Tavares is made up of five brothers--Arthur, Ralph, Perry, Antone and Feliciano Tavares--and was formed in Massachusetts in the early 1960s. The quintet siblings grew up in a musical family in which several family members instructed them in various forms and genres of music. Originally named Chubby and the Turnpikes, the group adopted the more fitting moniker Tavares towards the end of the decade.
The brothers began performing gigs all around New England before eventually landing a record deal with Capitol in the early ‘70s. They released their debut album, Check It Out, and its title track was a hit. Fusing funk and soul, Tavares's debut record enabled them to receive the recognition that they'd been seeking for nearly a decade. This trend of struggling for years before hitting it big was common among their soul colleagues, but what was not was the fact that success came with Tavares' first release and national attention came right from the get go.
Their sophomore release, Hard Core Poetry, did very well thanks to a multitude of hit singles. In The City continued the ride of success for the group and enabled the quintet to reach a comfort level in which they were willing to play with their sound a bit more on future releases. Sky High! Came equipped with a more disco feel to it, sporting more upbeat tracks that appealed to the listeners of the late ‘70s.
The group continued to record new material into the mid-'80s and several live albums have been released in the ‘90s and 2000s. Throughout their career, this clean-cut group of brothers experienced some major hits such as "Heaven Must Be Missing an Angel," Whodunit," and "More Than a Woman." They've had five songs reach the number one slot on a Billboard chart and were serious heavyweights on the soul scene for a decade.
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