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American soul and funk band

Charles Wright & the Watts 103rd Street Rhythm Band is an American soul and funk band. 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". They are best known for their biggest hit on Warner Bros. Records, 1970's "Express Yourself", a song that has been sampled by rap group N. W. A and others.

Charles Wright was born on April 6, 1940, in Clarksdale, Mississippi. 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. He also briefly worked in A&R for Del Fi Records and was responsible for the 1961 hit record "Those Oldies but Goodies (Remind Me of You)" by Little Caesar & the Romans. In 1962, he formed his own band Charles Wright & the Wright Sounds, which included future Watts Band member John Raynford, along with Daryl Dragon, later known as the "Captain" of Captain & Tennille. Over the course of the next six years, Wright added more musicians to his group and these were the players who would eventually become known as the Watts 103rd Street Rhythm Band, at least by 1968. Several of those members, including drummer James Gadson, bassist Melvin Dunlap, trombonist/arranger Ray Jackson, and both guitarists Al McKay and Benorce Blackmon, played on several Dyke and the Blazers charting singles, including "We Got More Soul" (1969) and "Let a Woman Be a Woman, Let a Man Be a Man" (1969). 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. Originally located at Hollywood and Vine, the Haunted House was a popular club in the 1960s and appears in several popular culture artifacts, most notably the 1969 go go dancing B movie, Girl in Gold Boots.

The name, Watts 103rd Street Rhythm Band was originally coined by Los Angeles record producer, and Keymen Records owner, Fred Smith in 1967. However, between 1967 and 1968, the Watts 103rd name applied to three, arguably four different personnel configurations, before settling into the final band, who played on every Watts 103rd album from 1968 onwards. Smith produced a theme song for KGFJ radio personality, DJ Magnificent Montague. The song became so popular that Smith released it as a single in 1967 and created the name, Watts 103rd St. Rhythm Band for the studio group who had recorded it. Purportedly, the players on the single included Wright, James Carmichael, Leon Haywood, and Bobby Womack. 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. 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.

In 1966, Carmichael and Wright were both working as session players for the Nashville West recording studio. 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. Smith hired the Nashville West players and gave them the Watts 103rd name. This group included (but was not necessarily limited to): Arthur Wright (bass), Pete Fox (guitar), Streamline Ewing (trombone), Herman Riley (tenor sax), Jackie Kelso (tenor sax), Melvin Jernigan (tenor sax), Mel Brown (guitar), and Abraham Mills (drums). reflecting the group's musical blend of different regional R&B and funk styles. Their experiments in long, loosely structured grooves, best heard on the Express Yourself and You're So Beautiful albums, could be heard as both influences on and influenced by contemporaries such as Sly and the Family Stone, the Isley Brothers and Parliament Funkadelic.

YearAlbumPeak chart positionsRecord labelUS200USR&B 1970 Express Yourself 182 27 Warner Bros. Records 1971 You're So Beautiful 147 39

YearAlbumUSR&B 1972 Rhythm & Poetry — 1973 Doin' What Comes Naturally 45 1974 Ninety Day Cycle People — 1975 Lil' Encouragement — 2007 Finally Got It Wright 88 "—" denotes releases that did not chart.

YearTitlePeak chartpositionsRecord LabelB side US USR&B 1966 "Grits 'N Corn Bread" — 33 MoSoul Records "Spreadin' Honey" 1967 "Chittlin' Salad" — — "Chittlin' Salad (Part II)" "Last Date" — — "Charley" "—" denotes releases that did not chart.

YearTitlePeak chartpositionsRecord LabelB sideAlbum US USR&B 1967 "Spreadin' Honey" 73 44 Keymen Records "Charley" Hot Heat and Sweet Groove 1968 "Brown Sugar" — — Warner Bros. Records "Caesar's Palace" "Bottomless" — — "65 Bars and a Taste of Soul" "Do Your Thing" 11 12 "A Dance, a Kiss and a Song" Together 1969 "Till You Get Enough" 67 12 "Light My Fire" In the Jungle, Babe "—" denotes releases that did not chart.

YearTitlePeak chartpositionsRecord LabelB sideAlbum US USR&B 1969 "Must Be Your Thing" — 35 Warner Bros. Records "Comment" In the Jungle, Babe 1970 "Love Land" 16 23 "Sorry Charlie" "Express Yourself" 12 3 "Living on Borrowed Time" Express Yourself "Solution for Pollution" 96 — "High as Apple Pie" 1971 "Your Love (Means Everything to Me)" 73 9 "What Can You Bring Me" You're So Beautiful "Nobody Tellin' Me About My Baby" — — "Wine" 1972 "I Got Your Love" — — "Let's Make Love Not War" You're So Beautiful "—" denotes releases that did not chart.

YearTitlePeak chartpositionsRecord LabelB sideAlbum US USR&B 1966 "Help Yourself" — — Capitol Records "Number One" "(I'm Living on) Borrowed Time" — — Philips Records "Keep Saying<br/ >(You Don't Love Nobody)" 1970 "(I'm Living on) Borrowed Time" — — "Keep Saying(You Don't Love Nobody)" 1972 "Soul Train" — — Warner Bros. Records "Run Jody Run" Rhythm and Poetry "You Gotta Know Whatcha Doin'" — — "Here Comes the Sun" 1973 "(Well I'm) Doin' What Cums NaturallyPart 1" — 27 Dunhill Records "(Well I'm) Doin' What Cums NaturallyPart 2" Doing What Comes Naturally 1975 "Is It Real?" — — "Don't Rush Tomorrow" Ninety Day Cycle People "—" denotes releases that did not chart.

Hill, Edward (2006). "The Watts 103rd Street Rhythm Band." [CD liner notes]. Water Records. Thompson, Dave (2001). "Charles Wright and the Watts 103rd Street Rhythm Band." Funk. San Francisco: Backbeat Books. pp. 203–206

Hill, Edward and Richard Edson (2005). "Charles Wright." Wax Poetics Issue 11. pp. 72
Morthland, John (1993). Express Yourself: The Best Of Charles Wright And The Watts 103rd Street Rhythm Band [CD liner notes]. Warner Bros. Records. Wang, Oliver (2008). "Charles Wright and the Watts 103rd St. Rhythm Band: Live at the Haunted House May 18, 1968" [CD liner notes]. Rhino Handmade.