Together with a fourth brother, Vernon, the group performed gospel music until Vernon's death a few years after its formation. After moving to the New York City area in the late 1950s, the group had their first successes during these early years, first coming to prominence in 1959 with their fourth single, "Shout", written by the three brothers. Initially a modest charted single, the song eventually sold over a million copies. In the 1960s, the group recorded songs for a variety of labels, including the top 20 single "Twist and Shout" and the Motown single "This Old Heart of Mine (Is Weak for You)", before recording and issuing the Grammy Award-winning hit "It's Your Thing" on their own label, T-Neck Records.
Influenced by gospel and doo-wop music, the group began experimenting with different musical styles incorporating elements of rock and funk as well as pop balladry. The inclusion of younger brothers Ernie Isley (lead guitar, drums) and Marvin Isley (bass guitar), and Rudolph's brother-in-law Chris Jasper (keyboards, synthesizers), in 1973 turned the original vocal trio into a complete band and reached the height of their success. For the next full decade, they recorded a string of top-selling albums from 3 + 3 to Between the Sheets, including the number one album The Heat Is On.
The six-member band splintered in 1983, with Ernie, Marvin, and Chris Jasper forming the short-lived spinoff group Isley-Jasper-Isley. The oldest member, O'Kelly, died in 1986 and Rudolph and Ronald released a pair of albums as a duo before Rudolph retired to a life in the Christian ministry in 1989. Ronald reconvened the group two years later in 1991 with Ernie and Marvin; five years later, in 1996, Marvin Isley left the group due to complications of diabetes. The remaining duo of Ronald and Ernie achieved mainstream success with the albums Mission to Please (1996), Eternal (2001) and Body Kiss (2003). Eternal spawned the top twenty hit "Contagious". As of 2019, the Isley Brothers continue to perform under the lineup of Ronald and Ernie.
The Isley Brothers have sold over 18 million units in the United States alone. They have had several hit songs including four Top 10 singles on the United States Billboard chart. With their first major hit charting in 1959 ("Shout"), and their last one in 2001 ("Contagious"), they are among the few groups ever to have hit the Billboard Hot 100 with new music in five different decades. Sixteen of their albums charted in the Top 40 and thirteen of those albums have been certified gold, platinum or multi-platinum by the RIAA. The brothers have been honored by several musical institutions, including the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, which inducted them in 1992. Five years later, they were added to Hollywood's Rockwalk, and in 2003 they were inducted to the Vocal Group Hall of Fame. They received the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award in 2014.
Full Wikipedia article: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Isley_Brothers
Studio albums
Shout! (1959)
Twist & Shout (1962)
Twisting and Shouting (1963)
This Old Heart of Mine (1966)
Soul on the Rocks (1967)
It's Our Thing (1969)
The Brothers: Isley (1969)
Get into Something (1970)
Givin' It Back (1971)
Brother, Brother, Brother (1972)
3 + 3 (1973)
Live It Up (1974)
The Heat Is On (1975)
Harvest for the World (1976)
Go for Your Guns (1977)
Showdown (1978)
Winner Takes All (1979)
Go All the Way (1980)
Grand Slam (1981)
Inside You (1981)
The Real Deal (1982)
Between the Sheets (1983)
Masterpiece (1985)
Smooth Sailin' (1987)
Spend the Night (1989)
Tracks of Life (1992)
Mission to Please (1996)
Eternal (2001)
Body Kiss (2003)
Baby Makin' Music (2006)
Power of Peace (2017)
I Guess I
The Isley Brothers Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
You've got the love I need
You've got the love I need
Open up your arms
And let me walk on in
Open up your heart
And let me live again
When you left you left with me
A dream no longer reality
I live the shadows of our past
With this love that's born to last
I guess I'll always love you
You've got the love I need
You've got the love I need
The only time I'm happy
Is when you're on my mind
Every day I live
All my love I give
I've been a thousand places
Seen your smile on a thousand faces
No matter what I try to do
I'm always dreaming of you
I guess I'll always love you
You've got the love I need
You've got the love I need
Every boy that passes by
I see your sparkle in his eye
Right away I stop and stare
Close my eyes and see you there
Whenever I feel almost free
Memories take hold of me
I love you now so much more
Than I ever did before
I guess I'll always love you
I guess I'll always love you
I guess I'll always love you
The Isley Brothers’ song, “I Guess I’ll Always Love You,” is a love ballad that expresses the eternal love one has for their partner. The lyrics convey a loved one’s importance and vitality in the life of the singer. “You've got the love I need” is a reference to the deep longing and fulfilment that the loved one provides to the singer. The song alludes to the pain that comes with a break-up, and how the memory of the relationship lingers on. The singer notes that “When you left, you left with me a dream no longer reality,” suggesting that the singer was living in a dream caused by the perfect relationship that no longer exists.
The song speaks of a desire to rekindle the love and have the other person back in their life, symbolized by “opening up your arms and letting me walk on in” and “opening up your heart and letting me live again” The singer echoes that they are always dreaming of their lost love, and despite being in different places and with different people, the love they had remains unshakable. It shows strength in the persistence of the singer’s love, even though it can be both a blessing and a curse. The lyrics are powerful and relatable to anyone who has experienced a love that they couldn’t shake, and the simple instrumentation and delivery of the song support the sentiments.
Line by Line Meaning
I guess I'll always love you
Despite everything that's happened, I know deep down that my love for you will never fade
You've got the love I need
There's something about you that fulfills a void in me and keeps me coming back
You've got the love I need
I've tried to fill that void with other people, but none of them have what you have
Open up your arms
Let me back into your life and show me that you still care
And let me walk on in
Give me another chance to be with you and make things right
Open up your heart
Let me back into your heart and let me love you like I used to
And let me live again
Being without you has been like living in a constant state of limbo, and I need you to bring me back to life
When you left you left with me
When you left, you took a part of me with you that I can never get back
A dream no longer reality
The fantasies of our life together that I used to hold onto are now just a distant memory
I live the shadows of our past
I can't escape the memories of our time together, even though they now haunt me
With this love that's born to last
Despite everything, my love for you will never die and will always be present
The only time I'm happy
My happiness is dependent on thoughts of you, and without you, I can't be truly happy
Is when you're on my mind
You occupy my thoughts and are always at the forefront of my mind
Every day I live
I do what I need to do to get by, but it's all meaningless without you
All my love I give
I pour all of my love into thoughts of you, hoping that somehow you'll feel it
I've been a thousand places
I've tried to move on and put distance between us, but I can never truly escape memories of you
Seen your smile on a thousand faces
Even though I've seen so many people and places, none of their smiles ever match up to yours
No matter what I try to do
No matter how hard I try to forget you or move on, I can never escape how I feel about you
I'm always dreaming of you
My mind is always consumed with thoughts of you, even when I'm sleeping
Every boy that passes by
Even though I try to move on, every guy I see just reminds me of what I once had with you
I see your sparkle in his eye
I can't help but compare everyone else to you and see you in them
Right away I stop and stare
In those moments, everything else fades away, and I'm left with thoughts of you
Close my eyes and see you there
My memories of you are so vivid that I can feel like you're right in front of me, even when you're not
Whenever I feel almost free
There are times when I feel like I'm moving on and making progress, but those feelings always get interrupted
Memories take hold of me
Whenever I start to forget, memories of you come flooding back and take over
I love you now so much more
My love for you has only grown stronger over time, despite everything that's happened
Than I ever did before
I never realized how much you meant to me until you were gone, and now I know that I need you in my life
Lyrics © Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC
Written by: JR., BRIAN HOLLAND, EDWARD HOLLAND, EDWARD, JR. HOLLAND, LAMONT DOZIER, LAMONT HERBERT DOZIER
Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind
Keepingthefaith72
What an incredible upbeat. Record , if this doesn’t get you dancing , you’ve got no Soul …….
Anthony Lloyd
One of the best Isley Brothers songs timeless!
indy 56
I hear a symphony is up there with this one also.
Ann
Any body out there remembers jug bottle in leeds
Gary Warburton
What a tune , one of the all time best.
Austin Kennedy
Must be in the top 10 of the best dance record ever
Tina Davies
Just one of my ringtones. And I have many ha. I was getting served in a shop the other week,somebody rang this played and a man next to me said now that's a blast from the past. Love it
Martyn Robinson
Magic tones t x
Tina Davies
Too right
Martyn Robinson
Shame you can't bring all this LOVELY music back when i think now i was so lucky listening to the sounds in the 70s X