Happy Birthday to Rudolph Isley (April 1, 1939), the second oldest member of the Isley Brothers, and one of the founders of the group.
The amalgamation of siblings and in-laws known as the Isley Brothers has withstood time, vast changes in musical styles, revolutionary developments in race relations and age to become by any measure one of the most important musical groups of the last half-century. Formed in the mid-50s by brothers Ronald, Rudolph and O’Kelly Isley in their hometown of Cincinnati, Ohio, the brothers struggled for several years as teenagers to score a hit record. They finally achieved national attention and a minor hit in 1959 with the ultimate rock classic “Shout” (which received a second life in the movie “Animal House”) on RCA. They wouldn’t have another hit for three years, when their cover of “Twist and Shout” became a hit (and later became a much bigger hit for the Beatles.