Commodores: A Dictionary Name, a Bluffing Bassist and Nightshift's Grammy

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The Commodores began in 1968 at the Tuskegee Institute in Alabama, when two rival student bands, the Mystics with Lionel Richie, Thomas McClary and William King, and the Jays with Andre Callahan, Michael Gilbert and Milan Williams, merged. King picked the name by dropping his finger on a random dictionary page, narrowly missing "commodes." The Vietnam draft took their first singer, a student named James Ingram, and bassist Michael Gilbert, opening spots for singing drummer Walter Orange and for Ronald LaPread, a keyboardist who claimed to be the best bassist in Tuskegee and then learned the instrument in days. Manager Benny Ashburn took them to Martha's Vineyard in 1971 and 1972 to play festivals and parking lots, which led to an opening slot for the Jackson 5 and a Motown deal in November 1972.

The instrumental Machine Gun reached No. 22 in 1974, and the band split its sound between Orange on funk such as Brick House and Richie on ballads including Easy, Three Times a Lady and Still. During a 1982 touring break, Richie made a solo album the band and Motown had encouraged, and its success led him to leave. That same year Ashburn died of a heart attack at 54, and McClary, LaPread, Sheldon Reynolds and Milan Williams left over the following years. Their last Motown album, Nightshift, produced by Dennis Lambert, carried a title track honoring Marvin Gaye and Jackie Wilson that reached No. 3 and won the band its only Grammy in 1986 after nine nominations.

• The band performed Too Hot ta Trot in the 1978 film Thank God It's Friday.
• LaPread moved to New Zealand in 1986, and Milan Williams left in 1989 after a reported dispute over touring South Africa.
• During a 2009 Wembley Arena show the band learned of Michael Jackson's death, and J.D. Nicholas worked his name into Nightshift the next night in Birmingham.
• They re-recorded Nightshift with lyrics for Jackson in 2010 and later gained control of their masters and formed their own label.
• As of 2025, William King tours with Brent Carter and Walter Orange's sons Cody and Colin, backed by a group called The Mean Machine.