Louis A. McCall Sr.
| Louis A. McCall Sr. | |
|---|---|
McCall, 1982.
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| Background information | |
| Birth name | Louis Anthony McCall |
| Also known as | Tony |
| Born |
December 28, 1951 Alameda, California, U.S. |
| Origin | Vallejo, California, U.S. |
| Died | June 25, 1997 (aged 45) Stone Mountain, Georgia, U.S. |
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| Years active | 1969–1997 |
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Louis Anthony McCall Sr. (December 28, 1951 – June 25, 1997) was an American singer, songwriter, drummer, and event planner. McCall was best known as the co–founder and drummer of the American Funk/R&B band Con Funk Shun which gained fame during the 1970s and 1980s with R&B songs such as; "Ffun" (1978), "Chase Me" (1979) and "Baby I'm Hooked (Right into Your Love)" (1983). McCall's wife is music business consultant and songwriter Linda Lou McCall. In 1997, McCall was murdered in a home invasion robbery at age 45.
Louis A. McCall Sr. and singer/guitarist Michael Cooper formed Con Funk Shun as high school students in Vallejo, California. Adding members Karl A. Fuller, Paul A. Harrell, Cedric A. Martin, Felton C. Pilate and Danny A. Thomas, the band got their start as a backup group for the Soul Children under the name Project Soul. They began working with Stax Records staff songwriters, and while recording at Audio Dimensions, a Memphis, Tennessee sound studio, producer Ted Sturges both named the group (after an instrumental recording by The Nite-Liters) and produced their first album, Organized Con Funk Shun.
In 1976, Con Funk Shun signed to Mercury Records, releasing eleven albums over a span of ten years. The group's 1977 LP, Secrets, was certified gold in the US, as were 1978's Loveshine, 1979's Candy, and 1980's Spirit of Love. They scored a string of top ten hits on the Billboard black singles chart, including 1977's "Ffun" (#1), 1978's "Shake and Dance with Me" (#5), 1979's "Chase Me" (#4), 1980s "Got to Be Enough" (#8), and "Too Tight" (#8). Tensions from within the group built over the 1980s, and the group's last album, Burning Love, was recorded without songwriter and vocalist Felton Pilate. Pilate had left Con Funk Shun following a physical altercation involving McCall. McCall himself was let go from the band after missing two concert dates in order to deal with medical problems resulting from a teenage car crash. After leaving Mercury, the band broke up in 1986, but some members of the group reunited alongside touring musicians for concerts in the 1990s.
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