Steve Arrington

Steve Arrington (b. 1956) is an American singer, songwriter, drummer, producer, engineer and minister who grew up in Dayton, Ohio. Arrington played in various local bands before joining and touring with The Murphy's, a lounge band out of Toledo, Ohio, in 1975. Approximately a year later, Arrington relocated from Ohio to San Francisco, California where he learned Latin percussion and drumming from Coke Escovedo and Pete and Shelia Escovedo (aka Shelia E.). He joined the funk group Slave (founded 1975) in 1978 originally to play percussion, then became the drummer and a backing vocalist. Eventually Arrington took over lead vocals on such hit songs as "Just a Touch of Love", "Watching You" (which has been sampled by Snoop Dog, etc), and "Wait for Me". Arrington left Slave in 1982, forming Steve Arrington's Hall of Fame and had hit singles such as "Weak At The Knees" (which was sampled by Jay-Z, Jermaine Dupri, NWA, and more), and "Nobody Can Be You But You". His most successful album was his 1985 solo album, Dancin' in the Key of Life, whose title track became a Top Ten R&B hit, while another single from the album, "Feel So Real" reached #6 in the UK national singles chart in May that year. He was nominated for the NAACP Image Award for Best Male Artist of 1986. In 1984, Arrington experienced a religious conversion and later became a minister, by 1990 he left pop music. In October of 2009, he re-emerged on the music scene with the independent release of "Pure Thang."