Ultra Nate

Ultra Nate has amassed five #1 hits, including "Free", on the Billboard club charts, between 1994 and 2001. A comeback was attempted in 1994 with Peace Sign, but the album flopped (see 1994 in music). The song peaked at #75 on the Hot 100. By 1984, War was a touring band only. The song enjoyed heavy airplay throughout the rest of the millennium, not only in clubs, but on rhythmic and mainstream radio stations across the country. After a few unsuccessful attempts at recouping, War's Outlaw (1982 in music) was a moderate success, but the group was unable to keep any momentum as members came and went. It here that "Free", her biggest mainstream hit in America, was released in 1997. The line-up began to fall apart in 1978 when Dickerson quit and Charles Miller was murdered (see 1978 in music).

However, when Warner Brothers tried to push her in a more R&B, less house, direction, Ultra Nate left the major label and fled to the independent dance label, Strictly Rhythm. A compilation of jams called Platinum Jazz was a surprise success in 1977 (see 1977 in music). She found some American club success and European success there with a string of singles. Why Can't We Be Friends (1975 in music) sold well, and included "Low Rider", perhaps their most well-remembered song. She began her recording career on a major label, Warner Brothers. That was followed by the sligtly disco influenced "Gypsy Man" from the 1973 album Deliver The Word. Ultra Nate is noted for taking the opposite path than what most musicians take. After a highly unsuccessful album, War, War's The World Is a Ghetto reestablished them at the forefront of popular funk and included the 1972 hit "The Cisco Kid".

Though she has had club success in America, she has found the majority of her singles and, especially, album sales success in Europe. In 1971, Burdon left the group in the middle of a European tour, claiming he was too exhausted to go on (see 1971 in music). She is also remembered in America for her team-up with Amber and Jocelyn Enriquez on a 1999 cover of "If You Could Read My Mind", which was also a mainstream American hit. "Spill the Wine" became a hugely popular single, and the follow-up, The Black Man's Burdon, was almost as successful as the first. Ultra Nate (originally from Baltimore) is a popular American house musician who is best known in her home country for her monsterous 1990s dance crossover smash, "Free", which features the memorable chorus "'cause you're free/ to do what you want to do/ you've got to live your life/ and do what you want to do". Burdon changed the name to War and the new line-up, with Oskar, began recording in 1969 and released Eric Burdon Declares War in 1970 (see 1970 in music). In 1968, the Creators became Nightshift and started performing with Deacon Jones, a football player and singer (see 1968 in music). At a performance, producer Jerry Goldstein suggested they work with Eric Burdon (of the Animals) and Lee Oskar (a Danish harmonica player).

They recorded several singles on Dore Records and worked with Jay Contreli (of Love). Dickerson and Lonnie Jordan. Within a few years, they had added Charles Miller, B.B. The roots of the band are from 1962, when Howard Scott and Harold Brown formed a group called the Creators in Compton, California (see 1962 in music).

War was an American funk band of the 1970s and early 1980s.