Ronald Isley

About

Ronald Isley ( EYEZ-lee; born May 21, 1941) is an American singer, songwriter, and record producer. Isley is the lead singer, a founding member, and last surviving original member of the family music group The Isley Brothers.

Born in 1941 to Sallye Bernice (née Bell) and O’Kelly Isley Sr, Isley was the third of six brothers (O’Kelly Isley Jr., Rudolph Isley, Vernon Isley, Ernie Isley, Marvin Isley). The youngest of the original four Isley Brothers was Vernon (b: 18 June 1943 – d: 24 Sept 1954); who at the age of 11 was struck and killed by a car while riding his bicycle.

By his early teens, Isley was singing regularly with his brothers in church tours and also first appeared on TV on Ted Mack’s Amateur Hour. In 1957, 16-year-old Isley and his two elder brothers O’Kelly and Rudy then 19 and 18 moved to New York to pursue a music career. While in New York, Isley and his brothers began recording doo-wop for local labels before landing a major deal with RCA Records in 1959, where the trio wrote and released their debut single “Shout”. By the summer of 1959, the Isley family had moved from Cincinnati to a home in Englewood, New Jersey.
Ron has been the Isley…