The Chi-Lites to headline post-Mother's Day Evening of Elegance

IT WILL be an evening of absolute nostalgia, accentuated by good music and good friends when the legendary soul/R&B performing artistes, the incomparable Chi-Lites, travel to Montego Bay for an exclusive post-Mother's Day performance on Saturday, May 14.

The show, titled 'An Evening of Elegance' and presented by Dream Castle Villa, in association with Wi Deh Yah Productions, will be an all-white affair and will take place at the Sunset Beach Club at Montego Freeport, Montego Bay, St James.

The select performance will include veteran entertainers, Montego Bay's dynamic vocal trio Ebony, as well as the all-male singing group, L.U.S.T.

The Chi-Lites were formed in Chicago in 1959 when The Chanteurs, which included Eugene Record, Robert 'Squirrel' Lester and Clarence Johnson, teamed up with Marshall Thompson and Creadel 'Red' Jones of the Desideros to form The Hi-lites.

As The Hi-Lites, they released a number of singles on local labels. Then in 1964, they changed their name to Marshall & The Chi-Lites, the 'C' being added to reflect the name of their hometown, Chicago. By the end of 1964, Clarence Johnson had left the group and they truncated their name to simply The Chi-Lites. During the ensuing four years, Eugene Record slowly emerged as the group's lead singer, songwriter and producer.

top-10 hits

In 1969, after signing with Brunswick the previous year, Give It Away became their first United States national hit single attaining number 10 on the R&B charts. The follow-up release, Let Me Be The Man My Daddy Was, was moderately successful, but another major hit was elusive until Are You My Woman? climbed into the R&B top 10 in early 1971.

A succession of top-10 hits followed, commencing with their next release (For God's Sake) Give More Power To The People, which was the first release to crossover on to the pop charts.

The ballads Have You Seen Her and Oh Girl followed, both reaching number one on the R&B charts, with the latter also achieving the number-one slot in the pop charts in the spring of 1972.

The Chi-Lites line-up changed shortly after Stoned Out Of My Mind. Creadel Jones was replaced by Stanley Anderson, who himself was replaced by Willie Kensey. Three top-10 hits R&B hits followed - Homely Girl, There Will Never Be Any Peace and Toby before Kensey was replaced with Doc Roberson.

The present-day Chi-Lites line-up includes original member Marshall Thompson (leader of the group), Frank Reed, (lead vocals), Fred Simon (tenor and bass from The Lost Generation) and Tara Thompson (background vocals). They were inducted into The R&B Hall Of Fame in 2000 and into the Vocal Group Hall of Fame in 2005.