The Parliaments

Then came the label's biggest moment.

A New Jersey vocal group called The Parliaments, led by an ambitious singer and songwriter named George Clinton, had been cutting records since the late 50s with little commercial luck.

Clinton was well known around Detroit studio's writing and producing.

In fact, he had co-written Our Love is in the Pocket, the B-side of Daryl Banks' debut single.

When the label collapsed, its assets were tied up in legal limbo.

George Clinton found himself locked out of the very name of his own band.

Revolut owned the trademark to The Parliaments, Refusing to be sidelined, Clinton came up with an ingenious workaround.

He took his backing band, put them front and center, had the vocalists sing as uncredited session guests, and signed them to Westbound Records under a new name, Funkadelic.

That wa- that was very significant.

George Clinton and, they were just called The Parliaments then, they played a sock hop at my junior high school when I was in ninth grade.

They, they played.

And a so- you know, a sock hop is a dance in the gym, and you couldn't dance in your shoes.

You, you'd, you know, you, you, you'd, you'd get there on your own, you'd play for free, and you'd lip-sync your record, and it was a form of payola, right? [chuckles] But invisible payola.

You show up and, and sing at a dance, and the DJ plays your record.

So the Parliaments were, uh, promoting their first single, "I Just Want to Testify." They, they came to my junior high school, and they blew everybody's mind because they, they were like a five-piece vocal group like The Temptations, but they were dressed like hippies.

It was concurrent.