Dynasty

Formed by producer and label executive Dick Griffey together with Leon Sylvers, this Los Angeles ensemble specialized in understated funk and sharp dance-pop tracks throughout the final years of the 1970s and the decade that followed. Bassist Kevin Spencer joined vocalists Nidra Beard and Linda Carriere in the lineup. Early momentum arrived with the 1979 single “I Don’t Want to Be a Freak (But I Can’t Help Myself),” drawn from the album Your Piece of the Rock. Their subsequent release, “I’ve Just Begun to Love,” became their sole Top Ten R&B entry, climbing to number six in 1980. Although the group kept issuing material on Solar for the rest of the 1980s, no comparable successes appeared. Leon Sylvers stepped in as a member in 1981, yet the change produced no meaningful turnaround. The band stayed with the label until 1988.