Check out Tilt’s irregular podcasts at and Īs always, I’ve created a Mixcloud streaming playlist with full versions of all the songs in the episode.Īmazingly, there are no books on the Isley Brothers, unless you count a seventy-two page self-published pamphlet by Rudolph Isley’s daughter, so I’ve had to piece this together from literally dozens of different sources. Tilt Araiza has assisted invaluably by doing a first-pass edit, and will hopefully be doing so from now on. Patreon backers also have a ten-minute bonus episode available, on “Tell Laura I Love Her” by Ray Peterson. Click the full post to read liner notes, links to more information, and a transcript of the episode. Get reacquainted with their catalogs by way of the official The Isley Brothers x Earth, Wind & Fire Cheat Sheet playlist, as curated by Apple Music host Lowkey.Download file | Play in new window | Recorded on May 4, 2020Įpisode eighty-one of A History of Rock Music in Five Hundred Songs looks at “Shout” by the Isley Brothers, and the beginnings of a career that would lead to six decades of hit singles. Who are we kidding-it’s everyone’s right to sing EWF! This unprecedented celebration of soul music giants takes place on Sunday, April 4, 2021. Let’s just hope he doesn’t feel the need to sing the way he did when he gave Earth, Wind & Fire their BET Lifetime Achievement Award back in 2002. This particular Verzuz event is so epic that friend and admirer of both groups Steve Harvey had to get involved as host. Both groups have soul music compositions that play out like Black music symphonies, and both have tapped into expressions of love that encapsulate the Black American experience in ways few others ever could. If listening to The Isley Brothers is like slipping into satiny sheets, the music of fellow all-timers Earth, Wind & Fire is like basking in spring sunlight.

Who, then, could Swizz Beatz and Timbaland’s esteemed Verzuz series pit against an altogether legendary outfit like The Isley Brothers? None other than another pillar of contemporary Black American music, Earth, Wind & Fire.

And as lead vocalist for The Isley Brothers, Ron Isley has provided timeless soul and late-night mood-setting R&B classics more times than we can count over the course of a 60-plus-year career. Who was it that once said, “Ronald Isley’s voice is to ears what silk fabric is to skin”? No one? Well, someone should have.

Lost of isley brothers songs