Calloway (band)

Biography

The Calloway brothers came from a musical family—their father played trumpet, an uncle played keyboards, and an aunt was an opera singer. They started writing songs and forming bands as teenagers. While at Kentucky State University, they created Midnight Star, a synth-funk group that found major success in the 1980s. The brothers were central to the band’s 1983 multi-platinum album, No Parking on the Dance Floor, and Midnight Star stayed popular while they were in the group.

After Midnight Star wound down, the Calloways left to work on solo projects. During their time in the band, they had already written and produced for Klymaxx (“Meeting in the Ladies Room”) and The Whispers (“Contagious”). After leaving, they kept writing for other artists, including Teddy Pendergrass (“Joy”), Gladys Knight & the Pips (“Love Overboard”), Natalie Cole (“Jump Start”), and Levert (“Casanova”). In the late 1980s, they formed their own group, Calloway.

As Calloway, they reached number two on the Billboard Hot 100 and number five on the soul chart with “I Wanna Be Rich.” The follow-ups “Sir Lancelot” (Top 20 R&B), “All the Way,” and “Let’s Get Smooth” (both R&B Top 40) also charted, but after that, the hits stopped. The Calloways then focused on production work. Reginald Calloway is now the Music Director of the Royalty fund for Sound Royalties.