Tavares (group)


Tavares is an American R&B, funk and soul music group composed of five Cape Verdean-American brothers. Born and raised in Providence, Rhode Island, they would later move to New Bedford, Massachusetts.

History

The brothers, whose parents were of Cape Verdean descent, started performing in 1959 as Chubby and the Turnpikes when the youngest brother was nine years old. P-Funk keyboardist/architect Bernie Worrell briefly joined the group in 1968 while attending the New England Conservatory of Music. Future Aerosmith drummer Joey Kramer appeared as the "token white-guy drummer" in a later incarnation called The Turnpikes from the fall of 1969 until September 1970, when he was invited to join Aerosmith. He was later replaced with drummer Paul Klodner and bassist Steve Strout, which gave them a tight, punchy rhythm section. Chubby and The Turnpikes signed with Capitol Records in 1967 and had a couple of local hit records including "I Know The Inside Story" in 1967 and "Nothing But Promises" in 1968. By 1973, they had changed their name to Tavares and scored their first R&B Top 10 hit with "Check it Out", and soon began charting regularly on the R&B and pop charts. Their first album included their brother Victor, who sang lead on "Check it Out", but dropped out of the group shortly afterward. In 1974 Tavares had a No. 1 R&B hit with Hall & Oates's "She's Gone",.
1975 turned out to be their most successful year chartwise, with a Top 40 Pop album, the No. 25 hit "Remember What I Told You to Forget", and their biggest hit, the Top 10 Pop/No. 1 R&B smash "It Only Takes a Minute", which was later successfully covered by both Jonathan King and Take That, and sampled by Jennifer Lopez. They parlayed this success into a spot as an opening act for The Jackson 5. KC and The Sunshine Band was also on this tour. "Minute" was followed by a string of hits: "Heaven Must Be Missing an Angel", "Don't Take Away the Music", and "Whodunit". In 1977 they also recorded "I Wanna See You Soon", a duet with Capitol labelmate Freda Payne, which received airplay on BBC Radio 1 but failed to chart.
Many of their hits, however, underplayed their R&B background and gave the group the image of being a disco act. This perception was reinforced by their appearance on the soundtrack to the film Saturday Night Fever in 1977. Tavares recorded the Bee Gees song "More Than a Woman", and their version reached the Pop Top 40 that year. The soundtrack became one of the most successful in history, giving Tavares their only Grammy.
Later albums, such as Madam Butterfly and Supercharged, strayed from the disco format and were less successful on the pop chart. At the start of the 1980s, Tavares left Capitol Records, signing with RCA. They had one last major hit, the ballad "A Penny for Your Thoughts", for which they were nominated for a Grammy in 1982; their last major release was Words and Music in 1983.
In 1984, Ralph stepped down from the group. Pooch took over as the noncommissioned business/booking agent for TAVARES from 1984 to 2014. Tiny left in the mid-1990s to pursue his solo career, while the other three brothers continued to tour. Tiny rejoined the group in 2009. In 2014 Pooch suffered a devastating stroke and the business/booking for TAVARES was turned over to Oriola Mngmt LLC. Pooch believed in the family business TAVARES and loyally stayed true to it throughout his singing career. He thanks his brother Ralph for stepping in during his illness. Pooch has regained his health and opts for retirement leaving the fans with the image of his last performance.
Musician Feliciano "Flash" Vierra Tavares, the family patriarch and father of all members of Tavares, died in 2008.
Chubby Tavares released his first solo album, Jealousy, on July 17, 2012, a few months after Tavares, the Four Tops, and The Temptations toured the UK together. Preceding the album, a digital-only single was released called "It's Christmas". On December 17, it reached No. 5 on Amazon's Acid Jazz chart. Both the album and the single were produced by Carla Olson, and the album was released by Fuel Records/Universal.
They were inducted into the Rhode Island Music Hall of Fame in 2014.
They consist of:

Studio albums

Compilation albums

Singles

Awards

The Grammy Awards are awarded annually by the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences of the United States for outstanding achievements in the music industry. Often considered the highest music honor, the awards were established in 1958. Tavares has won one award from one nomination.
Tavares was inducted into the Rhode Island Music Hall of Fame in 2014.
YearNominated workAwardResult
1979Saturday Night Fever SoundtrackAlbum of the Year
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