Brenda & the Tabulations
Encyclopedia
Brenda & the Tabulations were an American
R&B
group
formed in 1966 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
, originally composed of Brenda Payton, Eddie L. Jackson, Maurice Coates and Jerry Jones.
The group had a series of hit single
s in the late 1960s and early 1970s, mainly in the US
soul charts
mostly on small independent labels, Dionn and Top & Bottom, operated by the group's manager, Gilda Woods. However, two were big US pop
hits, their first release, "Dry Your Eyes" (Pop #20, R&B #2) on Dionn in 1967; and later in 1971, "Right On The Tip Of My Tongue", (Pop #23, R&B #5). The first was written by Payton with group member Maurice Coates and the latter written
and produced
by Van McCoy
. They released three album
s, Dry Your Eyes (1967), Brenda and the Tabulations (1970) and I Keep Coming Back for More (1977).
Brenda & the Tabulations are one of many recording artists referenced in the song "Life Is a Rock (But the Radio Rolled Me)
" by the studio group, Reunion.
Brenda Payton, who was born in 1946, died on June 14, 1992. Eddie L. Jackson died on May 3, 2010, from a brain aneurysm, at the age of 63.
The group's music burst back into cultural consciousness in 2011, when "The Wash" from Dry Your Eyes was licensed by Unilever
for use in an Axe
body wash commercial.
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
R&B
Rhythm and blues
Rhythm and blues, often abbreviated to R&B, is a genre of popular African American music that originated in the 1940s. The term was originally used by record companies to describe recordings marketed predominantly to urban African Americans, at a time when "urbane, rocking, jazz based music with a...
group
Musical ensemble
A musical ensemble is a group of people who perform instrumental or vocal music. In classical music, trios or quartets either blend the sounds of musical instrument families or group together instruments from the same instrument family, such as string ensembles or wind ensembles...
formed in 1966 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Pennsylvania
The Commonwealth of Pennsylvania is a U.S. state that is located in the Northeastern and Mid-Atlantic regions of the United States. The state borders Delaware and Maryland to the south, West Virginia to the southwest, Ohio to the west, New York and Ontario, Canada, to the north, and New Jersey to...
, originally composed of Brenda Payton, Eddie L. Jackson, Maurice Coates and Jerry Jones.
History
The group had a distinctive, almost doo wop sound, especially at the start, featuring Payton's sweet occasionally rough-edged vocals with background male harmonies. The line-up changed around 1971 with the original three men having departed. Two female backing singers (Pat Mercer and Deborah Martin) were brought in to support Payton.The group had a series of hit single
Hit single
A hit single is a recorded song or instrumental released as a single that has become very popular. Although it is sometimes used to describe any widely-played or big-selling song, the term "hit" is usually reserved for a single that has appeared in an official music chart through repeated radio...
s in the late 1960s and early 1970s, mainly in the US
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
soul charts
Record chart
A record chart is a ranking of recorded music according to popularity during a given period of time. Examples of music charts are the Hit parade, Hot 100 or Top 40....
mostly on small independent labels, Dionn and Top & Bottom, operated by the group's manager, Gilda Woods. However, two were big US pop
Pop music
Pop music is usually understood to be commercially recorded music, often oriented toward a youth market, usually consisting of relatively short, simple songs utilizing technological innovations to produce new variations on existing themes.- Definitions :David Hatch and Stephen Millward define pop...
hits, their first release, "Dry Your Eyes" (Pop #20, R&B #2) on Dionn in 1967; and later in 1971, "Right On The Tip Of My Tongue", (Pop #23, R&B #5). The first was written by Payton with group member Maurice Coates and the latter written
Songwriter
A songwriter is an individual who writes both the lyrics and music to a song. Someone who solely writes lyrics may be called a lyricist, and someone who only writes music may be called a composer...
and produced
Record producer
A record producer is an individual working within the music industry, whose job is to oversee and manage the recording of an artist's music...
by Van McCoy
Van McCoy
Van Allen Clinton McCoy was an accomplished musician, music producer, arranger, songwriter, and orchestra conductor. He is known best for his 1975 internationally successful song "The Hustle", which is still played in dance halls and on radio to this day more than thirty years since his death...
. They released three album
Album
An album is a collection of recordings, released as a single package on gramophone record, cassette, compact disc, or via digital distribution. The word derives from the Latin word for list .Vinyl LP records have two sides, each comprising one half of the album...
s, Dry Your Eyes (1967), Brenda and the Tabulations (1970) and I Keep Coming Back for More (1977).
Brenda & the Tabulations are one of many recording artists referenced in the song "Life Is a Rock (But the Radio Rolled Me)
Life Is a Rock (But the Radio Rolled Me)
"Life Is a Rock " is a 1974 song by an ad hoc group of studio musicians called Reunion, with Joey Levine as the lead singer. The song was written by Paul DiFranco and Norman Dolph...
" by the studio group, Reunion.
Brenda Payton, who was born in 1946, died on June 14, 1992. Eddie L. Jackson died on May 3, 2010, from a brain aneurysm, at the age of 63.
The group's music burst back into cultural consciousness in 2011, when "The Wash" from Dry Your Eyes was licensed by Unilever
Unilever
Unilever is a British-Dutch multinational corporation that owns many of the world's consumer product brands in foods, beverages, cleaning agents and personal care products....
for use in an Axe
Axe (grooming product)
Lynx is a brand of male grooming products, owned by the British/Dutch company Unilever and marketed towards young males.-History:Axe was launched in France in 1983 by Unilever...
body wash commercial.
Studio albums
| Year | Album | Chart positions | Record label | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| US Billboard 200 The Billboard 200 is a ranking of the 200 highest-selling music albums and EPs in the United States, published weekly by Billboard magazine. It is frequently used to convey the popularity of an artist or groups of artists... |
US R&B Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums is a chart published by Billboard magazine that ranks R&B and hip hop albums based on sales compiled by Nielsen SoundScan. The name of the chart was changed from Top R&B Albums in 1999... |
|||||
| 1967 | Dry Your Eyes | 191 | 19 | Dionn Jamie Records Jamie Records was a record label founded in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania in 1957 by Harold Lipsius.Their first 45rpm single, "It's Great To Fall In Love"/"Truly" by Marian Caruso , was issued in 1957. However, they really hit the big-time in 1958 with the release of Duane Eddy's "Rebel... |
||
| 1971 | Brenda & the Tabulations | — | — | Top & Bottom Jamie Jamie, Jaime, Jaimee, Jamee, Ja'mie, Jamey, Jaymie or Jaymee is a name derived as a pet form of James. However, it has been used as an independent given name in English speaking countries for several generations... |
||
| 1977 | I Keep Coming Back for More | — | — | Chocolate City Chocolate City Records Chocolate City Records was a record label subsidiary of Casablanca Records & Filmworks. It was started in 1975 by Cecil Holmes, Neil Bogart's partner at Casablanca... |
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| "—" denotes the album failed to chart | ||||||
Compilation albums
| Year | Album | Chart positions | Record label | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| US Billboard 200 The Billboard 200 is a ranking of the 200 highest-selling music albums and EPs in the United States, published weekly by Billboard magazine. It is frequently used to convey the popularity of an artist or groups of artists... |
US R&B Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums is a chart published by Billboard magazine that ranks R&B and hip hop albums based on sales compiled by Nielsen SoundScan. The name of the chart was changed from Top R&B Albums in 1999... |
|||||
| 2000 | Right on the Tip of My Tongue | — | — | Jamie/Guyden Jamie Records Jamie Records was a record label founded in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania in 1957 by Harold Lipsius.Their first 45rpm single, "It's Great To Fall In Love"/"Truly" by Marian Caruso , was issued in 1957. However, they really hit the big-time in 1958 with the release of Duane Eddy's "Rebel... |
||
| 2008 | The Dionn Singles Collection 1966-1969 | — | — | |||
| The Top and Bottom Singles Collection 1969-1971 | — | — | ||||
| "—" denotes the album failed to chart | ||||||
Singles
| Year | Single | Chart positions | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| US Billboard Hot 100 The Billboard Hot 100 is the United States music industry standard singles popularity chart issued weekly by Billboard magazine. Chart rankings are based on radio play and sales; the tracking-week for sales begins on Monday and ends on Sunday, while the radio play tracking-week runs from Wednesday... |
US R&B Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs, is a chart released weekly by Billboard in the United States.The chart, initiated in 1942, is used to track the success of popular music songs in urban, or primarily African American, venues. Dominated over the years at various times by jazz, rhythm and blues, doo-wop, soul,... |
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| 1967 | "Dry Your Eyes" | 20 | 8 | |||
| "Stay Together Young Lovers" (A-side) | 66 | 44 | ||||
| "Who's Lovin' You Who's Lovin' You "Who's Lovin' You" is a Motown soul song, written in 1960 by William "Smokey" Robinson. The song has been recorded by many different artists including The Miracles, who recorded the 1960 original version, The Temptations, The Supremes, Terence Trent-D'arby, Brenda and The Tabulations, John Farnham,... " (B-side) |
66 | 19 | ||||
| "Just Once in a Lifetime" | 97 | 41 | ||||
| "When You're Gone" | 58 | 27 | ||||
| 1968 | "Baby You're So Right for Me" (A-side) | 86 | — | |||
| "To the One I Love" (B-side) | — | 45 | ||||
| "That's in the Past" | — | — | ||||
| 1969 | "Hey Boy" | — | — | |||
| "That's the Price You Have to Pay" | — | 43 | ||||
| "The Touch of You" | 50 | 12 | ||||
| 1970 | "And My Heart Sang (Tra La La)" | 64 | 12 | |||
| "Don't Make Me Over Don't Make Me Over (song) "Don't Make Me Over" is a song written by Burt Bacharach and Hal David which marked the recording debut of Dionne Warwick in 1962.-Dionne Warwick version:... " |
77 | 15 | ||||
| 1971 | "A Child No One Wanted" | 120 | 42 | |||
| "Right on the Tip of My Tongue" | 23 | 10 | ||||
| "A Part of You" | 94 | 14 | ||||
| "Why Didn't I Think of That" | 107 | 34 | ||||
| 1972 | "Little Bit of Love" | — | — | |||
| 1973 | "One Girl Too Late" | — | 48 | |||
| "Key to My Heart" | — | — | ||||
| "Walk On In" | — | — | ||||
| 1976 | "Home to Myself" | — | 61 | |||
| 1977 | "(I'm a) Superstar" | — | 31 | |||
| "I Keep Coming Back for More" | — | — | ||||
| "—" denotes the single failed to chart | ||||||