With eleven Top 10 R&B hits, soul group The Chi-Lites who formed in 1959 from Chicago, US comprising of: Marshall Thompson, Creadel ‘Red’ Jones, Eugene Record, Robert Lester and Clarence Johnson produced hits such as “Oh Girl” and “Have You Seen Her”.
Originally performing under the name Hi-Lites, the band released a few singles through local labels. With a departure from Johnson in 1964 and after discovering that the name Hi-Lites was already in existence, the band reworked their name to also pay homage to their home town Chicago, becoming known as The Chi-Lites. In 1969 they released their debut album “Give It Away” through Brunswick Records and charted in Billboard’s Top Soul LP’s at number 16. Featuring the title single as well as “Let Me Be the Man My Daddy Was” and “24 Hours of Sadness”, it also included three Mo-town covers.
The 1971 single “Have You Seen Her” marked the start of the band’s climb to success as it peaked at number three in the Billboard charts and was smashed the following year with their number one single “Oh Girl” from the album “A Lonely Man”, which became their highest charting album at number five and saw the band go global. After the release of the 1977 album “The Fantastic Chi-Lites”, communication broke down between members and consequently forced the band to go on a brief break.
Returning in 1980 full force with Record, Thompson, Lester and Jones in the line-up, they released the album “Heavenly Body” featuring the title track and the single “The Only One For Me (One in a Million)”. Subsequent years would bring a string of unfortunate events which would once again impact the final line-up leaving it with Marshall Thompson, his wife Tara and Fred Simpson to continue the Chi-Lites legacy. With a number of hit singles and a repertoire spanning over five decades has seen The Chi-Lites recognised not only through Grammy nominations but sworn into the R&B Hall of Fame in 2013.
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Charli XCX
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