) and Kool & the Gang winning the fashion game yet again on the set of their 1982 video for “Hi de Hi, Hi de Ho.”Gary Gershoff/Getty Images
Theyve joined the disco lemmings …
The edge has gone.
He said, I think you need a lead singer, Bell tellsRolling Stone.
Theyd never had a frontman.
When we first heard him, we said, This is who we want.
We didnt audition anybody else after that.
But never coming close to the warmth and character of James voice.
TheRock Hallinduction is bittersweet.
We the last of those members, Robert Bell says.
The only ones left are me from the Seventies and Eighties and JT from the Eighties.
Notwithstanding an appearance together at the 2018 Songwriters Hall of Fame, Bell and Taylor lead mostly separate lives.
As a kid, my mind was always like, Whats that sound I heard?
I used to get in trouble playing drums on my school desk.
He moved to Hackensack at age seven and joined his first band, the Electro Five, at 12.
You attempt to act cool because theres girls there, he says.
They came in third, covering the Intruders soul hit Cowboys to Girls.
The kids knew his real dreams.
When I take the sunglasses off, it was like, Are you tired today?
Did you do a show last night?
OK, we wont be bad today, Taylor recalls, laughing.
They knew I was stressed out.
(And yes, more than once, crowds would flock expecting to see theotherJames Taylor.)
Bandmates from this time recall his drive to succeed.
That still sticks with me to this day.
He tried to meet them, but says security wouldnt let him backstage.
In 1978, he got his chance.
Their records werent really selling that much, and it was time for a change, Taylor recalls.
He wasnt a singer that riffed all over the place.
We werent looking for that, Ronald Belltold Red Bullin 2015.
We were so focused on making a record that was going to work and get us back on top …
The record company wanted another hit from us.
Some members resisted the idea of a permanent lead singer.
It was just the magic of that moment with that style of songs, Taylor says.
When they wiped away the horns, it made the song open.
Deodato used to say, You should be able to put your arm through the track.
Still, the diehard fans didnt know what to think.
No one knew it it was new, says Taylor.
People would say, Well, that cant be Kool & the Gang, man.
They messed the sound up.
Until it goes platinum.
Kool & the Gang is a tale of two cities, Gittens says.
There was just so much appeal.
By the second album [with Taylor], everybody showed up in limos, adds Ippolito.
He brought the Eighties, adds Bell.
It was a perfect union.
Perhaps no song represents bringing the Eighties more than 1980s Celebration.
Mom is really never wrong, right?
Its been played at the Super Bowl and World Series.
Astronauts woke up to it on the International Space Shuttle.
And it was the first song that greeted American hostages returning from Iran in 1981.
In 2021, the Library of Congress added the song to its National Recording Registry.
Its so many different emotional levels of that song.
Even to this day, they put the song in a [birthday] card.
People are sending me my own song!
Tempers and egos flared more frequently, with Taylors position up front as a focal point.
The worst part of success is the wedge that fame could put between two artists, Taylor says.
When it came down to writing songs, we were able to come together.
It started eating away at the fabric of the group.
It all came to a head in 1987 during a Christmas run at Caesars Atlantic City.
As Taylor tells it, he was physically burnt out from all the time on the road.
It was just red.
Taylor went offstage and returned a few times, but the unknown medical issue worsened.
… Only one guy [from the band] came back to see how I was doing.
I knew then that it was done.
Terms were never publicly disclosed.)
They claim I was never really part of the group, and I dont know why theyd say that.
But Ive tried to move on.
They do their thing and I do mine.
I was never salty about it, Bell says.
He wanted to do his own thing.
In 1989, Kool & the Gang releasedSweat,their first album without Taylor in more than a decade.
You know its him from one note, Warren tellsRolling Stone.
JT made it sound like a classic.
He and Regina were two perfect voices coming together on the perfect song for both of them.
His vocals on everything is butter.
But he notes the double-edged sword of being a former member of a globally successful group.
Some people cant let go of that.
Now, he hopes to both release new music and return to performing.
Those are the gratifying things that I still get, he says.
People say, When are you going to retire?
Its a part of my blood.
