Tavares

Tavares (also known as The Tavares Brothers) is an American R&B, funk and soul music group composed of five Cape Verdean-American brothers. Some were born in New Bedford, Massachusetts, and Providence, Rhode Island, and they would move back and forth between the two cities throughout their childhood. They are probably best known for their 1976 hit "Heaven Must Be Missing an Angel". 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 drummer with the group in a later incarnation called The Turnpikes from the fall of 1969 until September 1970, when he was invited to join Steven Tyler's band. 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 (Pop top 40) 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", (which became a hit for Hall & Oates as well two years later). Nineteen seventy-five turned out to be their most successful year chartwise, with a Top 40 Pop album (In the City), 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" (both 1976), and "Whodunit" (1977, another No. 1 R&B hit). 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.