Yarbrough & Peoples

Cavin Leon Yarbrough and Alisa Delois Peoples both grew up in Dallas, Texas, having known each other since they were young children, as they had met taking piano lessons, after which they remained friends throughout their childhoods.

In the mid-1970s, Yarbrough was on tour with Leon Russell’s band and met the Wilson Brothers, who went on to form the Gap Band. Upon returning to Dallas, the twosome started the band Grand Theft, both as featured keyboardists as well as vocalists. In 1977, the Wilson Brothers had just joined Total Experience Records (which was at that point a production company) as the Gap Band and went down to Dallas to perform a concert. Later that night, trying to unwind after the show, the Wilsons caught the twosome’s act, and as a result, Lonnie Simmons (President of Total Experience) invited the couple to Los Angeles where they began playing in clubs around Southern California.

Two years later, they signed their own recording contract with Total Experience and recorded and released their debut album, The Two of Us, which contained “Don’t Stop the Music,” topping the US Billboard R&B chart in early 1981. In addition, the corresponding album went Gold and peaked at 16 in the Billboard Hot 200 album chart. Across the pond in Europe, the UK release of the song reached No. 7 in the UK Singles Chart and was certified Silver.

The duo continued on with its R&B success throughout the 1980s, with four more top 10 R&B hits: “Heartbeats”, ”Don’t Waste Your Time”, “Guilty” and “I Wouldn’t Lie”.