Marvin Isley was the youngest member of the family music group the Isley Brothers

The Isley Brothers

The Isley Brothers are a highly influential, successful and long-running American music group consisting of different line-ups of six brothers, and a brother-in-law, Chris Jasper...

 and its bass guitarist

Bassist

A bass player, or bassist is a musician who plays a bass instrument such as a double bass, bass guitar, keyboard bass or a low brass instrument such as a tuba or sousaphone. Different musical genres tend to be associated with one or more of these instruments...

.

By the summer of 1959, the Isley family had moved from Cincinnati to a home in Englewood, New Jersey

Englewood, New Jersey

Englewood is a city located in Bergen County, New Jersey. As of the 2010 United States Census, the city had a total population of 27,147.Englewood was incorporated as a city by an Act of the New Jersey Legislature on March 17, 1899, from portions of Ridgefield Township and the remaining portions of...

, and he grew up there, graduating from Dwight Morrow High School

Dwight Morrow High School

Dwight Morrow High School is a four-year comprehensive public high school located in Englewood, New Jersey, United States, operating as part of the Englewood Public School District. The school also serves students from Englewood Cliffs, who attend as part of a sending/receiving relationship...

 in 1972.

In the late 1960s, he formed a trio with older brother Ernie

Ernie Isley

Ernest "Ernie" Isley is a member of the iconic American musical ensemble, The Isley Brothers.-Life and career:Ernie was born in Cincinnati, Ohio, where his older brothers formed The Isley Brothers, first as a gospel group, then as a secular-singing group. In 1960 his family moved to Englewood and...

 and Rudolph

Rudolph Isley

Rudolph Bernard Isley , better known as Rudy Isley, is an American singer-songwriter and is one of the founding members of the legendary family group, The Isley Brothers.-Biography:...

's brother-in-law Chris Jasper

Chris Jasper

Chris Jasper is a former member of both the Isley Brothers and Isley-Jasper-Isley. He is also a successful solo artist and record producer, recording a number of his own solo albums, and producing artists, for his New York based record label, Gold City Records...

. By the end of the decade, the group joined the older half of the Isleys as its instrumentalists.

The instrumental lineup became official band members to the Isleys in 1973, resulting in platinum record

Music recording sales certification

Music recording sales certification is a system of certifying that a music recording has shipped or sold a certain number of copies, where the threshold quantity varies by type and by nation or territory .Almost all countries follow variations of the RIAA certification categories,...

 success with the band's 3+3 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...

. For the next ten years, Marvin Isley played bass guitar

Bass guitar

The bass guitar is a stringed instrument played primarily with the fingers or thumb , or by using a pick....

 on tracks including "Fight the Power (Part 1 & 2)", "I Wanna be With You (Part 1)", "The Pride, Pt. 1 & 2

The Pride, Pt. 1 & 2

"The Pride" is a 1977 funk song by The Isley Brothers, released on their T-Neck imprint. The song, which was the first single released from their album, Go For Your Guns, was written as a warning to politicians to be the leader that the people need and to others who want change reminding them that...

", "Don't Say Goodnight (It's Time for Love)

Don't Say Goodnight (It's Time For Love)

"Don't Say Goodnight " is a 1980 quiet storm soul record by The Isley Brothers, released on their T-Neck imprint. The song, which was released as an answer of sorts to Teddy Pendergrass' hit, "Turn Off the Lights", was an ode to love sung by Ronald Isley who begs his lady in his trademark falsetto...

", "For the Love of You (Part 1 & 2)", "Voyage to Atlantis

Voyage to Atlantis

“Voyage to Atlantis” is a 1977 slow jam released by The Isley Brothers on the T-Neck label. The single, which was off their multi-platinum album, Go for Your Guns, is about two lovers going their separate ways, depicting their eventual reunion as a journey to "a paradise out beyond the sea"...

", and "Between the Sheets

Between the Sheets (song)

"Between the Sheets" is a quiet storm funk song released by American R&B/soul/funk band The Isley Brothers in 1983 off their album of the same name on the T-Neck imprint.-History:...

".

The 3+3 lineup splintered into two groups in 1984, with the original Isleys carrying on as the Isley Brothers, while Marvin, Ernie and Chris formed Isley-Jasper-Isley

Isley-Jasper-Isley

Isley/Jasper/Isley was a splinter group of the Isley Brothers formed in 1984 by brother-in-law Chris Jasper , Ernie Isley and Marvin Isley , due to creative differences that arose among the group....

. The group released three albums and had a US

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 number one

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....

 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,...

 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...

, "Caravan of Love

Caravan of Love

"Caravan of Love" is a 1985 R&B hit originally recorded by Isley-Jasper-Isley, the second half of The Isley Brothers' 3 + 3 lineup of the 1970s.-Isley-Jasper-Isley version:...

".

In 1991, Marvin Isley returned as member of the Isley Brothers with Ronald and Ernie and carried on until 1997, when he developed diabetes. He had both legs removed. Marvin was inducted along with his brothers to the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 1992.

Marvin Isley died on June 6, 2010, from complication

Complication (medicine)

Complication, in medicine, is an unfavorable evolution of a disease, a health condition or a medical treatment. The disease can become worse in its severity or show a higher number of signs, symptoms or new pathological changes, become widespread throughout the body or affect other organ systems. A...

s of diabetes at the Seasons Hospice within Weiss Memorial Hospital

Louis A. Weiss Memorial Hospital

Louis A. Weiss Memorial Hospital, affiliated with University of Chicago Medical Center, is an urban hospital located in Uptown, Chicago, Illinois. This is a 369-bed hospital, located on the site where there used to be Clarendon Beach, a famous beach of the city...

 in Chicago

Chicago

Chicago is the largest city in the US state of Illinois. With nearly 2.7 million residents, it is the most populous city in the Midwestern United States and the third most populous in the US, after New York City and Los Angeles...

, Illinois

Illinois

Illinois is the fifth-most populous state of the United States of America, and is often noted for being a microcosm of the entire country. With Chicago in the northeast, small industrial cities and great agricultural productivity in central and northern Illinois, and natural resources like coal,...

, at age 56.