![]() Leader Emilio Castillo said in an interview that the band's brief foray into quasi-disco was at the request of Columbia Records, who had the band under contract at the time. During the late 1970s they briefly tried recording disco-sounding material. ![]() Though the band remained popular, their days of chart radio airplay declined. Williams left the band in late 1974, and was replaced as vocalist by Hubert Tubbs. On Urban Renewal (1974), the band moved more toward funk than soul however, they continued recording ballads as well. The funk-jazz classic instrumental "Squib Cakes" also came from this album. The album also charted two other singles on the Billboard Hot 100, "This Time It's Real" and "What Is Hip?" ġ974's Back to Oakland spawned another hit, "Don't Change Horses (in the Middle of a Stream)", that reached #26 on the Billboard Hot 100, and "Time Will Tell", which charted at #69. Although the single peaked at #17 on the Billboard Hot 100, it landed in the Top 10 on the surveys of many West Coast Top 40 radio stations, hitting #1 on many of them. The album also spawned their most-successful single "So Very Hard to Go". It peaked at #15 on the Billboard Pop Albums chart and was RIAA certified as a gold record (for sales in excess of 500,000 copies). This was the group's most successful album. ![]() Bruce Conte replaced guitarist Willie Fulton and keyboardist Chester Thompson also joined the band during the recording of the album. It featured Lenny Williams on lead vocals and Lenny Pickett on lead tenor saxophone. Tower of Power, released in the spring of 1973, was the third album for the band. The single "Down to the Nightclub" received heavy airplay on West Coast FM stations and several AM stations. Emilio Castillo, who, along with Stephen Kupka, co-wrote "You're Still a Young Man," told Songfacts that the song was based on a true story concerning a former girlfriend who was six years older. This album included the hit single "You're Still a Young Man", which peaked at #29 on the Billboard Hot 100 and was Stevens' pinnacle vocal performance before leaving the band. With Rick Stevens now replacing Rufus Miller as lead singer, 1972's Bump City gave the band their first national exposure. The single "Sparkling in the Sand" received airplay on the Bay Area soul station KDIA.Īugmented by percussionist/conga/bongo player Brent Byars, Tower of Power was released from their San Francisco label contract and moved to Warner Bros. The group was first introduced to the San Francisco Bay area by radio station KSAN, which played a variety of artists such as Cold Blood, Eric Mercury and Marvin Gaye. Rufus Miller performed most of the lead vocals on this debut album. īy 1970, the now renamed Tower of Power-now including trumpet/arranger Greg Adams, first trumpet Mic Gillette, first saxophone Skip Mesquite, Francis "Rocco" Prestia on bass, Willie Fulton on guitar, and drummer David Garibaldi-signed a recording contract with Bill Graham's San Francisco Records and released their first album, East Bay Grease. The band agreed on Tower of Power and the name stuck. Ĭastillo wanted to play Bill Graham's Fillmore Auditorium in San Francisco, but he realized he would never get in with a name like The Motowns. Within months the group, then known as The Motowns, began playing various gigs around Oakland and Berkeley, their soul sound relating to both minority and rebellious listeners. Castillo had played in several bands, but Castillo's father told his son to "hire that guy" after a home audition. In the summer of 1968, tenor saxophonist/vocalist Emilio Castillo met Stephen "Doc" Kupka, who played baritone sax. They have landed a total of nine songs on the Billboard Hot 100, with highest-charting songs include "You're Still a Young Man", "So Very Hard to Go", "Soul With a Capital S", "Soul Vaccination", "What Is Hip?", and "Don't Change Horses (in the Middle of a Stream)". There have been a number of lead vocalists, the most well-known being Lenny Williams, who fronted the band between early 1973 and late 1974, the period of their greatest commercial success. Tower of Power is an American R&B-based horn section and band, originating in Oakland, California, that has been performing since 1968.
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