I thought SWITCH only had 3 albums???

A SWITCH MOMENT:

Some people have been surprised to know that SWITCH had 5 albums instead of 3. Of course the die-hard SWITCH fans are aware of all 5 of our records because many of these fans have posted songs from every one of our records on YouTube. It's funny saying albums because these days the term album is rarely used, it's more cd's, recordings, mp3's, etc. and the list goes on. But back in the day we worked on ALBUMS.

Here is SWITCH'S Discography: 

SWITCH

Our 1st release was back in 1978. The album was titled 'SWITCH'. This was the album that introduced our band to the world. The album went platinum and it included the hits "There'll Never Be" & "I Wanna Be Closer", which are still some of the fans favorites. Boys II Men re-recorded "There'll Never Be" and the group SWV also re-recorded "There'll Never Be" and sang it on a TV show.

SWITCH II

Our 2nd release was titled "SWITCH II", this was released back in 1979 and it reached the Gold status. The hits from this album were "Best Beat In Town" and "I Call Your Name", which has become a SWITCH classic and has been used and re-recorded by other artists. We always close our shows with "I Call Your Name". Incidentally when DeBarge, or El DeBarge, Tommy & Bobby's younger brothers, perform live they always include "I Call Your Name" and sometimes they'll do "There'll Never Be". It's sort of a tribute to their older brother Bobby who died back in 1995.

Reaching For Tomorrow

Our 3rd release was titled "Reaching For Tomorrow" which was released in 1980. The single from this album was called "Don't Take My Love Away" and one of the songs that really has also become a SWITCH favorite but was never a single was "My Friend In The Sky". If you notice on this album there aren't any pictures and the logo is slightly different. Sad to say SWITCH was going through some internal problems at the time and Motown decided not to put a picture on the cover. This album came on the charts and jumped 61 positions when it was released just based on the momentum from the other 2 records, but the momentum only carried the record so far. We lost momentum and ended up not getting a 'hit' from this particular record. Thus one of the reasons people think we only had 3 albums.

This Is My Dream

Our 4th release was titled "This Is My Dream". This album was released in 1981 and included the hit "Love Over & Over" and the 2nd single was "You & I". This album brought our momentum back, and obviously Motown decided to put the groups picture back on the cover. "Love Over & Over" reached the 10 ten on the R & B charts. After this record and our tours, Bobby DeBarge decided to leave the band, more internal problems.

SWITCH V

SWITCH V was released in 1982 and included the single "Call On Me". Again you notice pictures of the group on the record. Bobby was working on a solo career but his solo career never took off. Sometimes keeping things the way they are makes more sense. So again momentum was lost and "Call On Me" got a lot of radio play but didn't get a lot of sales. It's what's known as a 'radio hit', but the sales didn't match.

You may have noticed, the records with the pictures of the group on the cover sold more than the other 2 records with no pictures. These are the 3 that most fans remember. Our 3rd & 5th albums aren't as known to the public but to the die-hard SWITCH fans, they were aware of all of our work.

After we left Motown, back in 1982, while we were working on a 6th album, they released 'The Best Of Switch' in 1984. By this time CD's were out and so this was released on CD. This CD sold quite well and continues to do so.

20 years later, 2004, Motown re-packaged and re-released the 'Best of Switch'. It's known as the 'Best of Switch - 20th Anniversary CD'. The fact that they took the time to re-release this CD means that it's still selling.



I also found out that a company called BBR records has the rights to re-release all 5 of our albums in 2011. At this time we don't know the actual date, but we do know that the re-releasing is in the works.

So there you have it, 5 albums, and 2 'Best of Switch' CDs was released on the group and more to come in 2011. Instead of I thought SWITCH only had 3 albums, now you understand why, but also you can see, there's a lot more.

Until Next Time - Phillip

Is James Ingram Your Brother?

James Ingram

One of the questions that I get quite often is, 'are you and James Ingram brothers?' The answer is YES. We come from a musical family. There's actually 6 of us. It goes in this order, Henry, Joyce, James, Janice, David and then me, Phillip, yes I'm the youngest. We grew up in Akron, Ohio. James and I are the only ones that decided to make a living out of the music industry.

When James was about 13 or 14 he got into his 1st band, 'Sharpee and the G-Clefs'. James and I are 6 years apart, so I was about 7 or 8 years old. But James actually inspired my love for music. As his little brother, James would take me to some of his rehearsals. I LOVED going to rehearsals with him. I would see the drums, and the keyboards, but you know how big brothers are, 'don't touch anything', back then I was like if I can't touch anything why did you bring me? But of course as I got older I totally understood.

So I would go with James and listen to them play and sing harmonies and that got me hooked. I would practice, using a pencil as a microphone, singing records that we had around the house. Well as we got a little older James joined a band called 'Revelation Funk', interesting names huh? James was the keyboard player and sang leads and background and a guy by the name of Bernard Lawson was the lead singer.

REVELATION FUNK

As you can see in this picture, Bernard is the one sitting in the seat and James is the one just to the right with with the hat. Well let me tell you what solidified me knowing without a shadow of a doubt, ain't got to think twice about it my decision to do music as a living. I was either 12 or 13, 'Revelation Funk', my brothers band, performed at the Akron Civic Center. They had done some touring up in Canada and was just back. I saw that particular show, was very proud of my brother and said, 'this is what I'm going to do'.


Well not too long after that I got into my first band 'Raw Soul.' Just about that time Revelation Funk moved to California to try and make it big. The band eventually broke up but James decided to stay and make a go of it. As you may know the story 4 years later when SWITCH was getting together that's when I called James and told him that I had a record deal and he couldn't believe it because he was out in California and I was still in Akron. So during that time when SWITCH was on the rise James wasn't known yet. But in every interview when I was asked who was your inspiration into the music industry, I would always respond my brother James. From the time that SWITCH did their first record, it had only been about 10-11 years since James had brought me to my first rehearsals, and only about 4 - 5 years from the time that I had made my decision to do music for a living, when I saw 'Revelation Funk' at the Akron Civic Center with one of my older brothers James. I'm still proud of what he's accomplished in the music industry. I also know that this is a long answer to the question, is James Ingram Your Brother?  I could've just said 'yes' but I figured I give a little more background :-)

Until Next Time - Phillip

CHRONICLES OF THE PAST - "The Wedding Singer"

About 2 months after the release of "My Best Friends Wedding" I got a call from Jolie Levine, a project coordinator, to sing on a film called "The Wedding Singer". When she called me I thought she was teasing me because I played 'the Wedding Singer' in the film "My Best Friends Wedding". So I was waiting for the punch line. She laughed and told me that no this is a new Adam Sandler film called "The Wedding Singer". Another words it was a real session.

I thought that was pretty amazing. About a year before I had worked on "My Best Friends Wedding" I worked on "Father Of The Bride II", which I'll talk about in a later BLOG. So here was my third wedding film in a relatively short period of time.

I was asked to be the vocal contractor for this film, and what that means is the vocal contractor is responsible for getting the singers together as well as turning in the contracts for the Screen Actors Guild.

So when I got to the studio Brookes Arthur was producing the music along with Adam Sandler. Brookes and I had worked together on previous projects, but it was my 1st time meeting and working with Adam. I got to sing on two songs in the film "You Spin Me Right Round Baby" and "True". We sang background on those 80 re-makes with Adam singing the lead.

We had a lot of fun working on this film and as you know this film has become one of the classic Adam Sandler / Drew Barrymore films of all time. Adam & Drew went on later to work together in the film "50 First Dates", which was also a good film.

I still enjoy watching that film even today. Talking about taking you back, this film definitely does that. It takes you back to the 80s.

Most people when they watch a film get up and leave when the credits come on, or with today's technology, if there watching the film at home they will just scroll through the credits quickly. But there's a lot that goes on behind the scenes and you'll be surprised some of the different singers, songwriters, etc that you find when you read the credits. You'll learn about more films that I've worked in the future, but in the meantime, check out some credits. You might be surprised.

Until Next Time - Phillip