http://cdbaby.name/a/b/abbott2.jpg
Abbott's parents came from Venezuela and Antigua. He is a dual citizen of the US and Antigua. During his early years, Abbott's mother taught him how to play piano and encouraged him to develop vocally. His practice paid off when, at the age of eight, he sang in the St. Patrick's Cathedral Choir which recorded an album and performed on television.

Before his career as musician, Abbott studied psychology at University of California, Berkeley and creative writing at Stanford; where he won a Wallace Stegner fellowship. Also, he has taught English at University of California, Berkeley. To help pay for college, Abbott created a band and played local gigs, helping to develop his musical style.

After graduating, Abbott taught, but he could not shake his love for music. He decided to become a professional musician, build his own recording studio and to develop skills as a singer, guitarist, composer and producer.

In 1976, he married singer Freda Payne, and had one child, Gregory Abbott, Jr (born 1978). Gregory and Freda later divorced.

One of Abbott's first opportunities in his studio was an album for an independent record label, which gave him the opportunity to do a duet with Whitney Houston. Continuing on, Abbott produced for the group EQ on Atlantic Records.

In 1986, Abbott released his first solo album, Shake You Down. The title track for the album was a success, going platinum and topping the Billboard Hot 100. The album's second single, "I Got The Feelin (It's Over)" which reached #5 on the R&B chart. With the strength of its singles, the album propelled to platinum status and earned Abbot several awards.

Abbott was well-known for his sophistication and style. He appeared in numerous magazine layouts, including a six-page fashion spread in Playboy. He also was featured as one of the ten sexiest male recording artists in Playgirl.

Internationally, Abbott carried much success, winning first prize at the Tokyo Music Festival. The title track of his second album, "I'll Prove It To You" which was released in 1988, was so liked in Japan that it was featured on a movie soundtrack. In Belgium, he performed with Princess Stephanie of Monaco and in Portugal, he would do interviews in their own language.

Abbott's third album featured this international vive and was titled One World! It had a heavy Caribbean influence and was a tribute to his parents.

Since then, Abbott has released the international albums, Eyes, Whispers, Rhythm, Sex... and Dancing In The Inner Realm... in 2002 and 2005 respectively. Rhyme and Reason, Abbott's latest effort, was released in 2006. A new single "Rhythm Rhyme" was released in December 2007

With the music business in flux as it has been over the past several years, Abbott has gone on to release singles and EPs instead of full fledged albums.

While still pursuing his passion for music as an artist, Abbott has also moved somewhat into placement of music for films and television as well as working on film projects of his own. http://www.grabbittmusic.com

Views: 80

Replies to This Discussion

The Green Eyed Monster...LOL. One of my Cousins was jealous of him because he had green eyes and he didn't, so that's what he called him....ROFLMBO
Bwa ha ha ha ha! I had a monster crush on him when this came out...I know...that!
I always thought Abbott would be around for more than a minute. This is a great song.
I love this song
This song is still the jam. I hate growing old, I wish I were back in the eighties moving to music like this and appreciating it all the more knowing what trash would evolve these last 20 yrs.
Don't give the stuff today a second thought. I don't. I just groove to the real music like when it first came. We can still move to it like we always did.

I don't even know what's evolved to show you how much I ignore it..LOL

RSS

Introspection

Entr'acte

  1. play Norman Brown — Night Drive
  2. play Norman Brown — Feeling
  3. play Norman Brown — Still
  4. play Miles Davis — miles 1
  5. play miles 2
  6. play miles 3
  7. play miles 4
  8. play miles 5
  9. play Marvin Gaye — I Met A Little Girl
  10. play Santana — 01 Singing Winds, Crying Beasts
  11. play Santana — 02 Black Magic Woman-Gypsy Queen
  12. play Mongo — 02. Afro Blue



The history of the Butlers/Raw Soul is dense, but for all of us music nerds, that's normal. It is not totally clear what year the Butlers actually formed but they released their first single in 1963 on Liberty Records. That single was "She Tried To Kiss Me" and another single followed on Guyden entitled "Lovable Girl." After the Guyden single the Butlers took a break not recording another record until the single "Laugh, Laugh, Laugh" was released on the Phila label in 1966. The group also backed Charles Earland and Jean Wells on one Phila single ("I Know She Loves Me"). 


As you might be noticing, the Butlers were doing a fair amount of recording but not achieving much success. The group's recordings sold regionally but never had the promotion to make an impact on the national scene. After the single with Phila, the Butlers moved to the Fairmount label (part of the Cameo-Parkway family) and released a handful of singles, some being reissued singles of the past. The Butlers were with Fairmount for 1966-67 and then moved to Sassy Records. Sassy released the group's greatest single (in my opinion) "Love (Your Pain Goes Deep)" b/w "If That's What You Wanted." A copy of that 45 sold for just under $500 last summer on eBay. Even though that isn't that much in the world of record collecting--it's still a hefty sum. The Butlers released another single on Sassy ("She's Gone" b/w "Love Is Good") that appears to be even 
harder to come by then the "Love (Your Pain Goes Deep)" single.

 

The true history become a bit blurred here as the AMG biography states that the Butlers last record was released on C.R.S. in 1974 (". However, between 1971 and that single, Frankie Beverly formed a group called Raw Soul and released a number of singles. Some of the songs recorded by Beverly during this period are "While I'm Alone," "Open Up Your Heart," (both on the Gregor label) and "Color Blind." "Color Blind" was released by the Eldorado label and rerecorded by Maze. Beverly's big break came when Marvin Gaye asked Raw Soul to back him on a tour. Gaye helped Beverly/Raw Soul get a contract at Capitol. Beverly decided to take the group in a different direction, a name change occurred, and Maze was created. 

The above isn't the most complete history of Beverly but hopefully someone will know a way to get in touch with the man or his management because a comprehensive pre-Maze history needs to be done on Frankie Beverly (his real name is Howard, by the way). Below you'll find every Frankie Beverly (pre-Maze) song available to me right now ("Color Blind" will be up soon). 

If you have a song that is not included below, shoot it over to funkinsoulman (at) yahoo.com and it will go up in the next Frankie Beverly post (later this week--highlighting Maze). Also, if you have any more information please share your knowledge. The Butlers material has been comp-ed sporadically (usually imports) but the entire Maze catalog has been reissued and is available. 

Enjoy.  "She Kissed Me" (Fairmount, 1966 or 1967) 
 
 "I Want To Feel I'm Wanted" (not sure which label or year) "Laugh, Laugh, Laugh" (Phila, 1966) "Because Of My Heart" (Fairmount, 1966 or 1967)
   
 "Love (Your Pain Goes Deep)" (Sassy, 1967)
   
 "If That's What You Wanted" (Sassy, 1967)
 



Frankie Beverly is one of those cats that has lasting power. He started in the music business doing a tour with doo wop group the Silhouettes and then formed his own group called the Blenders. The Blenders never recorded a single, Beverly wouldn't appear on wax until forming the Butlers a few years later. Along with Beverly, the Butlers included Jack "Sonny" Nicholson, Joe Collins, John Fitch, and Talmadge Conway.

Beverly would later enjoy great success fronting Maze and Conway would become a
well-known penning Double Exposure's
"Ten Percent" and the Intruders' "Memories Are Here To Stay." 
 While Maze is a phenomenal group, Beverly's work before that group will always stand out as his best (imo).

The Butlers produced tunes that most Northern Soul fans would kill for and Raw Soul gave the funksters something to pursue. If, by chance, you know of a way to get in touch with Frankie Beverly or his management, please drop me an e-mail. It would be absolutely great to do an interview with him about his pre-Maze work. He's still playing out, most recently doing a New Year's Eve show in Atlanta.
:: Funkinsoulman ::

Power...Through Simplicity ♪♫♪

Members

About

© 2024   Created by Edie Antoinette.   Powered by

Badges  |  Report an Issue  |  Terms of Service