Formed in the early 1960s, they had the most visibility from 1967 to 1973 when the band had 9 singles reach Billboard's pop and/or rhythm and blues charts, such as "Do Your Thing", "Till You Get Enough", and "Love Land".
[1] He moved to Los Angeles in the early 1950s, playing guitar and singing in several doo-wop groups including the Turks, the Twilighters, the Shields and the Gallahads.
The Wright Sounds played in several venues across Los Angeles, but their best known stint was three years (ending in 1968) at Hollywood's Haunted House nightclub.
[3] There is some confusion because, after "Spreadin' Honey" became a success, Montague re-released the single on the MoSoul label (a Keyman subsidiary), and credited to a different group altogether, the Soul Runners.
[4] It has been long assumed that the Soul Runners were simply an earlier line-up of the Watts Band however, according to Wright, the two groups had nothing to do with one another whatsoever.
Their group of studio players was discovered by Fred Smith and comedian Bill Cosby who needed a backing band for his upcoming album, Silver Throat.
Technically self-titled, the album has also come to be called Hot Heat and Sweet Groove after a sub-title found on the back cover.
Their next album, In the Jungle Babe, is best known for both "Love Land," an uptempo, doo-wop-influenced soul ballad,[citation needed] as well as "Comment," where Wright discussed the state of racial affairs in America.
[4] In the band's early years, they were mostly known for playing covers of popular R&B hits but, by the late 1960s, the group began to create original songs, resulting in a sound that was, as Charles Wright put it, "the middle ground between Otis Redding and James Brown",[6] reflecting the group's musical blend of different regional R&B and funk styles.
"Express Yourself" was sampled by Los Angeles rap group N.W.A in 1988, and has been used for many soundtracks of movies, including Remember the Titans, Cheaper by the Dozen 2, and Mr. & Mrs. Smith, plus numerous television commercials.