Exile band biography

Exile formed in 1963, looking to play small clubs in Richmond, Kentucky, but managed to top both the pop and country charts during their 60-year-long career. Their most successful hit, “Kiss You All Over” spent four weeks at the top of Billboard’s pop chart in 1978. In the early 1980s Exile started to focus on country music. During their run on the country charts, Exile has successfully had ten No. 1 singles, including “I Don’t Want To Be A Memory” and “Give Me One More Chance.” The hit song “Kiss You All Over” was used in the 1996 Adam Sandler movie Happy Gilmore and in the 2006 film Employee of the Month. They have toured with acts including Aerosmith, Fleetwood Mac, The Oak Ridge Boys, Kenny Rogers and The Judds. The five original Exile members re-formed in 2008 and continue to tour today. Current members of the band include J.P. Pennington, Les Taylor, Sonny LeMaire, Marlon Hargis and Steve Goetzman. 2023 celebrates 60 years for the band and the 45th anniversary of the hit song “Kiss You All Over.” The band is currently on tour promoting their most ambitious album project ever, A Million Miles Later, released in August 2023.

Description

Exile is a band with a diverse history. The group formed in 1963 looking to play small clubs in Richmond, Kentucky, but managed to top both the pop and the country charts during a ten-year span in the late 1970s and 1980s. "Kiss You All Over" was a major hit in 1978, spending four weeks at the top of Billboard's pop chart. After several less successful follow-up singles, the band decided to make a move to country music. This resulted in 10 number one country hits. All of this success led to an induction into the Kentucky Music Hall of Fame in 2013.

The years leading up to the release of "Kiss You All Over" represent an important and often misunderstood period in the band's history. During this time they played on three of Dick Clark's Caravan of Stars tours, released a series of singles and two full-length albums, worked with Tommy James, and played all over the Central Kentucky area and beyond. This book pays close attention to that era. In addition, a talented group of Kentucky musicians helped to rejuvenate the band in the 1990s, and this book tells their stories as well.

This is a must read for aspiring young musicians and anyone who has been touched by the music of Exile. It shows how talent must be combined with patience, bull-dogish-stick-to-it-tive-ness, a willingness to put in the hard work that is needed to work in the music industry, and, in many cases, luck. Several people have been a part of Exile, and each member contributed in different ways. They each have a separate story, but this is the story of a band. Exile is an entity that held together. This book gives a thorough history, but it is an unfinished story because the band plays on.

Recommended Citation

Westbrook, Randy, "50 Years of Exile: The Story of a Band in Transition" (2013). EKU Faculty and Staff Books Gallery. 103.
https://encompass.eku.edu/fs_books/103

American rock and country band

Exile, formerly the Exiles, is an American band founded in Richmond, Kentucky, in 1963. The band consists of J.P. Pennington and Les Taylor, both of whom are guitarists and vocalists, along with Sonny LeMaire (bass guitar, vocals), Marlon Hargis (keyboards), and Steve Goetzman (drums). With a founding membership including original lead singer Jimmy Stokley, the band played cover songs and local events in the state of Kentucky for a number of years before becoming a backing band on the touring revue Caravan of Stars. After a series of failed singles on various labels, Exile achieved mainstream success in 1978 with "Kiss You All Over", a number-one single on the Billboard Hot 100. This iteration of the band mostly played soft rock and pop music.

After Stokley was fired due to his declining health, Mark Gray and Taylor joined as vocalists. However, Gray departed after three years to begin a solo career. Exile began a transition to country music in the beginning of the 1980s, with Pennington and Taylor as vocalists alongside LeMaire, Hargis, and Goetzman. This lineup was featured on their 1983 album Exile, their first as a country band and their first on Epic Records. Between then and 1987, Exile had ten number-one singles on the BillboardHot Country Songs charts, as well as a number-one country album with Kentucky Hearts in 1984.

Hargis, Pennington, and Taylor left the band between 1987 and 1989, with LeMaire and multi-instrum

Japanese boy band

This article is about the Japanese band. For the American rock and country band, see Exile (American band).

Exile (stylized in all caps as EXILE) is a 17-member Japanese boy band. Hiro is the group's leader, who debuted as a member of Zoo under For Life Music, but Exile have released their singles and albums under Avex Group's label Rhythm Zone. Hiro and Avex's president Max Matsuura came from the same high school. In 2003, the six original members of Exile founded the management and entertainment company LDH which has debuted many successful groups and soloists ever since. Exile is the representative group of the company.

In total, they have sold over 15,600,000 albums.

History

Pre-debut

The current leader, Hiro, was originally in the pop group Zoo before they split up in 1995. In 1999, he started a new group called J Soul Brothers, which later changed its name to Exile in 2001. (But the name of J Soul Brothers was later revived by Hiro again in 2007 when he helped to form another 7-member group under the new J Soul Brothers moniker.)

Debut and second generation

Atsushi and Shun became the lead vocalists of the group. Atsushi is a fan of American R&B group Boyz II Men. In November 2003, Exile remade Zoo's hit single "Choo Choo Train", which became a strong promotional single for their third studio album Exile Entertainment. The album sold over a million copies. They took part in the NHKKōhaku Uta Gassen of the year, singing "Choo Choo Train". At first, their music style was influenced by R&B, but their style later became more pop-oriented form. Their 2004 single "Real World" became their first number-one single on Oricon weekly charts. They released the collaboration "Scream" with Japanese rock band Glay in July 2005, peaking at No. 1 and selling over 500,000 copies on Oricon charts.

The group released "Tada...Aitakute" in December 2005 and "Yes!" in March 2006