Stylistics keep groove going with Honolulu hana hou

The Stylistics, one of the most popular soul vocal groups of the early 1970s, have been one of Hawaii’s favorites for decades.

The group’s smooth harmonies and falsetto vocals have resonated with island fans since at least 1971, when “You Are Everything,” the first of their five RIAA-certified gold singles, peaked at No. 9 on the Billboard Hot 100 singles chart.

Four more gold singles are on the Stylistics’ hit list: “Betcha By Golly, Wow,” “I’m Stone in Love With You,” “Break Up to Make Up” and “You Make Me Feel Brand New.”

There’s also an only-in-Hawaii footnote to the group’s discography: Hawaii embraced “Ebony Eyes,” a track off the Stylistics’ first album that their record label never released as a single. The song became so popular that a Hawaii-resident group, the Kasuals, recorded it as an oldie in 1982, scored a local hit and a won a Hoku Award.

Hawaii can count on hearing “Ebony Eyes” on Saturday when Stylistics members Airrion Love, Herbert Murrell, Eban Brown and Jason Sharp come to the Blaisdell Concert Hall.

“It’s a song we have to do in Hawaii,” Love said last week, adding that he and the guys are always happy to include it. He was calling from Tucson, Ariz., en route to Las Vegas, dealing with delayed flights along the way.

The Stylistics keep to an active touring schedule, with frequent appearances in Europe and Asia.

“It’s been good,” is how Love described it. “It’s not like we do six months and then we’re off. I don’t know if there’s a resurgence of interest in our music, but more people are coming to our shows, so we’re staying busy.”

Love describes the Stylistics’ path to success as a combination of timing, luck and talent.

“We were working locally in clubs in Philadelphia, but we weren’t even of legal age to be drinking in those clubs, and someone came up to us and asked if we wanted to record, a man by the name of Bill Perry. He took us in the studio, and he paid $500 for the session, released it on his label and he made a lot of money from it. We never saw (any money), but from the success of ‘You’re a Big Girl Now,’ he released it to Avco Records and Avco sent it more national.”

“You’re a Big Girl Now” stalled at No. 73 on the Hot 100, but it reached No. 7 on Billboard’s R&B Singles chart. Avco recognized the group’s potential, signed the group to a contract and brought in Thom Bell to produce them; Bell and his songwriting partner Linda Creed co-wrote the hits that followed.

“Thom Bell and his orchestrations was a vital part (of our success),” Love said. “He started to produce us in the direction of the song titles that became the sound of the Stylistics.”

Love enjoyed performing, but as a teenager he didn’t expect to make a career out of it.

“By the time I got into the 11th grade in high school, I said, ‘Singing and recording records, that’s a pipe dream,’ and so I started looking at a career. When I graduated in ’67, I would have been 18 that October; I started working for a bank in Philadelphia in the computer department. … When our first record broke — ‘You’re a Big Girl Now’ — I was working at the bank.

“We had a show to do which wasn’t far from the bank that I worked for, and I was working from 4 to 12,” Love recalls. “I asked my supervisor … it was literally a 10-minute walk, and she said, ‘Well go do your show and then come back to work.’ I’d go do the second show and come back to work, and then after the third show it was after 12 anyway.”

That was OK as long as the Stylistics were performing within walking distance of the bank. Then came an offer of 10 days at New York’s famed Apollo Theater.

Love had to make a choice, and he chose to gamble on the future of the Stylistics. It turned out to be full of hits.

“We’re looking forward to coming back to Hawaii,” Love said. “We thank all our Hawaii friends for all their support through the years.”

BARB SAITO REMEMBERS

As the Stylistics entertain their fans tomorrow, concert promoter Barb Saito will be missing her friend and longtime mentor, “Uncle Tom” Moffatt, whose death in December was the end of an era in island entertainment. Saito joined the staff of Tom Moffatt Productions in 1981 and was known in recent years as his primary assistant and go-to person for everything from artist interviews to backstage access.

This is the first big show Saito has done since Moffatt “left the building,” two weeks before what would have been his 86th birthday.

“No one can replace him! I so miss him every day,” Saito said last week. “I’ve been working on independent projects since 2012, many of which were shared between Tom and me. Without him, though, it’s a different mindset. I can’t bounce ideas off him or lean on his expertise during those ‘surprise’ moments.

“But he wanted me to keep at this, to keep the aloha going, and I’m hoping to keep doing what he taught me to do: keep local people involved and entertained, treat everyone fairly and take their needs into consideration. That didn’t take any preparation at all.

“After more than three decades of doing it Uncle Tom’s way, I don’t know how else to do this.”