Commodores ~ Easy 1977 Soul Purrfection Version

The Commodores history starts in 1968 with two groups of freshman singers who were students at Alabama’s Tuskegee Institute. The Jays members Lionel Richie, William King and Thomas McClary joined with Milan Williams, Andre Callahan and Michael Gilbert of The Mystics to form a group almost known as “The Commodes“. Naming the new group was the first priority and King decided to use a dictionary opened to an random page then put his finger down between “commode“ and “commodore“. They won the annual freshman talent contest and began gigging on the weekends with a new vocalist, James Ingram (not the one you know) who got inducted into the Army and was replaced by Walter Orange. Lead vocals then alternated between Orange and Richie. Callahan left the group in 1970 with Ronald Lapread taking his place. The Commodores joined the stable of Motown artists in 1971 when they were signed to the MoWest label. Their first gig was to open for the Jackson 5 at the Madison Square Garden that s