The group was formed in 1976 at Kentucky State University by trumpeter Reggie Calloway, vocalist Belinda Lipscomb,[1] guitarist/drummer/vocalist Melvin Gentry, bassist Kenneth Gant, multi-instrumentalist Bill Simmons, keyboard player/vocalist Bo Watson and guitarist/keyboardist Jeff Cooper, as a self-contained group. They later added non-KSU student trombonist Vincent Calloway (Reginald's younger brother). A 1978 New York City showcase inspired SOLAR Records chief Dick Griffey to sign the group. They released their debut album The Beginning (1980) with some studio musicians. In 1981 their second album, released on Solar Records, Standing Together, reached position #54 on the U.S. R&B chart.[2] In 1982 they released the album Victory. Using elected band leader Reggie Calloway's production skills, Midnight Star hit the U.S. R&B chart with early singles "Hot Spot" and "I've Been Watching You".[2] Drummer Bobby Lovelace joined the group in late 1982, freeing Gentry to sing and play guitar exclusively.
Midnight Star's fourth album, No Parking on the Dance Floor, was released in 1983, and proved to be their breakout. Featuring a mix of R&B and funk with vocoder vocals, the album hit No. 2 on the Billboard magazine Top Black Albums chart[3] and No. 27 on the Billboard Top LPs & Tape[3] and it went double platinum in the U.S.[4] Its first single, "Freak-A-Zoid", went to No. 2 on the U.S. Black Singles chart.[2] The Washington Post's J. D. Considine argues that this song served to "establish [the] group's stylistic identity" and that it "put Midnight Star on the pop music map because it so perfectly combined the group's technopop tendencies with its R&B roots"[5] Other singles from the album included "Wet My Whistle", and the title track. The album's three singles all charted on Billboard's Hot 100, Black Singles and dance charts.[3] and the album tracks "Slow Jam" (co-written by Kenneth "Babyface" Edmonds) and "Electricity" received significant airplay.
Planetary Invasion had the same "basic sound...from the chattering electronic pulse to Vincent Calloway's chatty vocoder" as the band's previous release[5] and also went platinum.[4] "Operator", the first single, made the pop top 20 and the number one spot on the R&B chart; it remains the band's only Billboard top 40 hit to date.[2]
In 1985, Midnight Star, Kool & the Gang, Shalamar and Klymaxx performed at the Marriott Convention Center in Oklahoma City. The band continued to do concerts in San Antonio and Little Rock.[6]
In 1986 the band released the Headlines, which was their third album to sell at least gold. It was to be their last with the Calloway brothers. Due to irreconcilable differences with the other members, Reggie was out of the group, and Vincent left shortly thereafter. They achieved their biggest success in the UK with "Midas Touch", which made #8, and "Headlines", a #16 hit earlier the same year.[7] Without the Calloways who formed the group Calloway and released an album that spawned the 1990 hit single "I Wanna Be Rich",[8] Midnight Star recorded two more albums, the self-titled Midnight Star and Work It Out. These two albums proved not as successful as their previous three releases, but the singles "Don't Rock the Boat" and "Snake in the Grass" did reach the top ten on the R&B singles chart.[2] The group went on a long hiatus, though they never officially broke up.
The group reunited in 2000 with many of the original members (including all of the singers) and released the album 15th Avenue two years later.[1] Since then, the group has toured sporadically, most recently with a lineup that includes Belinda Lipscomb, Kenneth Gant, Melvin Gentry, Bo Watson, and Bobby Lovelace, with Bill Simmons sometimes joining as well.
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