The Gap Band

The Gap Band was founded by Ronnie Wilson in 1967 in Tulsa, Oklahoma, and comprised of multi-instrumentalist brothers Ronnie Wilson & his Brothers, The Gap Band surfaced as one of the most popular funk/rhythm-and-blues (R&B) groups of the 1980s. The brothers grew up performing in their father’s Pentecostal church in Tulsa. There, their mother was the church’s pianist, and the boys sang every Sunday before their father’s sermon. Ronnie, the oldest, started the group when he was fourteen and eventually recruited his younger brothers to play in the band, which they named after streets in the heart of Tulsa’s historic African American business district, Greenwood, Archer, and Pine coming up with the acronym “GAP” The Gap Band recorded their first album, Magician’s Holiday (1974), for Shelter Records, owned by fellow Tulsan Leon Russell. Their success really took flight in 1979 after they moved to Los Angeles. The group scored a Top Five R&B hit with “Shake” (1979), followed by other 1980’s R&B Top Ten hits “Steppin’ Out” and “I Don’t Believe You Want to Get Up and Dance (Oops, Up Side Your Head).” The 1982 pop hit “You Dropped a Bomb On Me” exhibits their trademark, bass-heavy style and the silky, smooth vocals. The band continued recording into the twenty first century.