Washington, Frank

Vocalist who co-founded The Futures in 1968 with Kenny Crew, James King, John King, and Harry McGilberry. In 1970, they issued their inaugural 45, “Breaking Up”, backed with “Our Thing”. It was re-released by Avalanche in 1971. That’s when The Futures decided the future was with Gamble Records, and the gamble paid off with “Love is Here”, which ascended about halfway up the chart. Its B side was “Stay With Me”. They decided not to stay with Gamble and inked an ill-fated deal with Buddha Records that cemented their anonymity.

In 1975, Frank joined The Delfonics, and remained with them, in one form or another, for almost three decades. You need a scorecard to keep track of The Delfonics. At one time, there were as many as three groups going by the name or some derivation thereof. To simplify things, Frank was in the group that included Major Harris and Wilbert Hart. (Wilbert and William Hart were two of the founding members.)

In 1983, he recorded a solo project entitled “Ice”, and it is considered a dance classic to this day.

A couple of years later, he defected from Wilbert’s version of The Delfonics and joined his brother William’s. To make matters even more complicated, in the 1980s The Delfonics recorded as one trio and toured as two others. The recording group mainly consisted of Frank, William, and Major Harris. The touring groups were different depending on where you went to see them perform, but Frank was a member of the trio that was rounded out by Major Harris and Freddie Ingleton.

In 1996, the recording group sang backup on Ghostface Killah’s “After the Smoke Has Cleared” on his Iron Man album. They released their own album in 1999, entitled Forever New, with Frank doing a turn as lead vocalist on “No One Knows”.

In the new millennium, he became the lead vocalist for The Spinners, and stayed with them for about four years. He appears on The Spinners’ Live DVD and the anthology, Love Train: The Sound of Philadelphia.

Sources:

Washington, Frank

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