First big hit single ‘Funky Worm’

The band’s first big hit single was ” Funky Worm “, which reached No. 1 on the Billboard R&B chart and peaked at No. 15 on the Hot 100 in May 1973. It sold over one million copies and was awarded a gold disc by the R.I.A.A. The band signed with Mercury Records in 1974. By then, their line-up had changed again, with keyboardist Billy Beck instead of Morrison and Jimmy “Diamond” Williams on drums instead of Webster. On later album releases, they added second guitarist/vocalist Clarence “Chet” Willis and conguero Robert “Kuumba” Jones. Meanwhile, keyboardist Walter “Junie” Morrison recorded three albums on his own before joining Funkadelic as the force behind their hit One Nation Under a Groove . An internet story in advance of a June 2017 concert indicated that Billy Beck, Jimmy “Diamond” Williams, Clarence “Chet” Willis, and Robert “Rumba” Jones were still performing.