Chairmen of the Board
Track: Bless your heart
Chairmen of the Board is a Detroit, Michigan based soul music group active mostly in the 1970s, that is still touring today.
Recording career
General Norman Johnson (born 23 May 1943, Norfolk, Virginia) had a hit as the lead singer of The Showmen in the early 1960s, with the New Orleans rock and roll anthem "It Will Stand" and Carolina Beach classic "39-21-46".
General Johnson
When Holland/Dozier/Holland left Motown in 1967 to establish their own Invictus/Hot Wax group of record labels, they teamed Johnson up with Eddie Custis, Danny Woods and Canadian born Harrison Kennedy as the new company's flagship act, under the appropriate name "Chairmen of the Board". Custis left the group after their second album.
Though they all had a turn at lead vocals, it was Johnson's quirky hiccup-laden style and his songwriting which became increasingly showcased, with the group selling a million plus copies of their single, "Give Me Just a Little More Time". The disc was released in December 1969, reached #3 on the Billboard Hot 100, with one million sales confirmed in May 1970, when the group were presented with a gold record by the R.I.A.A.[1] Chairmen of the Board also scored with "You've Got Me Dangling On A String", "Pay To the Piper", "Everything's Tuesday", "Working On A Building Of Love", "Elmo James", "Finders Keepers", and the original version of "Patches", a Grammy Award winning ballad when later covered with success by Clarence Carter.
Kennedy, Woods and Johnson all went on to record solo albums, whilst Johnson wrote and produced (with Greg Perry) for other Invictus/Hot Wax acts, notably Honey Cone. Harrison having left, Johnson and Woods toured the UK in 1976 with six musicians as Chairmen of the Board, but were not as successful as before. The act was broken up immediately afterwards, Johnson having signed for Arista Records as a solo artist.
In 1978, Johnson reformed the Chairmen of the Board. In 1980, the new Chairmen founded Surfside Records, for which the group still records.
Albums
| Year | Album | U.S. Top 200 | U.S. R&B | UK Albums Chart | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1970 | The Chairmen of the Board 1 | 133 | 27 | - | ||
| 1970 | In Session | 117 | 16 | - | ||
| 1972 | Bittersweet | 178 | - | - | ||
| 1973 | Greatest Hits 2 | - | - | - | ||
| 1974 | Skin I'm In | - | 52 | - | ||
| 2006 | Beach Music Anthology | - | - | - | ||
Notes:
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Charting singles discography
| Year | A-side / B-side | Album | U.S. Hot 100 | U.S. R&B | UK Singles Chart |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1970 | "Give Me Just a Little More Time"/ "Since The Days Of Pigtails" |
The Chairmen of the Board | 3 | 8 | 3 |
| 1970 | "You've Got Me Dangling On A String"/ "I'll Come Crawling" |
The Chairmen of the Board | 38 | 19 | 5 |
| 1970 | "Everything's Tuesday"/ "Patches" |
In Session | 38 | 14 | 12 |
| 1971 | "Pay To The Piper"/ "Bless You" |
In Session | 13 | 4 | 34 |
| 1971 | "Chairmen Of The Board"/ "When Will She Tell Me She Needs Me" |
In Session | 42 | 10 | 48 |
| 1971 | "Hanging On to a Memory"/ "Tricked And Trapped" |
In Session | - | 28 | - |
| 1971 | "Working On A Building Of Love"/ "Try My Love For Size" |
Bittersweet | - | - 48 |
20 |
| 1971 | "Men Are Getting Scarce"/ "Bravo, Hooray" |
Bittersweet | - | 33 | - |
| 1972 | "Working On A Building Of Love"/ "Everybody's Got A Song To Sing" |
Bittersweet | - | - 30 |
- |
| 1972 | "Elmo James"/ "Bittersweet" |
Bittersweet | - | - | 21 |
| 1972 | "I'm On My Way To A Better Place"/ "So Glad You're Mine" |
Fresh | - | - | 30 |
| 1973 | "Finders Keepers"/ "Finders Keepers" (Instrumental) |
Skin I'm In | 59 | 7 | 21 |
| 1974 | "Everybody Party All Night"/ "Morning Glory" (Instrumental) |
Skin I'm In | - | 80 | - |
| 1986 | "Lover Boy" (billed as General Johnson and the Chairmen of the Board) |
n/a | - | - | 56 |
