A
doo-wop group from Plainfield,
New Jersey, formed by teenagers in the mid-
50s. Named after Parliament, a brand of
cigarettes.
George and Robert Clinton, Charles Davis, and Robert Lambert. They were one of the early signings at
Motown, but none of their recordings were released - George gained a position on the writing staff.
Their one big hit came post-Motown: "(I Wanna) Testify", on Revilot Records, an almost-Motown almost-classic. Revilot then went out of business, but owned (somehow) the rights to the group's now 12-year-old name . Clinton and company were in legal limbo. Then one day in Cambridge, something happened (what happened, Uncle pingouin? - think Harvard, think ex-prof Timothy Leary). And then Funkadelic jes' grew from there.
The end.
Oh?
See also: Parliament, P-Funk, Parliafunkadelicment Thang, everybody likes pickles, and gratuitous umlaut metal band.