The Isley Brothers Biography

The first generation of Isley siblings was born and reared in Cincinnati, Ohio, where their father, a professional vocalist, and mother, a church pianist who provided musical accompaniment during their early performances, pushed them to pursue a singing career. The group began as a gospel quartet, with Ronald, Rudolph, O'Kelly, and Vernon Isley; after Vernon's death in a biking accident in 1955, tenor Ronald was recruited as the surviving trio's lead vocalist. The brothers moved to New York City in 1957 to record a succession of unsuccessful doo-wop singles; two years later, when delivering an impassioned reading of Lonely Teardrops in Washington, D.C., they interposed the line You know you make me want to yell, which elicited frantic crowd response. When an RCA executive saw the concert and decided to sign the Isleys soon after, he told them that their first single should be built around their crowd-pleasing catchphrase; while the call-and-response classic Shout didn't make the pop Top 40 on its initial release, it became a frequently covered classic.

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