Parlet
Parlet is an American P-Funk girl group, created by George Clinton. Debbie Wright, Mallia Franklin, and Jeannette Washington were the original members in 1978, the year they recorded their first LP, "Pleasure Principle".
Washington and Wright were the first female members in Parliament-Funkadelic in the early 1970's.
George Clinton convinced Casablanca Records to put out lots of money to promote the record, but Debbie Wright had a bad drug reaction and was in no condition to tour. She had to drop out of Parlet.
Shirley Hayden was brought in to replace Debbie and they opened for P-Funk on tour for a while.
Mallia Franklin left in 1979 to help form Sterling Silver Starship with then-husband and Parliament bassist Donnie Sterling.
Janice Evans replaced Mallia halfway through the recording of their second album, "Invasion of the Booty Snatchers" (1979).
Parlet released one last album, "Play Me or Trade Me", in 1980.
Mallia Franklin (March 1, 1952 – February 5, 2010) was a vocalist with Parliament-Funkadelic. She introduced friends George Clinton and Bootsy Collins in 1971. She also brought Ex-Ohio Player, Junie Morrison to P-Funk in 1978. She sang background on early Parliament and Funkadelic albums and became an original member of Parlet in 1978, where she recorded Pleasure Principle in 1978 and half of Invasion Of The Booty Snatchers in 1979. She left the group to form a proposed P-Funk offshoot, Sterling Silver Starship with bassist Donnie Sterling.
She appeared with Clinton in Prince's film Graffiti Bridge in 1990. Her first solo album Funken tersepter was
released in Japan in 1995 on P-Vine. She wrote, with Snoop Dogg, on the 2002 release Suited and Booted.
Franklin was married to drummer Nathaniel Neblett of the band New Birth. They had one child, Seth Neblett.
Jeanette Washington is a funk vocalist best known as a member of the band Parliament.
Washington appeared as a background singer on recordings by James Brown in 1975. That year she joined Parliament with Debbie Wright, becoming the first female members of the group. She recorded with Parliament (1975–1980) and Funkadelic (1978–1980), both featuring George Clinton, and with the Sweat Band featuring Bootsy Collins & Maceo Parker (1980). Washington formed the female spin-off band Parlet in 1978 with Wright and Mallia Franklin for their first album Pleasure Principle. She recorded the group's remaining two albums Invasion Of the Booty Snatchers in 1979 and Play Me Or Trade Me in 1980 with Shirley Hayden and Janice Evans. Washington is the only Parlet member to have remained in the band for the duration of the group's career.
Washington left Parliament in 1980. She recorded with Dawn Silva in 2000.
Debbie Wright died in 2017 at the age of 66.
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As George Clinton's funk empire grew in the late 70's, he wanted to expand the number of groups that P.Funk was associated with. He dreamed of having a Motown-type stable of acts, featuring many of the same musicians and singers, but under different names and concepts. One concept that he always kept close to his heart was producing a classic 'girl-group' like he had done in the 60's, with the likes of Pat Lewis, Tawala Lewis, and Theresa Lindsay. He had the notion of doing a female version of Parliament, first called the Parlettes and later just Parlet. The first version consisted of the backup singers for Parliament at the time, Jeannette Washington, Debbie Wright and Mallia Franklin. A number of the tracks they recorded had already been recorded, and the trio simply sang over them. Like many of the P.Funk songs of the time, the songs are long, multilayered and leaning slightly towards disco-funk. The album is surprisingly coherent, despite the fact that the tracks weren't recorded specifically for this album. Ron Dunbar and Ron Ford both play parts writing and working with the singers. Read more on Last.fm. User-contributed text is available under the Creative Commons By-SA License; additional terms may apply.
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