Whst Happened? The Time

The Time

The band was assembled under a clause in Prince's contract with Warner Bros. that allowed him to recruit and produce other artists for the label. Inspired by the 1980 film The Idolmaker, Prince decided to put together a pop-funk group that would serve as an outlet for material in the vein of his own early albums, while he explored other genres and styles in his own career.

By 1981, Prince had built The Time out of an existing Minneapolis funk unit, "Flyte Time”, which featured Jellybean Johnson on drums, Jimmy Jam and Monte Moir on keyboards, and Terry Lewis on bass. To this base were added Jesse Johnson on guitar and a lead singer and childhood friend named Morris Day, and Jerome Benton, a promoter drawn from another local band called "Enterprise", who became Day's comic foil. Prince recorded the Morris Day penned song "Partyup", on his Dirty Mind album, and his selection of Day was essentially a reward; when thee originally tapped Alexander O'Neal opted to quit. He has been quoted as saying, "I basically didn't see no point in being a superstar with no money."

The group signed by Prince to the Warner Bros. label with their name changed to The Time. The band first album (mostly performed by Prince + singer Morris Day alone) entitled The Time Prince recorded all the music himself, crediting the production to Jamie Starr and Morris Day, who at least was allowed to sing on the record, but was required to follow Prince's guide vocals note-for-note. The album did well with hit singles “Get It Up” & “Cool”

A growing rivalry began to develop between the two groups, as The Time toured with Prince and his band during his 1982 Controversy Tour. Frustrated with their lack of input on the albums bearing their name and being underpaid, The Time would take to the stage with the purpose of showing up Prince, much the same way Prince and his band undermined Rick James .The tension came to a head on the final night of the tour in Cincinnati during the Time's set when Prince and some of his cronies egged their supporting act from off stage. Things further escalated after The Time's performance when guitarist Jesse Johnson was handcuffed to a wall-mounted coat rack and further humiliated. Prince, of course, demanded no interruptions during his performance, but as soon as he left the stage, a food fight erupted. The the battle continued at the hotel, Prince made Morris Day pay for all damages, claiming that he had started the whole thing.

The Time second album “What Time Is It?” lead single “777-9311” proved that the group was proving they were the band to watch. The album again would be recorded by Prince and followed vocally by Morris Day this time with some slight variations. The album also featured ‘Wild & Loose’, ‘The Walk” & the slow jam “Gigolos Get Lonely Too”.

In 1982 Jimmy Jam & Terry Lewis were introduced to Music Executive Dina R. Andrews who was then a key employee of Dick Griffey's Solar Records (The Whispers, Shalamar, Lakeside (band), Klymaxx, The Deele, Babyface). The pair asked Andrews to manage them, and through her relationships Andrews first introduced Jam and Lewis to Music Executive Clarance Avant. They produced their first masters for Avant for the SOS Band. Andrews set-up Jam and Lewis's company Flyte Tyme Productions as a business entity, and continued shopping them to her other record executive colleagues. During the Triple Threat tour, The Time were forced to play as Vanity 6's backing band from behind a curtain, before playing their own hour-long set with only a small pay increase. Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis were stranded in Atlanta by a blizzard and failed to make it to a Time concert in San Antonio, for which Jerome had to mime playing bass guitar on stage while Prince played Lewis' part off stage, and Lisa stood in for Jimmy Jam. Subsequently, the duo were fined and then fired, although Prince would state in a 1990 Rolling Stone's interview that "I didn't fire Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis. Morris asked me what I would do in his situation. Remember, it was his band." Whether their firing was due to the incident or to their increasing independence has never been clear. However, one of the tracks they were producing, Just Be Good To Me, became a big hit and sealed the duo’s reputation, as well as that of the SOS Band.  Monte Moir took the opportunity to leave as well, and would also work with Jam and Lewis. The three were replaced with Mark Cardenas and Paul Peterson on keyboards and Jerry Hubbard on bass this new line up were featured in Prince's Purple Rain film.

The Time album from the Purple Rain movie “Ice Cream Castle” included the title track and “Jungle Love” and mega hit the “The Bird”.  The Time rode the wave of popularity created by the movie and hit songs made them household names in 1984.

In 1984, Day appeared on a duet with singer Vanity on "Mechanical Emotion" from her debut album Wild Animal. It was Morris Day who left The Time next after arguments with Prince, choosing to pursue a solo career in 1985 after a successful acting turn in Purple Rain.

Soon thereafter, with Jesse Johnson also opting to go solo (taking other Time members Cardenas and Hubbard with him), However, at the height of The Time's popularity following the Purple Rain, Johnson left the band and signed a solo deal with A&M Records in 1984 and released Jesse Johnson's Revue the following year. This album featured two other former members of The Time in Johnson's backing band, keyboardist Mark Cardenas and bassist Jerry Hubbard. Three songs were released from the album: "Be Your Man", "Can You Help Me", and "I Want My Girl", the much-slept-on slow song about a fateful relationship. Then came the popular funk non-album outing "Free World". Shockadelica containing the hit "Crazay", the duet with Sly Stone, and Every Shade of Love followed over the next three years, building on the inventive, elaborate sound he forged with The Time. Throughout the late 1980s and early 1990s Johnson also featured on the soundtracks to The Breakfast Club (contributing "Heart Too Hot To Hold", a duet with Stephanie Spruill), Pretty In Pink, Another 48 Hours and White Men Can't Jump.

The remaining members (Benton, Jellybean Johnson and Peterson) were reformed into a new short-lived project called The Family.  The band served as an outlet for Prince to release more music, he wanted to continue this avenue, as he did with The Time. With Peterson renamed "St. Paul" as the new frontman and bassist. Johnson and Benton reprised their familiar roles from The Time added to the mix, Prince added Susannah Melvoin, the twin sister of Revolution guitarist Wendy Melvoin and Prince's fiancée, as a backing singer and keyboardist. The fifth member was Eric Leeds, the brother of Prince's tour manager Alan Leeds, who provided saxophone and flute. Guitarist Miko Weaver is credited in the album's booklet because he was to be a session player and tour musician band supporter, but was never officially part of the band.

 Much like The Time, the band's material was composed nearly entirely by Prince, with the exception of "River Run Dry," which was written by Revolution drummer Bobby Z. Prince wrote and performed all the other tracks and simply overdubbed Peterson's and Melvoin's vocals and added saxophone and flute by Leeds. On several tracks Prince's vocals can be clearly heard. Some of the original demos have surfaced as bootlegs and circulate among fans with Prince's original lead vocals, as well as two outtakes: the instrumental "Feline" and the pop song "Miss Understood". As on other associates' albums, Prince falsely gave credit to the various band members for writing credits, though he kept his name on "Nothing Compares 2 U". St  Paul grew weary of the group due to lack of creative input and decided to quit the group. Prince upset decided to quickly dissolve the group.

Meanwhile, Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis went on to become one of the most successful songwriting and production teams of the 1980s and 1990s.

The breakup of The Time that same year, Day began his solo career. The low sales of his solo albums  Color of Success with the chart topping Oak Tree and 1987's Daydreaming (which spawned the single "Fishnet") and his most commercially viable solo album, Guaranteed were a blow to his career.

After working with other artists such as Cherrelle and Alexander O'Neal, Jam and Lewis were introduced to Janet Jackson and produced her breakthrough album Control in 1986, for which the duo won a Grammy Award. Their collaboration on her next album, 1989's Rhythm Nation 1814, proved even more successful as the album became one of the top-selling albums in history with five No.1 hits.

In 1990, the original seven members of the band reunited for the Graffiti Bridge movie and soundtrack, as well as a new album, Pandemonium. The project was originally called Corporate World and was set to only feature Morris and Jerome, but Warner Bros. demanded that the original line-up be brought in if Prince wanted the company's backing for the movie. This spawned their highest selling single, "Jerk Out" and the album featured more input from the band than any other Time album. The reunion was short-lived, however - infighting within the band caused them to disband once again.

Day also appeared on the small screen in 1990 when he portrayed the character Lamarr on ABC's short-lived sitcom New Attitude. He guest starred on the sitcom Eve as a pimp who wanted Eve's fashion boutique to design a flamboyant suit to match his witty personality, and appeared as himself in an episode on the series Moesha. Attempting to file a lawsuit against Moesha's ex boyfriend Q, who used a sample for "The Oak Tree" without permission from Day.

Several members of The Time reunited in 1995, added a few new recruits and have remained together since. This version of the band can be seen in the Kevin Smith film Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back and tours frequently to this day. The band is usually billed as "Morris Day and The Time". A fifth Time album is rumored to have been completed in the late 1990s, recorded with the new lineup but production and coordination with Prince has prevented its release. The title Old Dogs, New Tricks was the working title.

 A 2004 album attributed to Morris Day called It's About Time contains a few new tracks written and performed by Day and a number of live performances by The Time.

In 2005 Jam and Lewis opened their new recording studios in Santa Monica California naming it Flyte Tyme West. In 2006, they won a Grammy for Yolanda Adams' song "Be Blessed" from her 2005 album Day By Day. In 2007, Jam and Lewis produced the two-time Grammy Award winning CD Funk This for Chaka Khan, which included the Award winning R&B duet "Disrespectful", with Mary J. Blige.

In 2007, Morris Day became band leader on the TV One program Baisden After Dark.

In September 2011, the band announced a name change to The Original 7ven and a new album Condensate to be released October 18, 2011 with the single "#Trendin" released September 20.

As for why the band decided to call themselves by a new name, Jimmy Jam said that “the decision was made at that point that we could either continue to, shall we say, negotiate or argue or plead or whatever. We decided to go the route of let’s not hold things up because of the name. Let’s embrace the opportunity to move forward in a new era, with a new outlook, with a new album and that’s what we did. We think the name reflects exactly who we are. We are the Original 7even and that basically, for me, covers it.”  In fact, Prince owns the branding of "The Time" with the original seven members, and issued a cease and desist order to them. (He did the same thing with The Family for the same reason, forcing them to change their name to fDeluxe, still having four of the original five members - Jerome Benton didn't join the reunion). The group has been able to use "The Time" moniker before because of the various influx & exit of stand-in members like Tori Ruffin, Chance Howard, etc.

On October 27, 2011, The Original 7ven appeared on the Tonight Show with Jay Leno.

On November 17, 2011, The Original 7ven opened the Soul Train Music Awards in Atlanta, GA, playing a medley of greatest hits and new single #TRENDIN. The show was broadcast on November 27.