Gordy Harmon, Co-Founder Of Soul And Pop Hitmakers The Whispers, Dies At 79
Harmon co-founded the group in Watts, CA in 1963 with Marcus Hutson, Nicholas Caldwell, and brothers Wallace and Walter Scott.
Gordy Harmon, a co-founder of American soul favorites the Whispers, died last Thursday (5) in his sleep at his home in Los Angeles, at the age of 79.
“‘We are saddened by the passing of one of the founders and former member of the Whispers,” said the group on their Instagram page. “Our thoughts and prayers are with the family and his memory and his contributions will never be forgotten. Much love.”
Harmon co-founded the group in Watts, in Los Angeles County, in 1963 with Marcus Hutson, Nicholas Caldwell, and brothers Wallace and Walter Scott. They first recorded for the local Dore label in 1964 and broke through to the national US soul charts at the end of the decade, initially on Soul Clock. The string-laden, doo-wop influenced “The Time Will Come” hit No.17 in 1969 before the Whispers landed their first Top 10 R&B hit with the ballad “Seems Like I Gotta Do Wrong” in 1970.
Soul in the 70s
Switching to the Janus label, the group scored several more chart entries, including the Top 20 “Your Love Is So Doggone Good” in 1971, before Harmon left in 1973, after injuring his larynx in a driving accident. He was replaced in the line-up by Leaveil Degree, who had briefly been a member of Friends of Distinction.
The Whispers went on to be one of the most successful soul and crossover pop vocal groups of the 1970s and 80s, moving to Soul Train (on which they had soul top tenners with “One For The Money” and a remake of Bread’s “Make It With You”) and then as one of the flagship groups on Dick Griffey’s Solar label. 1980’s “And The Beat Goes On,” also a major international hit, and 1987’s “Rock Steady” both topped the R&B listings, the latter going Top 10 pop in the US.
Further hits followed on Capitol in the late 1980s and first half of the 90s. Caldwell died in 2016 and Hutson in 2000; the Scott brothers remain active to this day. The group were inducted into the R’n’B Music Hall of Fame in 2014.
Listen to uDiscover Music’s Greatest Soul 45s playlist on Spotify.
