Biography
The Parliaments originated as a doo wop ensemble that George Clinton assembled in 1955 inside the back room of the barbershop where he worked, drawing together his associates Raymond Davis, Clarence Haskins, Calvin Simon, and Grady Thomas. Clinton first patterned the lineup on Frankie Lymon’s Teenagers before steering the singers toward a distinctive style that would continue to shift over subsequent years. The group hopped between imprints and issued a string of 45s—Poor Willie/Party Boys on APT, Lonely Island/Cry on Flip, and Heart Trouble/That Was My Girl on Golden World—while Clinton traveled weekly to Detroit to produce sessions for artists such as Roy Handy and the Pets. A breakthrough arrived in 1967 when “I Wanna Testify,” issued on Revilot, climbed to number three on the R&B chart and number twenty on the pop chart, foreshadowing broader shifts within the genre. The following year a conflict with Revilot prompted the Parliaments to cease recording for the label; to sidestep prolonged negotiations, Clinton quickly rebranded the act as Funkadelic and credited only the original backing musicians. After Revilot collapsed, its contract passed to Atlantic, yet Clinton permanently dropped the doo wop approach to evade obligations to the new owner. One leftover Revilot track, “A New Day Begins,” surfaced on Atco in 1969. The same core unit later supplied the foundation for Funkadelic, Parliament, and the expansive body of funk that followed.
Albums
