Sister Sledge

Sister Sledge’s first national hit came in 1974, when ‘Love, Don’t You Go Through No Changes on Me’ reached number 31 on the R&B charts and the Philadelphians recorded their debut album, Circle of Love. Their second album, Together, was released in 1977 and contained the number 61 R&B hit ‘Blockbuster Boy.’ It wasn’t until 1979, when Chic leaders Nile Rodgers and Bernard Edwards produced We Are Family, that Sister Sledge really exploded commercially. ‘He’s the Greatest Dancer’ and We Are Family’s title song both soared to number one on the R&B charts, and the latter (a number two pop smash) was adopted as a theme by the World Series-winning Pittsburgh Pirates.

Sister Sledge’s next album, Love Somebody Today (1980), was also produced by the Rodgers/Edwards team, and the single ‘Got to Love Somebody’ became a number six R&B hit. In 1981, Sister Sledge switched producers and worked with Narada Michael Walden, who produced 1981’s excellent All American Girls. The title song was a number three R&B hit, and in 1982, Sister Sledge had a number 14 R&B hit with a cover of Mary Wells’ ‘My Guy’ that appeared on The Sisters. But after that, the foursome’s popularity faded, and it never had another Top 20 hit in the U.S. — although 1985’s ‘Frankie’ (a number 32 R&B hit in the States) became a pop number one hit in England. Sister Sledge left Atlantic for good in 1985, but its members kept busy in the 1990s. Epic released Kathy’s debut solo album, Heart, in 1992, and 1997 found the sisters recording a risk-taking date, African Eyes, arguably one of the finest albums they ever recorded