He was not on the list.
Arthur “Pooch” Tavares of New Bedford’s legendary 1970s R&B group Tavares has passed away.
He was 81.
His brother Tiny Tavares posted to Facebook early Wednesday morning a series of photos of him and his brothers, specifically focusing on Pooch, with the caption “Miss what we had.”
On the final photo, a shot of Pooch and eldest brother of the group Ralph, who passed away in 2021 at age 79, Tiny wrote “Now you two can get the stage ready for us. RI-Paradise.”
Tavares – brothers Ralph, Pooch, Chubby (real name Antone), Butch (Feliciano) and Tiny (Perry) – began in South Providence but the brothers have always considered New Bedford home.
The group reached massive success during the 1970s. Tavares’ version of “More Than a Woman” appeared on the Saturday Night Fever soundtrack, one of the best-selling albums of all time and winner of the Album of the Year Grammy in 1979.
The group had numerous other hits including “Heaven Must Be Missing an Angel,” “It Only Takes a Minute,” “She’s Gone,” “Don’t Take Away the Music” and “Whodunit.” Their songs frequently topped the R&B and dance charts.
In 2014, Pooch Tavares suffered a massive stroke. Although he recovered, he opted to retire from the group, and was replaced by Ralph, who had previously left the group in 1984 for family reasons.
Chubby Tavares retired last year due to health issues.
The brothers, whose parents were of Cape Verdean descent, started performing in 1959 as Chubby and the Turnpikes when the youngest brother was nine years old. P-Funk keyboardist/architect Bernie Worrell briefly joined the group in 1968, while attending the New England Conservatory of Music. Future Aerosmith drummer Joey Kramer appeared as the drummer with the group in a later incarnation called The Turnpikes from the fall of 1969 until September 1970, when he was invited to join Steven Tyler's band. He was later replaced with drummer Paul Klodner and bassist Steve Strout, which gave them a tight, punchy rhythm section. Chubby and The Turnpikes signed with Capitol Records in 1967 and had a couple of local hit records including "I Know the Inside Story" in 1967 and "Nothing But Promises" in 1968.
By 1973, they had changed their name to Tavares and scored their first R&B top 10 (Pop top 40) hit with "Check It Out", and soon began charting regularly on the R&B and pop charts. Their first album included their brother Victor, who sang lead on "Check It Out", but dropped out of the group shortly afterward. In 1974, Tavares had their first No. 1 R&B hit with Hall & Oates's "She's Gone".
"Anonymous vocally, the creatures of various cheerfully crass producers, these five brothers are professional entertainers without apology."
— Christgau's Record Guide: Rock Albums of the Seventies (1981)
1975 turned out to be their most successful year chartwise, with a Top 40 Pop album (In the City), the No. 25 hit "Remember What I Told You to Forget", and their biggest hit, the Top 10 Pop/No. 1 R&B smash "It Only Takes a Minute", which was later successfully covered by both Jonathan King and Take That, and sampled by Jennifer Lopez. They parlayed this success into a spot as an opening act for The Jackson 5. KC and The Sunshine Band was also on this tour. "Minute" was followed by a string of hits: "Heaven Must Be Missing an Angel", "Don't Take Away the Music" (both 1976), and "Whodunit" (1977, another No. 1 R&B hit).[2] In 1977 they also recorded "I Wanna See You Soon", a duet with Capitol labelmate Freda Payne, which received airplay on BBC Radio 1 but failed to chart.
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