Con Funk Shun

Con Funk Shun
Origin	Vallejo, California, United States
Genres	R&B, funk, soul
Years active	1969–present
Labels	Mercury, Fretone

Con Funk Shun is an American R&B and funk band popular in the 1970s and 1980s. Influences include James Brown and Sly & the Family Stone.

History

The band was formed by a pair of high school students in Vallejo, California, drummer Louis A. McCall Sr. and singer/guitarist Michael Cooper. The two got their start as a backup group for the Soul Children under the name Project Soul. They began working with Stax Records staff songwriters, and while recording at Audio Dimensions, a Memphis, Tennessee sound studio, producer Ted Sturges both named the group (after an instrumental recording by The Nite-Liters) and produced their first album, Organized Con Funk Shun.

In 1976, Con Funk Shun signed to Mercury Records, releasing eleven albums over a span of ten years. The group's 1977 LP, Secrets, was certified gold in the US, as were 1978's Loveshine, 1979's Candy, and 1980's Spirit of Love.^[1] They scored a string of top ten hits on the US Billboard black singles chart, including 1977's "Ffun" (#1), 1978's "Shake and Dance with Me" (#5), 1979's "Chase Me" (#4), 1980s "Got to Be Enough" (#8), and "Too Tight" (#8). Tensions from within the group built over the 1980s, and the group's last album, Burning Love, was recorded without songwriter and vocalist Felton Pilate. After leaving Mercury, the band broke up in 1986, but some members of the group reunited alongside touring musicians for concerts in the 1990s.

Death of Louis A. McCall Sr.

Original drummer Louis A. McCall Sr. was murdered in a robbery at his Stone Mountain, Georgia Village Square Apartments home on June 25, 1997. It would be a full ten years before a suspect Marques Clair, would finally be indicted in 2007 in connection with the murder.^[2]

Though Marques Clair was finally indicted in 2007, on July 23, 2008, just two days after the start of the murder trial of the killing of McCall, Superior Court Judge Gregory Adams stopped the trial, "based on an omission" in information, said Jada Hudspeth, a spokeswoman for the DeKalb County Georgia district attorney's office. Hudspeth said District Attorney Gwen Keyes Fleming and her staff will evaluate the evidence in the case before deciding whether to retry Clair. Marques Clair, now 29, was arrested as a suspect in McCall's slaying in 1999, but prosecutors dropped the charge due to the District Attorneys refusal to bring the case before a jury without sufficient evidence.

On August 7, 2008, after the trial ended in a mistrial, the charges against Clair were formally dismissed with prejudice.

Legacy

Con Funk Shun continues to receive airplay on US soul radio stations that play music of the 1970s and 1980s. Additionally, their back-beats have been repeatedly sampled by later artists in Hip Hop, R&B, and rap. Most recently, "Honey Wild", (written by Louis McCall; his wife, Linda Lou McCall; and Danny Thomas), from their 1980 Spirit of Love album was sampled by Lil Wayne for his CD Tha Carter III - Deluxe Edition. In 1996, Dru Hill covered the song on their self-titled début album which was produced by Keith Sweat.

Members

• Michael Cooper - guitar, lead vocals
• Karl Fuller - trumpet, vocals
• Paul "Maceo" Harrell - saxophone, flute, vocals
• Cedric Martin - bass, vocals
• Louis A. McCall Sr. - drums, percussion, vocals
• Felton Pilate - trombone, keyboards, guitar, lead vocals
• Danny "Sweet Man" Thomas - keyboards, vocals

Discography

Albums

• Organized Con Funk Shun (1973), Fretone
• The Memphis Sessions (1973), Fretone
• Con-Funk-Shun (1976), Mercury
• Secrets (1977), Mercury
• Loveshine (1978), Mercury
• Candy (1979), Mercury
• Spirit of Love (1980), Mercury
• Touch (1980), Mercury
• Con Funk Shun 7 (1981), Mercury
• To the Max (1982), Mercury
• Fever (1983), Mercury
• Electric Lady (1985), Mercury
• Burnin' Love (1986), Mercury
• Live for Ya Ass (1996), Intersound
• Sound Of Grown Men (2011)

Singles

• "Sho Feels Good To Me" (1977) - #66 R&B singles
• "Confunkshunizeya" (1978) - #31 R&B
• "Ffun" (1978) - #1 R&B, #23 Pop singles
• "Shake And Dance With Me" (1978) - #5 R&B, #60 Pop
• "So Easy" (1978) - #28 R&B
• "(Let Me Put) Love on Your Mind" (1979) - #24 R&B
• "Chase Me" (1979) - #4 R&B
• "Da Lady" (1980) - #60 R&B
• "By Your Side" (1980) - #27 R&B
• "Got To Be Enough" (1980) - #8 R&B, #20 Club Play
• "Happy Face" (1980) - #87 R&B
• "Bad Lady" (1981) - #19 R&B
• "Lady's Wild" (1981) - #42 R&B
• "Too Tight" (1981) - #8 R&B, #40 Pop, #25 Club Play
• "Ain't Nobody, Baby" (1982) - #31 R&B
• "Straight From The Heart" (1982) - #79 R&B
• "Baby I'm Hooked (Right into Your Love)" (1983) - #5 R&B, #76 Pop
• "Ms. Got-The-Body (1983) - #15 R&B
• "Love's Train/You Are The One" (1983) - #47 R&B
• "Don't Let Your Love Grow Cold" (1984)- #33 R&B
• "Electric Lady" (1985) - #4 R&B, #32 Dance Sales
• "I'm Leaving Baby" (1985) - #12 R&B
• "Tell Me What You're Gonna Do" (1985) - #47 R&B
• "Burnin' Love" (1986) - #8 R&B; UK #68^[3]
• "She's a Star" (1986) - #80 R&B
• "Throw It Up, Throw It Up" (1996) - #84 R&B

References

1. ^ Search for "Con Funk Shun" performed at RIAA.com on December 10, 2007.
2. ^ Ajc.com
3. ^ Roberts, David (2006). British Hit Singles & Albums (19th ed.). London: Guinness World Records Limited. p. 117. ISBN 1-904994-10-5. 

External links

• Con Funk Shun at Allmusic.com
• Con Funk Shun @ Soulwalking
• Con Funk Shun @ Discogs
• TheLooseBook.com, site run by Louis McCall's widow
• Felton Pilate's Official Site
• Con Funk Shun's MySpace page