THE GREATEST SOUL SINGER OF ALL TIME....EUGENE RECORD

In this Series of Posts, I will writing about the Artist's who are in My "Greatest Ever Soul Singer of All-Time" Poll. 

The Poll is over to the Right of the Blog, it has been Running for a Few Month's now, so if You haven't already Voted, Please do so!

In these Post's, I will write a few Facts, Figures, Stats and Interesting Stuff on the Artist in Question, I will also include a Playlist of their 20 Greatest Songs.

This is the Last Artist in this Series of Post's, I have Enjoyed  Posting about these Great Soul Artists but Look out for a New Voting Section to the Right!

Very Surprisingly Eugene Record has not had a Vote as yet, he was Lead Singer of my Favorite Soul Band, The Chi-Lites !

He and the Chi-Lites had some Fantastic Record's, just a Listen to their Greatest Song's, Real Soul Music!

ARTIST NUMBER 11..............EUGENE RECORD

Eugene Booker Record was Born on the 23rd December 1940 in Chicago USA.

He became Interested in Music at a Very Young Age, this was Attributed to his Sister , who was an Accomplished Pianist.

While at School Eugene Record Formed his First Band with Friends, Robert"Squirrell"Lester and Clarence Johnson they were Called "The Chanteurs"

They Released a Couple of Singles in 1959, without any Success!

They then Teamed up with Two other Friends, Marshall Thompson and Creadel "Red" Jones and the Quintet called themselves "The Hi-Lites"

They Released their First Single in 1964 "I'm So Jealous" which was a Moderate Hit.

That same Year of 1964 saw Clarence Johnson Leave the Band, and they were now a Quartet, they had a Few more Release's without any Success!

Then the Hi-Lites Had a name Change, they Added an "E" and Became The Chi-Lites.

By 1968 The Chi-Lites  Signed a Record Deal with Brunswick Records, who were Ran by Carl Davis, the Following Year of 1969 they had their First Hit Record "Give It Away", this Track Reached Number 10 on the US R&B Chart.

This was Taken from the Album of the same name "Take It Away" (which Reached Number 16 on the US R&B Chart), the Follow Up Single was a Double A-Side Featuring "Let Me Be The Man My Daddy Was" and "The Twelfth Of Never"

This was to Start a String of Hit Singles and Albums for The Chi-Lites!

By this Time Eugene Record was Writing and Producing other Artists, Including Jackie Wilson and Barbara Acklin. 

Between 1971 and 1976 the Chi-Lites Released some Fantastic Soul Music, both Albums and Singles, heres a List of some of the Best:

  Albums 

    1972...Lonely Man

1973...Letter To Myself

1973...Chi-Lites

                 1974...Toby

                                       1975...Half A Love    

            Singles

1971...Have You Seen Her

1972...Oh Girl

1972...The Coldest Days 

1972...A Lonely Man

1973...A Letter To Myself

1974...Homely Girl

1974...You Got To Be The One

1974..Too Good To Be Forgotten

1974...Toby

1975...It's Time For Love

1976...You Dont Have To Go

By 1976 Eugene Record Left The Chi-Lites to Pursue a Solo Career, he Released a Total of 3 Albums, but with only Moderate Success, and by 1980 he had Re-joined The Chi-Lites.

They Released a Further 4 Albums up until 1988 (with only a Small amount of Success) Incidentally the First 2 Albums were on Carl Davis "Chi-Sound" Record Label, then in Left "The Chi-Lites" again, for the Last Time.

Eugene Record was to Suffer from Cancer a Few Years Later, which he Ultimately was to Die from in July 2005.

Eugene Record / The Chi-Lites with E.R Discography

Studio Albums (Chi-Lites)......12

Studio Albums (Solo)......3

Singles (Chi-Lites)......53

Singles (Solo)......7

Checkout Some Great Music by Eugene Record 

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• The Greatest Soul Singer of All Time....ronald Isley
• The Greatest Soul Singer of All Time....bobby Womack
• The Greatest Soul Singer of All Time....curtis Mayfield
• Carl Davis, Chicago Music Impresario, Dies at 77
• Carl Davis

THE BEST SOUL BANDS / ARTISTS OF THE ALL-TIME # 1 THE CHI-LITES

This Series of Post's concerns in my Opinion The Best Bands/Artists of all time.


I will write a Short Bio including  the Band Members/ Artist, some Facts and figures, their Histories,  Links, Videos, The Tracks they made Famous, Links to Download etc etc

I will start with Probably the Best Soul Vocal Band Ever...The Chi-Lites, led by the Great Eugene Record on Lead Tenor vocals,  I brought my First Chi-Lites Album in 1975, "Half a Love" this incidentally was their Last Album for Brunswick Records.
By this time they had already had plenty of Success and Hit records, but after hearing this Album I soon made it my mission to Purchase all the stuff that went before!


Another interesting fact concerning this particular Album, The Chi-Lites Record Label "Brunswick" were in serious Financial trouble around the period of the Album release, so out of the 10 Tracks on the Album, only 6 were New, the other 4, had been Released previously!

The Chi-Lites were Formed in 1959, but originally they were called The Hi-Lites. They had 5 Original Members: Marshall Thompson, Creadel "Red" Jones, Eugene Record, Robert Lester and finally Clarence Johnson.


They Released several Singles on Local Record Labels, then in 1964 they had a Name Change, this time it was Marshall Thompson and The Chi-Lites, they added a "C" in Honour of where they came from "Chicago"


By the end of 1964 Clarence Johnson had left the Band and another name change had happened, they were now called  just "The Chi-Lites"


By 1968 The Chi-Lites had joined "Brunswick Records" and Eugene Record has emerged as the Lead Singer, Song Writer and Producer!

By 1969 the First Hit Record happened "Give It Away" it reached Number 10 in the US R&B Chart, the follow up Single "Let Me Be The Man, My Daddy Was" was only moderately Successful.


They had to wait until 1971 until the next big Hit, "Are You My Woman" was a US R&B Top 10 Record, then after that it was Hit after Hit!

The first Crossover Hit came with 
"For Gods Sake Give More Power To The People" then there were 2 Number 1's in the US R&B Charts with "Have You Seen Her" and "Oh Girl" incidentally "Oh Girl" was also a  Number 1 Pop Hit in the US in the Spring of 1972!


After about another 6 other Single releases, all getting into both US Pop and R&B Charts, the Single "Stoned Out Of My Mind" was released in 1973, it reached Number 2 in US R&B Chart, but this marked the time when several Line-up changes happened!

By the middle of 1974 the Hits were still coming with "Homely Girl" Toby and so on, more Hits followed in 1975, but it was around this period when as I said earlier "Brunswick" were in Financial Trouble, and by 1976 The Chi-lites had left "Brunswick" and Eugene Record had left The Chi-Lites!


During this period The Chi-Lites signed for "Mercury Records"  and had a moderate time by their standards, but by 1980 the Original Members (minus Clarence Johnson) had Reformed and signed to Carl Davis's Record Label "Chi-Sound"


The Re-union did not last long though, by 1982, "Creadel Jones" left again, followed by Eugene Record in 1988!

Over the years their were several member changes and a few minor Hits, but nothing like the early 70's.


Their last Biggest Hit Record was "Bottoms Up" in 1983, it reached Number 7 in US R&B Chart.


My Favorite All-Time Chi-Lites Track is  "Yes I'm Ready (if I dont get to go)  A CLASSIC!


In 2000 The Chi-Lites were Inducted into "R&B The Hall Of Fame" 


For a more In-depth Story (including all the Music, bio's, Chart positions, Awards etc)  of The Chi-Lites....PRESS HERE



The only living Member of the Original Band is "Marshall Thompson" who is still Performing, and one of his current Projects is Joint-Owner of "Mar-ance Records" with Michael Jackson's Father, Joseph.


Press Here to view/hear the Chi-lites Greatest Hits!

Below are the Tracks from the 2006 Album Released on Music Club, 36 Tracks in total, Volume 1 and 2, either just Play the tracks or Download!