Six decades of hits, from a church in Cincinnati to the 2000s

Four brothers, O’Kelly Jr., Rudolph, Ronald and Vernon Isley, began singing together in 1954 in Cincinnati, guided by their mother and father in church. They modelled themselves on groups like Billy Ward and His Dominoes and won Ted Mack’s Amateur Hour, taking home a watch. That same year Vernon, aged eleven, was killed by a car while riding his bike. The remaining three disbanded, devastated. They were persuaded to regroup and left for New York in 1957 with their parents’ blessing.

Success arrived in 1959 with “Shout”, written by the three brothers, which was their first Hot 100 entry and sold over a million copies. In the 1960s they recorded for several labels and had a top-twenty hit with “Twist and Shout” and a Motown single, “This Old Heart of Mine (Is Weak for You)”. Then they started their own label, T-Neck Records, and released “It’s Your Thing” in 1969, which won a Grammy.

The group changed shape in 1973. Younger brothers Ernie, on lead guitar and drums, and Marvin, on bass, joined with Rudolph’s brother-in-law Chris Jasper on keyboards and synthesizers, turning the vocal trio into a full band. For about a decade they put out best-selling albums including 3 + 3, Between the Sheets and The Heat Is On, the last of which reached number one on the Billboard 200. The six-member band split in 1983, when Ernie, Marvin and Jasper formed Isley-Jasper-Isley.

O’Kelly died in 1986, and Rudolph retired in 1989 to the Christian ministry. Ronald and Ernie kept going, with Mission to Please in 1996, Eternal in 2001 and Body Kiss in 2003. Eternal produced “Contagious”, a top-twenty hit. The Isley Brothers are one of the few groups to have charted new music on the Hot 100 in six different decades, and the only act to have done it in consecutive ones, from the 1950s to the 2000s. They entered the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1992.