Excerpted from Funky Funky Way of Makin’ Love Soul Brothers Six CD (Jamie 4013)

“The Soul Brothers Six was originally called the Brothers Four, which was Sam Armstrong and his three brothers,” says John Ellison, who eventually emerged as the songwriter and lead singer of the group. “Sam told ‘em about me, so I joined the group. There were five of us. And then another one joined the group, so we decided to call ourselves the Soul Brothers Six. There was myself playing guitar, then there was a brother named Moses Armstrong, he was a guitar player. Sam Armstrong on drums, Charles Armstrong, he played tambourine and conga drums. Vonell Benjamin, which was the bass player, and Lester Peleman, he played tambourine, and he was also a singer.”           

The Soul Brothers Six’s national breakthrough came in 1967. “ I was dating this girl, and I just used a phrase–I said, ‘You know, you’re some kind of wonderful.’ And I told her, ‘I’m gonna write a song about you.’ That’s how it came about. I was leaving, going to Philadelphia from Rochester. In the car, between Rochester and Philadelphia, I wrote the song.

“In May of 1967, that’s when the song was released. And that’s when I heard it on the radio for the first time. It was on WLAC,” he says. “It was about two o’clock in the morning, and I was listening to the radio, and I heard this song. At first, because I had no idea it had been released--I heard the music, then I heard, ‘I don’t need...’ I said, ‘Wow! That’s me!’ I called Charles Armstrong. He was the leader of the group. I said, ‘Charles, you wouldn’t believe this! I heard the song on the radio. It’s out!’ From there, we woke up everybody. The person that was responsible for it being on Atlantic Records was George Wilson. He was the program director for WHAT radio station out of Philadelphia. He took the masters to Atlantic Records.”

“Some Kind Of Wonderful”–as kinetic an amalgam of sanctified and secular intensity as ever graced the airwaves--peaked at #91 on Billboard’s pop charts that June but inexplicably avoided the publication’s R&B list. Since then, quite an array of artists have chimed in with remakes. The Fantastic Johnny C, Ellison’s future Phil-L.A. of Soul labelmate, included a sizzling cover of “Some Kind Of Wonderful” on his Boogaloo Down Broadway LP; Huey Lewis & the News and bluesmen Buddy Guy and Little Milton have redone it too. But it was Grand Funk’s rocking 1974 version that really crashed the bigtime, blasting all the way up to #3 pop.

John Ellison joined Phil-L.A. of Soul Records with“You’ve Got To Have Rhythm,” in March of ‘70 under his own name. “There was a lot of dance music going on at the time,” he recalls. “I think I had this idea, in order to dance, you gotta have rhythm.” It was paired with a mellower “Giving Up On Love.” Six months later, he encored with “All I Want Is Your Love” b/w “Doggone Good Feeling,” again as a solo.

For his 1972 release “Funky Funky Way Of Makin’ Love” b/w “Let Me Be The One,” the billing was amended to John Ellison & Soul Brothers Six. Consisting of guitarist James Swails, bassist Jim Davis, drummer Eddie Anderson, and saxists Wayne Jenison and James Johnson, the second edition had come together in 1970. “We just decided that maybe it would be to our benefit to use the Soul Brothers Six name, since it had been out before,” says Ellison. 1973's “You Gotta Come A Little Closer” b/w “You’re My World” and the next year’s “Lost The Will To Live” b/w “Let Me Do What We Ain’t Doin’” reverted to the Soul Brothers Six moniker exclusively. “Jamie Records, they had a studio right up over their office,” he remembers. “So I did some of the recordings in their studio.”