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Alongside his successful careers as Zapp member and solo star, Troutman also became a hands-on producer and writer for other artists including Shirley Murdock, whose 1985 platinum debut featured the Roger-produced hit, "As We Lay". Three years later, Troutman released his final solo album with Bridging the Gap, featuring the hit "Everybody (Get Up)". In 1988, Troutman worked with Scritti Politti providing talk box vocals on the hit "Boom There She Was". In 1987, Troutman scored his most successful solo album with Unlimited!, which featured the massive hit, "I Want to Be Your Man", which rose to number one R&B and number three on the Billboard Hot 100. In 1984, Troutman issued his second solo album, The Saga Continues, which featured the singles "Girl Cut It Out", "It's in the Mix" - which was dedicated to Soul Train and its host Don Cornelius in one verse, and a cover of Wilson Pickett's "In the Midnight Hour", which featured gospel group The Mighty Clouds of Joy. The album also featured the hit, "So Ruff, So Tuff", which was similar to "More Bounce." as were most Roger/Zapp singles during this time. Featuring his frenetic funk cover of Marvin Gaye's "I Heard It Through the Grapevine", the song exploded to number one on the R&B singles chart helping the album sell over a million copies. In 1981, upon the fast-paced success of Zapp's first album, Troutman cut his first solo album, The Many Facets of Roger. Featuring remixed cuts of Roger's solo singles and featuring the "Mega Medley", the album sold over two million copies giving the collective their most successful album to date. In 1993, the group scored their biggest-selling album when a compilation album, Zapp & Roger: All the Greatest Hits, was released. Troutman also made a habit of producing solo efforts for Zapp band members and associated acts. Throughout Zapp's tenure, the original five-member lineup grew to around fifteen. The album would become the group's final studio album though they continued to release singles into the 1990s releasing the hits "Slow & Easy" and "Mega Medley", which put together a collection of the group's hit singles in a remix. Zapp's hit making magic faded shortly after the release of their fifth album, Vibe, in 1989.
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The debut album reached the top 20 of the Billboard 200 and firmly launched Zapp and Roger into the national spotlight.īetween 19, Zapp released gold-selling albums such as Zapp, Zapp II, Zapp III and New Zapp IV U and released top ten R&B hit singles such as "Be Alright", "Dance Floor", "I Can Make You Dance", "Heartbreaker", "It Doesn't Really Matter" - which was a tribute to black artists of the past and present, and the Charlie Wilson and Shirley Murdock-assisted funk ballad, "Computer Love". Records and released their self-titled debut, which yielded the Bootsy Collins produced & Troutman-composed hit, "More Bounce to the Ounce." The song peaked at number two on the Billboard Soul Singles chart in the fall of 1980.
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A year later, as Uncle Jam Records was forced to close, Zapp signed to Warner Bros.
ROGER TROUTMAN DO IT ROGER PROFESSIONAL
Zapp made their professional television debut on the first and only Funk Music Awards show. Within two years, Roger and his brothers were discovered by George Clinton, who signed the newly-christened Zapp to his Uncle Jam Records label in 1979. In 1977, he and the Human Body issued their first single, "Freedom". Troutman had formed various other bands with his four brothers, including Little Roger and the Vels and Roger and the Human Body. The band members were Rick Schoeny, Roy Beck, Dave Spitzmiller, and Denny Niebold. The band played in Cincinnati and recorded a 45 record Busted Surfboard and Seminole.
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The first band Roger was in was THE CRUSADERS. He was a late-arriving member of Parliament-Funkadelic and played on the band's final Warner Brothers' album The Electric Spanking of War Babies. In his later years, he was mostly known for singing the chorus to the hip-hop classic by Tupac Shakur, "California Love" and the Vice City Soundtrack, "More Bounce to the Ounce".īorn in Hamilton, Ohio, Roger was the fourth of ten children. As both lead singer of Zapp and in his subsequent solo releases, he scored a bevy of funk and R&B hits throughout the 1980s. Roger used a custom-made talkbox-the Electro Harmonix "Golden Throat," as well as a Yamaha DX100 FM synthesizer. Troutman was well known for his use of the talk box, a device that is connected to an instrument (frequently a keyboard) to create different vocal effects. Roger Troutman was an American singer, songwriter, producer and the lead vocalist of the band Zapp who helped spearhead the funk movement and heavily influenced west coast hip hop due to the scene's heavy sampling of his music over the years. 3 users Roger Troutman - So Ruff, So Tuffģ users Roger Troutman - I Heard It Through the Grapevine
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