The J Geils Band
 Formed in Boston, Mass. in the late 60's from two rival local
bands (The J Geils Blues Band and The Hallucinations), The J Geils
Band were one of the few American white bands to play authentic
soul, blues and rhythm & blues. Influenced by the bluesmen who
played small clubs in Boston, and by English bands like The
Yardbirds and John
Mayall, the band were a punchy live act.
Atlantic Records signed them in 1968, and their self-titled
debut album (1970) and its follow-up, The Morning After (1972)
took off like a rocket, receiving critical acclaim ("America's answer to
The Rolling Stones") and
leading to a live set, entitled Full House (1972).
At first the group's primary strength lay in its full-throttle
covers of various semi-obscure blues and R&B classics -
everything from John Lee Hooker's Serve You Right To Suffer,
to The Contours' frantic First I Look At The Purse.
But singer Peter Wolf and keyboardist Seth Justman had also
discovered a mutual affinity for song writing and their fourth
album, Bloodshot (1973), yielded a hit single, the
reggaefied Give It To Me.
The more adventurous Ladies Invited (1974) album was
greeted with dismay by hard-core fans and the album bombed. The
band was forced to tour constantly just to keep their heads above
water, and The J Geils Band slowly tumbled back down to the bottom
of the hill.
Meanwhile, Wolf and actress Faye Dunaway, who he met
backstage at a gig in 1972, were quietly married in Los Angeles.
After nine albums with Atlantic, the band switched to EMI
America in 1978 and immediately scored with Sanctuary (1978),
their first gold album in five years.
The title track of Love Stinks (1980) was a huge
stomp-along hit and boosted sales of the album to near-platinum
status. The J Geils band was building up to a major move. Freeze
Frame (1981) was it.
Painstakingly recorded over the better part of a year, Freeze
Frame consolidated all of the band's musical strengths in a
manic meditation on lost love, American madness and the
possibility of Rock & Roll redemption. Meticulously produced
by Seth Justman, the album was distinguished by a big, radio-ready
sound.
The album took The J Geils Band to a new level. They began
headlining venues like New York's Madison Square Garden and the
15,000-seat Boston Garden, where they became the first rock act to
completely sell-out three nights in the hall's history.
Their hit single, Centerfold (1981), elevated
the band from workaday blues rockers to New Wave pop stars.
The video was on heavy-heavy-heavy rotation on MTV and cast
lanky frontman Wolf as a skinny-trousered model of post-punk cool.
Following 16 years of uninterrupted music-making with the same
line-up, Wolf was kicked out of the band in November 1983.
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