Funk and soul band, Commodores, were first formed in 1968 at Tuskegee Institute (now Tuskegee University) from two former student music groups, the Mystics and the Jays. The new six-man band featured Lionel Richie, Thomas McClary, and William King from the Mystics … Richie later described some members of the Mystics as “jazz buffs;” and Andre Callahan, Michael Gilbert, and Milan Williams from the Jays. To choose their new name, King opened a dictionary and randomly picked a word. “We lucked out,” he remarked with a laugh when later telling this story in a magazine interview. “We almost became ‘The Commodes.’“
After signing with Motown in 1972, the group’s most successful period was in the late 1970s and early 1980s when Lionel Richie was the co-lead singer. The band’s biggest hit singles are ballads such as Easy, Sail On, Three Times a Lady, Still, and Nightshift; and funky dance hits which include Brick House, Fancy Dancer...