Biography
Despite enjoying deep ties to Motown and amassing an extensive catalog filled with some of the era’s most potent soul and disco grooves, Hamilton Bohannon remained underrecognized even while his work continued to serve as a rich source for later sampling. From 1965 to 1972 he functioned as drummer and bandleader for Stevie Wonder and virtually every other prominent Motown act; he then launched an independent career that yielded 18 studio albums on Dakar, Mercury, and his own Phase II imprint between 1973 and 1983. Those releases carried such titles as Keep On Dancin’ and Dance Your Ass Off, and their contents emphasized dance-floor energy through four Billboard disco/club Top Ten singles—“Foot Stompin’ Music” (1975), “Bohannon’s Beat” (1976), “Let’s Start the Dance” (1978), and “Let’s Start II Dance Again” (1981)—all showcasing his characteristically upbeat, propulsive, and raw-edged style. Bohannon further commemorated himself by naming a walk, a theme, and a disco symphony after his own surname; in reciprocal tribute, his birthplace of Newnan, Georgia, designated the street of his upbringing Hamilton Bohannon Drive in 2017, two years before his final concert and three years before his passing.
Born in Newnan, some forty miles southwest of Atlanta, Hamilton Frederick Bohannon began drumming at thirteen on an improvised kit assembled from books and whittled sticks; his father later purchased a proper set and permitted practice sessions inside his barber shop. Within a few years Bohannon organized a band—first called the Bob Dads, later Roy and the Dukes—that performed covers for both Black and white audiences, and he also participated in his high-school ensemble. While holding a music scholarship at Atlanta’s Clark College he formed a group that became the house band at the historic Royal Peacock, where he befriended and shared bills with guitarist Jimi Hendrix during the latter’s interludes between engagements with the Isley Brothers and Little Richard.
Following graduation from Clark, Bohannon balanced his Peacock commitments with a teaching position in LaGrange; after a car accident severely damaged his right foot he rapidly adapted to playing left-footed. In 1965, while touring with emcee Gorgeous George on the Jackie Wilson Show package, he encountered Stevie Wonder and joined the young Motown artist’s rhythm section. Although Bohannon had planned to enter Indiana University’s master’s program that autumn on an offered scholarship, Wonder persuaded him to forgo graduate studies and remain on the road.
After two years supporting Wonder, Bohannon returned to Georgia and assembled his own ensemble. The group auditioned successfully for Motown and subsequently backed not only Wonder but also the Temptations, Four Tops, Supremes, Smokey Robinson, and Marvin Gaye. Although the label rewarded its valued touring director with a songwriting and recording agreement signed by the close of 1969—the same year his stage work appeared on Motortown Revue Live—the arrangement produced no releases. When Motown relocated from Detroit to Los Angeles in 1972, Bohannon parted ways with the company, stayed in the Motor City, accepted another teaching post, and spent evenings leading a band at the celebrated 20 Grand club.
At the home of 20 Grand bandmate Ray Parker, Jr., Bohannon taped original material and obtained a more satisfying deal with Dakar Records. His Brunswick-distributed debut, Stop & Go, arrived in 1973; aside from several slower tracks spotlighting the Haywood Singers—including the evocative “Save Their Souls”—the set was largely instrumental, with Bohannon, guitarists Parker and Wah Wah Watson, and bassist Eddie Watkins supplying funky proto-disco grooves. Through 1976 he issued five additional unadorned Dakar albums whose shifting personnel and directive-oriented titles included Keep On Dancin’, Insides Out, Bohannon, Dance Your Ass Off, and Gittin’ Off. The first four of these reached Billboard’s R&B album chart and generated an equal number of charting singles, most notably “Foot Stompin’ Music” (number 39 R&B, number three disco) and “Disco Stomp” (number 62 R&B, number 11 disco).
After six albums in four years on Dakar, Bohannon transferred to Mercury and maintained comparable productivity across a similar period. His Mercury phase opened in 1977 with Phase II—whose cover bore the subtitle Hamilton Bohannon II—and reached its commercial peak the following year with Summertime Groove, which entered the R&B Top 20 thanks in part to his biggest single, “Let’s Start the Dance” (number nine R&B, number seven disco). Cut Loose, Too Hot to Hold, and Music in the Air, released in 1979 and 1980, completed the Mercury sequence. During the same span he wrote, produced, and arranged two Mercury albums for fellow Motown alum Caroline Crawford (also credited as Carolyn Crawford), the featured vocalist on “Let’s Start the Dance” and several other Bohannon recordings.
At the end of 1980 Bohannon inaugurated his Newnan-based Phase II label with One Step Ahead, again featuring Crawford alongside Detroit stalwarts Leroy Emmanuel and Johnny Allen. The next year he achieved his third Top Ten disco/club hit with “Let’s Start II Dance Again,” which included a rap by Dr. Perri Johnson; the single debuted on the chart the same week (September 12) as Tom Tom Club’s “Genius of Love,” whose lyrics invoked Bohannon by name. Before long, his catalog became a frequent source for rap producers seeking breaks and loops.
Phase II concluded operations in 1983 with Make Your Body Move, recorded with extensive assistance from longtime associate Ray Parker, Jr., and The Bohannon Drive, which enlisted Maceo Parker and Sheila E. among its musicians; the latter release brought Bohannon’s studio-album total to eighteen. Signed subsequently to MCA, he explored house and new jack swing—genres he had helped shape—for one final proper album, Here Comes Bohannon, in 1989. Although numerous compilations of varying scope and later single reissues appeared over ensuing decades, his recordings endured chiefly through the advocacy of specialist DJs and hip-hop producers. In 2017 his hometown further honored him by renaming Peachtree Street—the thoroughfare of his upbringing and the site of Phase II’s operations—Hamilton Bohannon Drive. He gave his last performance in 2019 at a benefit concert for Morehouse College and Clark Atlanta University, with Parker once more in the backing band; Bohannon passed away the following April at age 78.
Born in Newnan, some forty miles southwest of Atlanta, Hamilton Frederick Bohannon began drumming at thirteen on an improvised kit assembled from books and whittled sticks; his father later purchased a proper set and permitted practice sessions inside his barber shop. Within a few years Bohannon organized a band—first called the Bob Dads, later Roy and the Dukes—that performed covers for both Black and white audiences, and he also participated in his high-school ensemble. While holding a music scholarship at Atlanta’s Clark College he formed a group that became the house band at the historic Royal Peacock, where he befriended and shared bills with guitarist Jimi Hendrix during the latter’s interludes between engagements with the Isley Brothers and Little Richard.
Following graduation from Clark, Bohannon balanced his Peacock commitments with a teaching position in LaGrange; after a car accident severely damaged his right foot he rapidly adapted to playing left-footed. In 1965, while touring with emcee Gorgeous George on the Jackie Wilson Show package, he encountered Stevie Wonder and joined the young Motown artist’s rhythm section. Although Bohannon had planned to enter Indiana University’s master’s program that autumn on an offered scholarship, Wonder persuaded him to forgo graduate studies and remain on the road.
After two years supporting Wonder, Bohannon returned to Georgia and assembled his own ensemble. The group auditioned successfully for Motown and subsequently backed not only Wonder but also the Temptations, Four Tops, Supremes, Smokey Robinson, and Marvin Gaye. Although the label rewarded its valued touring director with a songwriting and recording agreement signed by the close of 1969—the same year his stage work appeared on Motortown Revue Live—the arrangement produced no releases. When Motown relocated from Detroit to Los Angeles in 1972, Bohannon parted ways with the company, stayed in the Motor City, accepted another teaching post, and spent evenings leading a band at the celebrated 20 Grand club.
At the home of 20 Grand bandmate Ray Parker, Jr., Bohannon taped original material and obtained a more satisfying deal with Dakar Records. His Brunswick-distributed debut, Stop & Go, arrived in 1973; aside from several slower tracks spotlighting the Haywood Singers—including the evocative “Save Their Souls”—the set was largely instrumental, with Bohannon, guitarists Parker and Wah Wah Watson, and bassist Eddie Watkins supplying funky proto-disco grooves. Through 1976 he issued five additional unadorned Dakar albums whose shifting personnel and directive-oriented titles included Keep On Dancin’, Insides Out, Bohannon, Dance Your Ass Off, and Gittin’ Off. The first four of these reached Billboard’s R&B album chart and generated an equal number of charting singles, most notably “Foot Stompin’ Music” (number 39 R&B, number three disco) and “Disco Stomp” (number 62 R&B, number 11 disco).
After six albums in four years on Dakar, Bohannon transferred to Mercury and maintained comparable productivity across a similar period. His Mercury phase opened in 1977 with Phase II—whose cover bore the subtitle Hamilton Bohannon II—and reached its commercial peak the following year with Summertime Groove, which entered the R&B Top 20 thanks in part to his biggest single, “Let’s Start the Dance” (number nine R&B, number seven disco). Cut Loose, Too Hot to Hold, and Music in the Air, released in 1979 and 1980, completed the Mercury sequence. During the same span he wrote, produced, and arranged two Mercury albums for fellow Motown alum Caroline Crawford (also credited as Carolyn Crawford), the featured vocalist on “Let’s Start the Dance” and several other Bohannon recordings.
At the end of 1980 Bohannon inaugurated his Newnan-based Phase II label with One Step Ahead, again featuring Crawford alongside Detroit stalwarts Leroy Emmanuel and Johnny Allen. The next year he achieved his third Top Ten disco/club hit with “Let’s Start II Dance Again,” which included a rap by Dr. Perri Johnson; the single debuted on the chart the same week (September 12) as Tom Tom Club’s “Genius of Love,” whose lyrics invoked Bohannon by name. Before long, his catalog became a frequent source for rap producers seeking breaks and loops.
Phase II concluded operations in 1983 with Make Your Body Move, recorded with extensive assistance from longtime associate Ray Parker, Jr., and The Bohannon Drive, which enlisted Maceo Parker and Sheila E. among its musicians; the latter release brought Bohannon’s studio-album total to eighteen. Signed subsequently to MCA, he explored house and new jack swing—genres he had helped shape—for one final proper album, Here Comes Bohannon, in 1989. Although numerous compilations of varying scope and later single reissues appeared over ensuing decades, his recordings endured chiefly through the advocacy of specialist DJs and hip-hop producers. In 2017 his hometown further honored him by renaming Peachtree Street—the thoroughfare of his upbringing and the site of Phase II’s operations—Hamilton Bohannon Drive. He gave his last performance in 2019 at a benefit concert for Morehouse College and Clark Atlanta University, with Parker once more in the backing band; Bohannon passed away the following April at age 78.
Albums
Live
