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The Trammps music biography continued...

popular the arrangement consisted of lead singer Jimmy Ellis as well as vocalists Robert Upchurch, Harold Wade and Stanley Wade and drummer Earl Young. They scored their first hit in 1972 on Buddah Records with an uptempo, pre-disco dance remake of Judy Garland's "Zing Went the Strings of My Heart," which reached number 17 on the R&B charts in 1972. It was featured on the subsequently released Legendary Zing Album, which also included the minor midtempo hit "Hold Back the Night," but The Trammps wouldn't make real waves until they started recording dance oriented tunes like 1974's "Hooked for Life" and "Where Do We Go From Here," which were some of the first R&B songs with dance grooves. The Trammps finally had a massive breakthrough with 1977's "Disco Inferno," which was a number nine R&B single and was also featured on the Saturday Night Fever soundtrack, putting The Trammps at the forefront of the disco era.



By the time of their 1978 release, Trammps III, the quality of their material had begun to suffer and an attempt to expand their repertoire through the addition of several ballads, such as the minor hit "Season For Girls," failed. They would release a couple more albums, The Whole World's Dancing and Mixin' It Up, but neither approached the quality of the group's mid 70s work. The group disbanded in the early 80s, although they regrouped a decade later without Elis was disco had a revival, and played in multi-group concerts. And, although their fame didn't last long, The Trammps' innovative approach to soul music laid the groundwork for all of the dance music groups that would follow.