The Time (band)

Name	The Time
Background	group_or_band
Origin	Minneapolis, Minnesota, United States
Genre	Pop, soul, Funk-rock, dance
Years active	1981–1985, 1990–1991, 1995–present
Label	Warner Bros. Records Paisley Park Records
Associated acts	Flyte TymePrinceThe Family
Current members	Morris DayJerome BentonJellybean JohnsonMonte MoirJimmy Jam Terry Lewis Jesse JohnsonRicky "Freeze" Smith Torrell "Tori" Ruffin
Past members	Mark Cardenas (1983–1984)St. Paul Peterson (1983–1984)Jerry Hubbard (1983–1984)Stanley "Chance" Howard (1996–2007)

The Time is a funk and dance-pop ensemble formed in 1981. They are close Prince associates and arguably the most successful artists who have worked with him.

History

The band was assembled under a clause in Prince's contract with Warner Bros. that allowed him to recruit and produce other artists for the label. Inspired by the 1980 film The Idolmaker, Prince decided to put together a pop-funk group that would serve as an outlet for material in the vein of his own early albums, while he explored other genres and styles in his own career.

During the 1983's 1999/Triple Threat tour, The Time were forced to play as Vanity 6's backing band from behind a curtain, before playing their own hour-long set with only a small pay increase. Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis, who had begun writing songs and production work of their own (working with SOLAR to produce Klymaxx and with Tabu Records to produce the S.O.S. Band), were stranded in Atlanta by a blizzard and failed to make it to a Time concert in San Antonio, for which Jerome had to mime playing bass guitar on stage while Prince played Lewis' part off stage, and Lisa stood in for Jimmy Jam. Subsequently, the duo were fined and then fired. Although Prince would state in a 1990 Rolling Stone's interview that he "didn't fire Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis. Morris asked [him] what [he] would do in his situation. Remember, it was [Morris'] band." Whether their firing was due to the incident or to their increasing independence has never been clear. Monte Moir took the opportunity to leave as well, and would also work with Jam and Lewis. The three were replaced with Mark Cardenas and Paul Peterson on keyboards and Jerry Hubbard on bass. This new line up were featured in Prince's Purple Rain film. The Time rode the wave of popularity created by the movie and hit singles "Jungle Love" and "The Bird" and were household names in 1984.

It was Day who left next after arguments with Prince, choosing to pursue a solo career in 1985 after a successful acting turn in Purple Rain. Soon thereafter, with Jesse Johnson also opting to go solo (taking other Time members Cardenas and Hubbard with him), the band disintegrated; the remaining members (Benton, Jellybean Johnson and Peterson) were reformed into a new short-lived project called The Family. Meanwhile, Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis went on to become one of the most successful songwriting and production teams of the 80s and 90s. which confirmed information provided in a Billboard profile published a week earlier.

Discography

Artist	The Time
Studio	4
Singles	11

The discography of The Time contains 4 studio albums and 11 singles.

Studio albums

{|class="wikitable" style=text-align:center; !rowspan="2"| Year !rowspan="2" width="250"| Title !colspan="2"| Chart positions |- style="font-size:smaller;" ! width="35"| U.S. ! width="35"| U.S. R&B; |- | 1981 |align="left"| The Time

Released: July 29, 1981

Label: (Warner Bros. Records

| 50 | 7 |- | 1982 |align="left"| What Time Is It?

Released: August 25, 1982

Label: Warner Bros.

| 26 | 2 |- | 1984 |align="left"| Ice Cream Castle

Released: July 2, 1984

Label: Warner Bros.

| 24 | |- | 1990 |align="left"| Pandemonium

Released: July 10, 1990

Label: Paisley Park Records

| 18 | 9 |- |}

Singles

{|class="wikitable" style=text-align:center; !rowspan="2"| Year !rowspan="2" width="250"| Title !colspan="3"| Chart positions !rowspan="2"| Album |- style="font-size:smaller;" ! width="35"| U.S. Hot 100 ! width="35"| U.S. R&B; ! width="35"| U.S. Dance |- | 1981 |align="left"| "Get It Up" | – | 6 | 16 |align="left" rowspan="3"| The Time |- |rowspan="4"| 1982 |align="left"| "Cool" | 90 | 7 | – |- |align="left"| "Girl" | – | 49 | – |- |align="left"| "777-9311" | 88 | 2 | 42 |align="left" rowspan="3"| What Time Is It? |- |align="left"| "The Walk" | – | 24 | – |- | 1983 |align="left"| "Gigolos Get Lonely Too" | – | 77 | – |- |rowspan="2"| 1984 |align="left"| "Jungle Love" | 20 | 6 | 9 |align="left" rowspan="3"| Ice Cream Castle |- |align="left"| "Ice Cream Castles" | 106 | 11 | – |- | 1985 |align="left"| "The Bird" | 36 | 33 | 6 |- |rowspan="2"| 1990 |align="left"| "Jerk Out" | 9 | 1 | 6 |align="left" rowspan="2"| Pandemonium |- |align="left"| "Chocolate" | – | 44 | – |- |}

References

External links

"School of Funk: Jimmy Jam was a DJ. Morris Day was a drummer. Prince was a kid with a huge afro. Before they changed popular music, Mom told them to turn that racket down." City Pages, July 14, 2004

Brief Bio/Update for former Keyboardist Mark Cardenas (currently in the band, Eagle's Jump)

Category:1980s music groups Category:1990s music groups Category:American dance music groups Category:American pop music groups Category:Musical groups from Minnesota Category:American funk musical groups