Clinton, George (22nd July 1941-Present)

He is a singer-songwriter, bandleader and producer of funk music, sometimes nicknamed Dr. Funkenstein and known for his multicoloured clothes and hair, born in Kannapolis, North Carolina who grew up in Plainsfield, New Jersey. He was married first to Stephanie Lynn Goshorn from 1990 to 2013 and later to Carlon Thompson-Clinton. His son was the late George Clinton Jr.

While in Plainsfield he worked at a barbers shop and during that time he started a doo-wop group known as The Parliaments. The Parliaments comprised George and the singers Gene Boykins, Glen Carlos, Raymond Davis and Herbie Jenkins and the first record they released was “Sunday Kind of Love” in 1956. They released further songs right through until the end of the 1960s and one of the songs he wrote was the hit single “(I Wanna) Testify” recorded by The Parliaments in 1967, which reached No. 3 on the Billboard R&B chart, No. 20 on the Billboard pop chart and No. 23 in Canada.

During the 1960s he also worked as a staff songwriter at Motown and arranged and produced for other labels in Detroit.

In 1964 he formed the band Funkadelic who were as yet unnamed and first formed to back The Parliaments. It was only due to a dispute with The Parliaments’ recording company Revilot that they were given their name and The Parliaments were renamed as the funk-rock band Parliament. with Funkadelic have a heavier funk sound. The two groups became part of Parliament-Funkadelic collective with rotating musicians after experiencing legal difficulties with the multiple names used by the groups which were dissolved. Later the musicians of the groups would perform as George Clinton and the P-Funk All Stars.

Parliament and Funkadelic both were successful in the 1970s and achieved three No. 1 singles, 3 platinum albums and more then 40 R&B hit singles including “One Nation Under a Groove” which has been included in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame’s list of 500 Songs That Shaped Rock and Roll. From 1971 to 1973 they went to Toronto, Canada where they perfected their live shows and Funkadelic released America Eats Its Young which was it’s first album to feature the singer-songwriter and guitarist Bootsy Collins.

During the 1980s he encountered more legal problems after Polygram had bought over Parliament’s record label Casablanca. He signed a contract as a solo artist and also as the P-Funk All Stars with Capitol Records in 1982. He released his own album Computer Games in 1982 with the resultant singles “Loopzilla” reaching No. 20 on the Billboard R&B chart and “Atomic Dog” reaching No. 1 on the R&B chart and No. 101 on the pop chart. The next year he released You Shoudn’t-Nuf Bit Fish which reached No. 18 on the Billboard Top Soul albums chart. Two years later in 1985 he released Some of My Best Jokes Are Friends and another year later in 1986 he released R&B Skeletons in the Closet with the single “Do Fries Go with That Shake?” reaching No. 13 on the Billboard Hot Black Singles chart.

Also in the 1980s many of his songs with Parliament-Funkadelic were sampled by producers of rap artists and he worked as a producer for Bootsy Collins and the Red Hot Chili Peppers 1985 Freaky Styley, with him writing the lyrics and vocals to the title track. In 1987 he was the songwriter of the “You’re Thinking Right” which was the theme song for The Tracey Ullman Show and in 1989 he recorded The Cinderella Theory on Prince’s Paisley Park label.

The 1990s came around and he appeared in the 1990 films Graffiti Bridge and House Party. He released his Hey Man, Smell My Finger in 1993. The following year he was the host of the TV film Cosmic Stop, appeared in the film PCU and contributed tracks to the album Give Out But Don’t Give Up by Spinal Scream. He participated on the John Lennon Tribute album Working Class Hero when he sang “Mind Games” in 1995. After he had signed a contract with Sony 550 he released his T.A.P.O.A.F.O.M. (The Awesome Power of a Fully Operational Mothership) in 1996 and in 1997 he appeared in the film Good Burger. Also in 1997 he was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame with fifteen other members of Parliament-Funkadelic.

In the new millennium he was the founder of the record label The C Kunspyruhzy in 2003 and made an appearance in an episode of the TV series How I Met Your Mother in 2006. The next year he was in the intro to Tha Blue Carpet Treatment by Snoop Dogg and in 2008 he released his George Clinton and His Gangsters of Love with many guest artists that include El DeBarge, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Carlos Santana and Sly Stone. Being honoured for his contribution to music he was inducted into the North Carolina Music Hall of Fame in 2009 and that same year Broadcast Music Incorporated presented with the Urban Icon Award.

He worked on the Adult Swim TV movie Freaknik: The Musical where he provided his voice for an alien version of him in 2010 and in 2013 he was a guest on Adult Swim’s Loiter Squad. In 2012 Berklee Collage of Music awarded him an Honorary Doctorate of Music. 2015 saw him performing “Uptown Funk” with Grandmaster Flash, Mary J. Blige and Mark Ronson at the Glastonbury Festival.

2018 saw him announcing he was retiring from touring the following year but that Parliament-Funkadelic would continue to tour. At the end of the year he and Parliament-Funkadelic were awarded Lifetime Achievement Awards by the Recording Academy. 2019 saw him working on a co-written song for Flamagra by Flying Lotus and the following year he was a voice for the animated film Trolls World Tour.

In the 2020s he became an honorary member of Omega Psi Phi in 2020 and appeared as Gopher in the TV series The Masked Singer in 2022.

Sources:

Clinton, George (22nd July 1941-Present)

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