COURTESY OF COMMUNICATIONS PACIFIC Singer J.D. Nicholas, left, and original members William King and Walter Orange make up the current Commodores lineup.

Commodores still seek hits

No matter the long road and changes,
the band has the drive

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By Shawn "Speedy" Lopes
slopes@starbulletin.com

Change is inevitable. Just ask William King, whose indelible band, the Commodores, are quickly closing in on their fourth decade together. "The first time I ever went to Hawaii, I was driving down the street and I could actually see the water," recalls King of his first visit to the islands with the Commodores in 1971. "Then the last time I was there, I realized I couldn't see the water from the street I was at anymore. There are so many buildings now; things have really progressed."

The same can be said of the Commodores, whose storied career began in 1967 at the Tuskegee Institute in Alabama, where King's college band, the Mystics, teamed with rival group the Jays to form the area's hottest live ensemble. As he remembers it, the band, unable to agree on a new name, had him don a blindfold and flip through a dictionary to find their new handle. "Commodores" seemed palatable enough, considering a number of groups at the time flaunted such wiggy, acid-induced monikers as Pink Floyd, Strawberry Alarm Clock and Led Zeppelin. "Hey, we were almost called 'The Commode,'" says King with a laugh.

After conquering the local circuit with their infectious, eclectic sound, the Commodores headed to New York in a van and trailer, bent on taking the Big Apple by storm. "We pull over in Harlem at a place called Small's Paradise, go inside and tell the guy we want a job there," remembers King. "This guy looks over at us and says, 'Look, you boys, get outta my place and go back to Alabama or wherever y'all from, finish up college, come back and maybe I'll give you guys a job.'"

Dejected, the band returned to their van 15 minutes later to find its doors wide open and all their possessions gone. "There was a gentleman standing there just laughing and he says 'If you want your things back, just wait around a couple of hours 'cause they'll be back selling 'em on the street.' True enough, a while later, this guy pushes our keyboard out on a dolly back around the corner and we end up buying everything back, including our clothes in their suitcases. We spent just about all our money getting our stuff back."

Days later, their luck would change. The Commodores were given a shot at Small's when a hired band suddenly canceled. Desperate to make an impression on the club's owner, the group had friends back home get on the phone and implore every known Alabaman in New York City to attend the show. That night, a line formed around the club and the Commodores were offered a regular gig.

The group soon caught the fancy of a Motown representative who granted them an opening slot on the Jackson 5 tour. Although a contract with Motown followed, the band disliked Motown's tightly controlled recording methods and asked label head Berry Gordy to allow them to produce their own music. "That was on a Monday and I don't think he stopped laughing 'til Friday," King said. When the Commodores later sent him a copy of "Machine Gun," their funky instrumental single-to-be as evidence of their self-reliance, Gordy relented. "The song floored him," King adds. "That's one thing I'll say about Berry Gordy; he knew when he had a hit song. That's why Motown was so successful."

The Commodores scored a string of smash singles in the '70s with groove-oriented tracks like "Brick House," "Too Hot Ta Trot" and "Slippery When Wet." Yet it was the group's romantic torch songs like "Easy," "Three Times A Lady," "Sail On" and "Still" which earned them the greatest praise and catapulted singer Lionel Richie into pop stardom. "Whether you're 6 years old or 60 years old, everyone loves a great ballad," King explains. "We all tried to write 'em; Richie just happened to be the best ballad writer."

As the next decade dawned, Richie left the fold and flourished as a solo artist, fueling widespread rumors of the group's demise. "We had people who had been with us for years that just bailed out on us," King says, citing Motown's decision to drop the band in 1985. As Richie's star ascended, his former bandmates faced an uncertain future.

J.D. Nicholas of R&B combo Heatwave ("Boogie Nights," "Always And Forever") was hired in Richie's stead, giving the Commodores a new voice and new direction. "There was a lot of pain in those days, but there were also a lot of good things, too, because it made the group draw closer," he reckons. "We just said, 'OK, fine. The only way to fix this is to have a hit song.'" The result was the silky-smooth "Night Shift," the first Grammy-winning chartbuster for the Commodores and their first without Richie.

Hit songs have been harder to come by in recent years, and the Commodores' live band format seems oddly misplaced in an era of digitized hip hop and prefabricated R&B acts. Still, the group is determined to trudge on. "We expect it to be tough," concedes King. "What we need to do is find something down the middle where we can appeal to a younger audience and appeal to the one we already have. If you have a great song at the right time, it's going to break through. But you have to be true to what you are. We plan to do that."

Celebrate America / Celebrate Aloha Concert Featuring The Commodores, Yvonne Elliman, the Makaha Sons, Disguyz, Reign, Ellsworth "Ells" Simeona and Vahi Where: Waikiki Shell When: 6 p.m. tomorrow. Tickets: $21, $36 and $46 Call: 832-0144

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