Born and raised in Philadelphia, Grammy Award winner BILLY PAUL began singing at the age of 12 and sometimes performed on local radio shows. Drawing inspiration from his family's collection of 78's, Paul would incorporate Jazz, R&B and Pop into his style, resulting in a unique sound that became synonymous with Philadelphia International Records throughout the 1970's. Billy became well known on his local circuit, singing in clubs and later around college campuses all over the country, which later led to him performing live with some of the biggest names in black music of the 60's and 70's including Dinah Washington, Miles Davis, Nina Simone and Roberta Flack to name a few.
Born and raised in North Philadelphia, PA, Grammy Award Winner, BILLY PAUL began singing at the age of 12 and sometimes performed on local radio shows. Drawing inspiration from his family’s collection of 78’s, BILLY PAUL would incorporate Jazz, R&B and Pop into his style, resulting in a unique sound that became synonymous with Philadelphia International Records.
GQ originally formed in 1968 as Sabu & The Survivors. They released three albums on Arista Records between 1979 and 1981. DISCO NIGHTS was their debut album and also their most successful spending five weeks at the #2 position in the R&B charts and reaching #13 in the Pop chart. DISCO NIGHTS (ROCK FREAK) was the first single from the album and gained them the #1 spot in the R&B charts as well as #3 in the Disco chart and #12 in the Pop chart. It sold over one million copies in the US alone and has become an ultimate Dance classic.
Cavin Yarbrough and Alisa Peoples were childhood friends from Dallas, Texas who went on to have great chart success as an R&B duo through the 1980’s. While on tour as a backing vocalist with Leon Russell in the late 1970’s Cavin met the Wilson Brothers from The Gap Band, who in turn introduced Cavin to their collaborator Lonnie Simmons and his Total Experience Recording Studios who produced the duos debut album and later signed them to his Total Experience label, joining The Gap Band on the roster. Yarbrough & Peoples debut album, THE TWO OF US was released through Mercury Records in 1980 and quickly achieved both critical and commercial success. The album gained Gold status hitting the top spot on the Billboard R&B album chart as well as peaking at #16 on the Billboard Hot 100.
GQ originally formed in 1968 as Sabu & The Survivors. Their biggest hit was "Disco Nights (Rock-Freak)” single from their debut album which peaked at R&B #1, Disco #3 and Pop #12. The debut album peaked at R&B #2 and Pop #13. GQ TWO was their second album and reached R&B #9 and Pop #46 shortly after it’s release in 1980. It was produced by Jimmy Simpson who also produced Candi Staton, Ashford & Simpson and Deodato.
2012 marks the 40th anniversary of the hugely influential Philadelphia International Records. To mark this, and following our reissue of some of the labels other acts such as the Three Degrees, Harold Melvin & The Blue Notes and the O’Jays, we are pleased to present another album from one of the most identifiable voices of the Philly Sound. WAR OF THE GODS reached R&B #12 and Pop #110 upon its release in 1973. Some of the artists backing Billy on this album are Bobby Eli, Bunny Sigler, Norman Harris, Leon Huff and Ron Baker.
Stephanie Mills was a native New Yorker having been born and brought up in the borough of Brooklyn. She first tasted success as a singer at the age of 9, winning the famed Apollo Theatre’s amateur hour several weeks in a row, which opened the doors to Broadway as a cast member in “Maggie Flynn” and as opening act for The Isley Brothers. Mills big break came in 1975 when she landed the lead role of Dorothy in the critically acclaimed Broadway musical “The Wiz,” based on The Wizard Of Oz. Jermaine Jackson was suitably impressed and was instrumental in helping her get signed to Motown Records to record her second album after “Movin’ In The Right Direction” on ABC records in 1974.
Big Break Records are delighted to continue our series of Salsoul Records reissues with the classic Double Exposure album "Ten Percent”. Double Exposure were originally signed to Stax under the name United Image until they were introduced to Salsoul by producer Norman Harris who produced all three albums they recorded for Salsoul. Norman was part of Baker-Harris-Young Productions who worked with the likes of Whispers, The Trammps, Executive Suite and Love Committee.