Street Player was released in 1978 and managed to churn out a Top 40 pop hit “Stay.” Following the release of the album, Khan made the inevitable move to a solo career. Most importantly, the hit single made Chaka Khan into a recording star. It reached #3 on both pop and R&B singles charts in 1974, and won a Grammy for Best R&B Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocals. Rufus’ sophomore LP Rags to Rufus released “Tell Me Something Good” as the first single. The resulting song was “Tell Me Something Good.” He volunteered to write a track specifically for Khan’s voice. The album was a relative commercial failure, although star Stevie Wonder was impressed. In 1973, Rufus released their self-titled debut album, led by their first charting single “Feel Good” (written by Ciner). Stocker was still leading Rufus but Khan was slowly taking over the band with her powerful voice and dynamic onstage presence. At this point Ask Rufus was shortened to just Rufus. McWilliams finally left to pursue a solo career, with Khan gradually jelling in with the band. When McWilliams had to depart from the band, she asked Chaka if she was interested in taking her place in the band. McWilliams had been friends with another singer Chaka Khan (born Yvette Marie Stevens in 1953). Some members of Rufus and Khan went on a brief reunion tour in 2001.
Tensions within the band members as well as Khan’s emerging solo career had led to the band’s commercial decline and eventual break-up in the early 1980s. The band would achieve successive albums that topped the R&B charts – Rufus Featuring Chaka Khan, Ask Rufus, and Street Player. Rufusized, their third studio album, also became a success, yielding the Top 10 pop single “Once You Get Started” – the album went to gold at that time. Khan’s increasing fame led the band to billed as Rufus Featuring Chaka Khan. When Chaka Khan came along and replaced the original singer, her friend Paulette McWilliams, they finally became Rufus.Īfter scoring minor hits, the band gradually crept to prominence with their gold-selling album Rags To Rufusin 1974 it features “Tell Me Something Good”, a track written by Stevie Wonder, and “You Got the Love” which was written by Khan and musician-songwriter Ray Parker Jr. After this, they underwent a change of name and personnel, having become “Circus”, “Smoke” and “Ask Rufus”.
The band founded its roots in Cicero, Illinois as The American Breed, who scored a rock single in 1967 “Bend Me, Shape Me”. Co-produced by him and Gaute Johannesen, it features a bevy of session musicians - Vinay Lobo, Hitesh Dhutia and Mohit Mukhi on the guitar, JD and Sonu Sangameswaram on the bass.Rufus was a multi-racial American funk group who produced one of the most famous female singers in the era, Chaka Khan. Yanger is at his songwriter best on The Folds Galore, bringing his lyrical decadence over unpretentious melodies. The new nine-track album is pure DIY, and packs in equal parts nostalgia and novelty. He laughs, saying, “I never thought of it like that.” So what took the band so long? “Self doubt… life… other projects and a small dose of procrastination,” says Yanger, who many would remember from his yesteryear bands Bliss Logic and Sleeping Buddha.ĭuncus Rufus’s debut album Carte Blanche came out in 2013 on Times Music. Yanger owed The Folds Galore to his loyal friends, if not to himself, I joke. Since 2012, in the Yanger household, ‘Lima’s next album’ has drawn as much anticipation and fascination as the exquisite Naga pork he is famous for whipping up. The pals have been teased way too long – for over seven years and across several house parties where the musician would often reveal a new tune or two after a couple of beers. It is perhaps Lima Yanger’s closest buddies that can’t contain their excitement at the release The Folds Galore, the musician’s latest album with his alt rock band Duncus Rufus.