The Lionel Richie-led soul band the Commodores, whose career peaked in the late 1970s before Richie left for solo fame, is a prime example of an R & B crossover success. Beginning as an opening act during the early 1970s for The Jackson Five, the southern-based Commodores released a handful of gritty funk albums before slowly phasing into ballad-oriented material, which gained them the most commercial success. As their audience transformed from being largely black to largely white, the Commodores' sound changed as well, moving toward the smooth lightness of songs like "Still," "Three Times a Lady," and "Easy."

Formed in 1968 in Tuskegee, Alabama, the group—Lionel Richie on vocals and piano, Walter "Clyde" Orange on drums, Milan Williams on keyboards and guitar, Ronald LaPread on bass and trumpet, Thomas McClary on guitar, and William King Jr. playing a variety of brass instruments—was signed to Motown...