Chairman Of The Board are probably the band that first kindle my love for soul music way back in the early 
‘70s when they had massive success with songs like ‘Everything Is Tuesday’, ‘Dangling On A String’ and of course the excellent ‘Give Me Just A Little More Time’. I was filled with great sadness when I heard of his passing as I believe it is listening to those songs on the radio in my formative years that lead me to find such a connection with Northern Soul as a teenager and beyond. Now I just want to say thanks for some really fantastic tunes and more importantly for leading me to the road for Soul!
‘70s when they had massive success with songs like ‘Everything Is Tuesday’, ‘Dangling On A String’ and of course the excellent ‘Give Me Just A Little More Time’. I was filled with great sadness when I heard of his passing as I believe it is listening to those songs on the radio in my formative years that lead me to find such a connection with Northern Soul as a teenager and beyond. Now I just want to say thanks for some really fantastic tunes and more importantly for leading me to the road for Soul!The musical career of Norman “General” Johnson started out around 1950 when he was part of an accapella gospel group called the Israelites. From here he soon joined a school band called The Humdingers in the mid fifties. They were soon noticed and got to record singles for Atlantic. The songs however were sadly never released. In 1961 they changed label and signed for Minit Records. A name change came with that and The Showmen were born. They released several singles with the label, the most notable of which was the R&B top forty hit ‘I Will Stand’. They then moved to Swan Records in 1965. Here Johnson released a solo effort, ‘The Honey House‘, before as a band they released the superb Wigan floor filler ‘Our Love Will Grow‘.
For a couple of years they continued in this vein hopping from label to label releasing the odd single until in 1967/68, When Holland-Dozier-Holland departed Motown, the trio courted General Johnson and Danny Woods and eventually enticed them away with the prospect of forming a flag ship quartet with Harrison Kennedy and Eddie Custis at their newly formed Invictus label..
Chairmen of the Board were the product of this merger and things got off to a flying start with the release of "Give Me Just a Little More Time". It sold a million plus copies, reaching #3 in the US R&B charts and a very respectable #3 in the UK pop chart. This was swiftly followed by "You've Got Me Dangling On A String" and Everything's Tuesday" that peaked at #19 (US R&B) #5 (UK) and #14 (US R&B) #12 (UK) respectively. Despite this singles success and with two LP’s also released (S/T & In Session), in the US at least, everything was not contented among the group, with Eddie Custis becoming increasingly disheartened and finally leaving in 1972.
Just after Custis leaving Chairman Of The Board hit back with the album Bitter Sweet. The album was somewhat of a relative failure and this accompanied by the Invictus ship hitting troubled waters plus Johnson’s own business disagreements with the label, led to them leaving in 1974. They did though leave a final legacy with the LP Skin I’m In, which spawned “Finder’s keepers“, a break away from the flouncy pop soul to a more gritty funk sound reminiscent of early Commodores. It was met with a warm welcome from the public, but was to be the last time the band would break into the US R&B chart top 10 reaching #7 and also the last top 40 hit in the UK charts peaking at #21.
As well as appearing on all this famous hits General Johnson also was quite a song writer in his own right and wrote and recorded the original version of the ballad "Patches", which won a Grammy Award when covered to great success by Clarence Carter. He also wrote the Grammy-nominated “Somebody’s Been Sleeping In My Bed” for 100 Proof Aged In Soul which peaked at #6 on the US R&B chart supplied the all girl vocal group with their #1 US R&B smash “Want Ads”.
Johnson continued writing and performing Johnson and toured the UK in 1976 with six musicians, including co-founding member Danny Woods as Chairmen of the Board, but their earlier success this time eluded them. With this disappointment the act was broken up immediately afterwards with Johnson signing for Arista Records as a solo artist. Again though in 1978, Johnson reformed the Chairmen of the Board along with Danny Woods and Ken Knox and in 1980, they formed Surfside Records, an independent record label based in Charlotte, North Carolina. The reformed group scored a regional hit with "Carolina Girls", but mainstream success was unfortunately never tasted again.
For a couple of years they continued in this vein hopping from label to label releasing the odd single until in 1967/68, When Holland-Dozier-Holland departed Motown, the trio courted General Johnson and Danny Woods and eventually enticed them away with the prospect of forming a flag ship quartet with Harrison Kennedy and Eddie Custis at their newly formed Invictus label..
Chairmen of the Board were the product of this merger and things got off to a flying start with the release of "Give Me Just a Little More Time". It sold a million plus copies, reaching #3 in the US R&B charts and a very respectable #3 in the UK pop chart. This was swiftly followed by "You've Got Me Dangling On A String" and Everything's Tuesday" that peaked at #19 (US R&B) #5 (UK) and #14 (US R&B) #12 (UK) respectively. Despite this singles success and with two LP’s also released (S/T & In Session), in the US at least, everything was not contented among the group, with Eddie Custis becoming increasingly disheartened and finally leaving in 1972.Just after Custis leaving Chairman Of The Board hit back with the album Bitter Sweet. The album was somewhat of a relative failure and this accompanied by the Invictus ship hitting troubled waters plus Johnson’s own business disagreements with the label, led to them leaving in 1974. They did though leave a final legacy with the LP Skin I’m In, which spawned “Finder’s keepers“, a break away from the flouncy pop soul to a more gritty funk sound reminiscent of early Commodores. It was met with a warm welcome from the public, but was to be the last time the band would break into the US R&B chart top 10 reaching #7 and also the last top 40 hit in the UK charts peaking at #21.
As well as appearing on all this famous hits General Johnson also was quite a song writer in his own right and wrote and recorded the original version of the ballad "Patches", which won a Grammy Award when covered to great success by Clarence Carter. He also wrote the Grammy-nominated “Somebody’s Been Sleeping In My Bed” for 100 Proof Aged In Soul which peaked at #6 on the US R&B chart supplied the all girl vocal group with their #1 US R&B smash “Want Ads”.
Johnson continued writing and performing Johnson and toured the UK in 1976 with six musicians, including co-founding member Danny Woods as Chairmen of the Board, but their earlier success this time eluded them. With this disappointment the act was broken up immediately afterwards with Johnson signing for Arista Records as a solo artist. Again though in 1978, Johnson reformed the Chairmen of the Board along with Danny Woods and Ken Knox and in 1980, they formed Surfside Records, an independent record label based in Charlotte, North Carolina. The reformed group scored a regional hit with "Carolina Girls", but mainstream success was unfortunately never tasted again.
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