The Brothers Johnson Albums Ranked

The Brothers Johnson were an American funk and R&B band consisting of American musicians and brothers George (“Lightnin’ Licks”) and Louis E. Johnson (“Thunder Thumbs”). They achieved their greatest success from the mid-1970s to early 1980s, with three singles topping the R&B charts (“I’ll Be Good to You”, “Strawberry Letter 23”, and “Stomp!”). Guitarist/vocalist George and bassist/vocalist Louis formed the band Johnson Three Plus One with older brother Tommy and their cousin Alex Weir while attending school in Los Angeles, California. When they became professionals, the band backed such touring R&B acts as Bobby Womack and the Supremes. George and Louis Johnson later joined Billy Preston’s band and wrote selections for his albums Music Is My Life and The Kids & Me before leaving his group in 1973. In 1976, the Brothers covered the Beatles’ song, “Hey Jude”, for the musical documentary All This and World War II. Here are all of The Brothers Johnson albums ranked.

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6. Winners 

“Winners is a relatively good album. Beside the obvious disco (“The Real Thing”, “Dancin’ Free” – did Earth, Wind & Fire borrow their robot effects on “Let’s Groove”, soon to be released, from here?), funk (“Teaser”, the impossibly funky “Do It for Love”) and ballads (“Sunlight”, “Daydreamer Dream”), there are new influences appearing, both evidently through most of Toto accompanying the brothers.”

5. Blam!! 

“This is by far the funkiest album I’ve heard from the Brothers Johnson. If you’re new to them, I highly recommend getting this and the first two albums, “Look Out For #1” and “Right On Time”. Some of the best artist to come out of the L.A. music scene.”

4. 20th Century Masters: The Millennium Collection – The Best Of The Brothers Johnson 

“Sorry to the hip/hop generation. Yall just don’t know what real music is like. Yall can sample this music, you just don’t know how to make it!! Strawberry Letter, I’ll be good to you, and many more from this set is the stuff from real playing musicians, George and Louis Johnson, protege’s of Quincy Jones.”

See more: Isaac Hayes Albums Ranked

3. Right On Time 

“Their second album, once more produced by Quincy Jones, and with almost the same jazz musicians (minus Sahib Shihab but with the Tower of Power Horns). Elastic Funk mixed with slower grooves (for instance their famous cover of Shuggie Otis’ Strawberry Letter 2”.

2. Look Out For #1 

“The album starts off with the upbeat “I’ll Be Good To You” which offers a first look at the album’s most overwhelming features, that being the impressive bass lines as played by Louis Johnson. Johnson uses a technique of slapping his bass, something he is often credited as an innovator of, throughout the album, making the bass riffs one of the most looked forward to aspects from song to song. His playing here leaves no wonder why Michael Jackson chose him to play on some of his hit songs like “Billie Jean” and “Get On The Floor.”

1. Light Up The Night 

“This album comes complete, then, with all of the latest Quincy electronic bells and whistles, as could be said of the previous three Brothers Johnson albums. The key difference this time, though, is that the ex-Heatwave keyboardist, Rod Temperton, is brought into the songwriting fold – with the result being the kind of infectious, unbeatable melodies that any Heatwave listener will be familiar with – or for that matter, any fan of early ’80s Michael Jackson.”