Steve Arrington

Steve Ralph Arrington was born on 5th March 1956, in Dayton, Ohio USA. Arrington played in various local bands before joining and touring with The Murphys, a lounge band out of Toledo, Ohio, in 1975. About a year later Arrington relocated from Ohio to San Francisco, California where he learned Latin percussion and drumming as well as playing with Coke Escovedo, Pete Escovedo and Sheila E.

He joined the funk group Slave (founded 1975) on their third LP, called The Concept, in 1978 – originally to play percussion, then later becoming the drummer and a backing vocalist. Eventually Arrington took over lead vocals, singing on the hit singles “Just a Touch of Love”, “Watching You” (which has been sampled by Snoop Dogg) and “Wait for Me”.

Arrington left Slave in 1982, forming Steve Arrington’s Hall of Fame, and had hit singles such as “Weak at the Knees” and “Nobody Can Be You But You”.
His most successful album was his 1985 solo work Dancin’ in the Key of Life, whose title track became a top ten R&B hit. The single also spent three weeks at number two on the dance charts, and went to number three on the Radio & Records R&B airplay chart. Another single from the album, “Feel So Real” reached No.5 in the UK Singles Chart in May that year.