Blue Magic

Blue Magic joined forces with the Stylistics and the Delfonics to cement Philly soul’s standing as a genre defined by vocal groups anchored by high-tenor leads rather than only by wailers or crooners. The exceptional voice of Ted Wizard Mills stood at the center of the quintet’s striking run of success from 1973 to 1976, a period that saw the release of their opening four albums, launched by Blue Magic, and carried twelve singles onto Billboard’s R&B chart, among them the chart-topping “Sideshow,” which also reached the pop Top Ten and achieved million-seller status. While their signature sound rested on plush, elaborately arranged ballads shaped through close work with Norman Harris and other members of the premier studio collective MFSB, Blue Magic likewise thrived on standout proto-disco numbers such as “Welcome to the Club” and captivated live audiences with precisely choreographed stage movements. By the close of their most fruitful stretch on the ATCO label, repeated lineup adjustments had taken hold and the group began cycling through additional imprints. Their final pair of notable R&B hits surfaced in 1989, after which assorted configurations kept them active on stage from the start of the 1990s and sustained new recordings through the 2020s.

Blue Magic grew out of two Philadelphia vocal outfits: the Toppiks, fronted by lead tenor Ted Wizard Mills, and Shades of Love, whose members included tenor Keith “Duke” Beaton, bass vocalist Richard Pratt, and baritone brothers Vernon and Wendell Sawyer. Mills’s group had already placed an independent single and secured a follow-up demo backed by the co-founders of the fledgling WMOT management company and label. That session yielded the ballad “Spell,” written by Mills, produced by Norman Harris, and issued in late 1972 on Atlantic’s ATCO subsidiary. Although credited to Blue Magic, the track preceded the arrival of Beaton, Pratt, and the Sawyers, who completed the final lineup once Mills’s former Toppiks colleagues proved unable to commit fully because of prior obligations. “Spell” began its ascent to number 30 on Billboard’s R&B chart in March 1973; by year’s end Blue Magic had charted twice more with the uptempo “Look Me Up” and “Stop to Start.” The album Blue Magic arrived in January as “Stop to Start” climbed to number 14 R&B and number 75 on the Hot 100. Its fourth single, “Sideshow,” became the group’s biggest success, topping the R&B chart, reaching number eight pop, and earning gold certification. Produced and arranged by Harris with MFSB backing, the number-four R&B album also housed strong deep cuts, including the proto-disco favorite “Welcome to the Club,” later remembered as a “sad banger” well before the phrase existed.

Blue Magic deepened their alliance with Norman Harris and MFSB musicians, especially guitarist and producer Bobby Eli, who had co-written “Sideshow” with Vinnie Barrett. Three further studio albums followed between late 1974 and 1976: The Magic of the Blue, Thirteen Blue Magic Lane, and Mystic Dragons. Together they placed six more singles on the R&B chart, among them “Three Ring Circus” at number five, “Love Has Found Its Way to Me” at number 45, the grieving “Chasing Rainbows” at number 17, and the Margie Joseph duet “What’s Come Over Me” at number 11. The group explored fresh lyrical and sonic territory on tracks such as “Born on Halloween,” “Freak-N-Stein,” and “Mother Funk,” while additional chart entries came via the non-album sides “Grateful” and “Teach Me (It’s Something About Love).” During the same years they supplied background vocals on the Rolling Stones’ “If You Really Want to Be My Friend” from It’s Only Rock ’n Roll. A New Jersey stop on WMOT’s “Three Ms Show” tour with Margie Joseph and Major Harris was preserved on the double live album Live!

After parting ways with WMOT management, Blue Magic issued one last ATCO album, Message from the Magic, in 1978. The record featured a revised lineup: an altercation between Richard Pratt and Wendell Sawyer led to the latter’s dismissal, Vernon Sawyer’s subsequent exit, and the addition of Michael Buchanan and Walter Smith. Working now with songwriter-producer Skip Scarborough, whose credits included hits for Friends of Distinction, Bill Withers, and Earth, Wind & Fire, the sessions drew contributions from EW&F members Philip Bailey, Al McKay, and Ralph Johnson yet yielded only a single promotional release and modest results. The Sawyers and Norman Harris rejoined for the 1981 Capitol album Welcome Back, after which Pratt departed, reducing the group to a quartet for 1983’s Magic # on Mirage/Omni. Longtime admirer Russell Simmons signed them to his Columbia-distributed OBR label, prompting the 1989 new-jack-swing effort From Out of the Blue, which delivered their strongest singles in more than a decade, “Romeo and Juliet” and “It’s Like Magic.”

A near-fatal car accident in 1990 sidelined Ted Mills for several years. Blue Magic persisted with various lineups, at times featuring Rod Wayne in Mills’s stead, until the five original members reunited in 2017 for an episode of TV One’s Unsung series, by which time Wayne had passed away the previous year. Different configurations continued performing and recording, releasing Your Spell Stayed on My Mind in 2019 and Share a Dream in 2020. Mills pursued a solo path and formed the 3 Tenors of Soul with Russell Thompkins, Jr. of the Stylistics and William Hart of the Delfonics. Richard Pratt, who had been leading a separate Blue Magic aggregation, died in 2022; Keith “Duke” Beaton followed in 2023. In 2024 the group’s first six albums and related singles were compiled as Stop to Start: The ATCO & WMOT Recordings 1973-1977.