Commodores

The group left Motown in 1986 for Polydor, and released several additional albums, primarily compilations.
. They were inducted into the Vocal Group Hall of Fame in 2003. Today, Darude is considered a strong trance/electronic artist by many, and Sandstorm can still be heard at dance clubs worldwide. It has also gradually abandoned funky roots to move into the more commercial disco arena. This album was less of a success than his previous works, but is still considered relatively good. When Lionel Richie left the band in 1982, it has never recovered its early shine. In 2002 he released his second album Rush.

The band jumpstarted careers of Lionel Richie and Walter Orange. Darude toured the world for nine months in 2001. Nicholas assumed his place in the group. The second single Feel the Beat followed in Sandstorm's success, becoming a #1 hit in Finland before becoming a worldwide smash. After Lionel Richie left the band, former Heatwave singer J.D. The song was the worldwide number one selling vinyl record in the year 2000, a record of sorts for a trance number. Band members typically traded lead vocal duties. In June 2000 Darude became the first Finnish artist ever to reach top 3 position on UK's single chart.

The Commodores' original lineup was: Lionel Richie (sax), Thomas McClary (guitar), Milan Williams (keyboards), William King (trumpet), Ronald LaPread (bass) and Walter Orange (drums). The song first conquered the Finnish and other European charts before creeping onto the UK charts (via the Internet at first, getting airplay in discos and clubs before it was officially released to a waiting audience), and finally taking the world by storm. "Machine Gun", the instrumental title track from their debut album, has become a staple at American sporting events, and has been featured in many films, including Boogie Nights. His first hit single Sandstorm, was a result of a collaboration with Finnish producer and artist JS16 or Jaakko Salovaara, the man behind successful artists like Bomfunk MC's and Dallas Superstars. Darude landed a deal with JS16's 16 Inch Records, and co produced the song with him. More usually, they recorded funky, driven dance floor hits including "Brick House", "Fancy Dancer", and "Slippery when wet", amongst others. Hoping his tracks would be big hits someday, Darude started making his music on a PC first, and then moved on to samplers and decks. Now they are perhaps best known for the ballad "Easy", which was not really representative of their output. The name evolved to the Rude, da Rude, and finally Darude.

They met as freshmen at Tuskegee Institute, and signed to Motown having first caught the public eye supporting The Jackson Five on tour. His friends started calling him Rude Boy after the track. The Commodores was a highly successful soul/funk band in the 1970s. At a party with some friends, he played Swedish artist Leila K's track Rudeboys several times in a row. Download sample "Brick House" from The Commodores. His artist name Darude comes from the start of his career. (1985) Nightshift. Darude (Ville Virtanen) is a Finnish DJ.

(1983) Commodores 13. Official JS16 site (http://www.js16.com/). (1981) In The Pocket. 16 Inch Records (http://www.16inchrecords.com/). (1980) Heroes. Blue Chip Records (http://www.bluechiprecords.com/). (1979) Midnight Magic. Official Darude site (http://www.darude.com/).

(1978) Natural High. (1977) Zoom. (1976) Hot On The Tracks. (1975) Movin' On.

(1975) Caught In The Act. (1974) Machine Gun.