Roger Troutman Discography

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Early life and career
Born in Hamilton, Ohio, Roger was the fourth of nine children. He was a late-arriving member of Parliament-Funkadelic and played on the band`s final Warner Brothers` album The Electric Spanking of War Babies. Beforehand, Troutman had formed various different bands with his four brothers including Little Roger and the Vels and Roger and the Human Body. In 1977, he and the Human Body issued their first single "Freedom". Within two years, Roger and his brothers were discovered by George Clinton who signed the newly-christened Zapp to his Uncle Jam Records label in 1979. Zapp made their professional television debut on the first and only Funk Music Awards show. A year later, as Uncle Jam Records was forced to close, Zapp signed to Warner Bros. Records and released their self-titled debut, which yielded the Bootsy Collins produced & Troutman-composed hit, "More Bounce to the Ounce". The song hit the top three on the Billboard Soul Singles chart peaking at number two in the fall of 1980 helping their debut reached the top twenty of the Billboard Top 200 firmly launching Zapp and Roger into the national spotlight

Zapp
Between 1980 and 1985, Zapp released gold-selling albums such as Zapp, Zapp II, Zapp III and Zapp IV U and released top ten R&B hit singles such as "Be Alright", "Dance Floor", "I Can Make You Dance", "Heartbreaker", "It Doesn`t Really Matter" - which was a tribute to black artists of the past and present, and the Charlie Wilson and Shirley Murdock-assisted funk ballad, "Computer Love". Zapp`s hit making magic faded shortly after the release of their fifth album, Vibe, in 1989. The album would become the group`s final studio album though they continued to release singles into the 1990s releasing the hits "Slow & Easy" and "Mega Medley", which put together a collection of the group`s hit singles in a remix. Throughout Zapp`s tenure, the original five-member lineup grew to around fifteen. Troutman also made a habit of producing solo efforts for Zapp band members and associated acts. In 1993, the group scored their biggest-selling album when a compilation album, Zapp & Roger: All the Greatest Hits, was released. Featuring remixed cuts of Roger`s solo singles and featuring the "Mega Medley", the album sold over two million copies giving the collective their most successful album to date.


[edit] Solo career and production work on other artists
In 1981, upon the fast-paced success of Zapp`s first album, Troutman cut his first solo album, The Many Facets of Roger. Featuring his frenetic funk cover of Marvin Gaye`s "I Heard It Through the Grapevine", the song exploded to number-two on the R&B singles chart helping the album sell over a million copies. The album also featured the hit, "So Ruff, So Tuff", which was almost similar to "More Bounce..." as was most Roger/Zapp singles during this time. In 1984, Troutman issued his second solo album, The Saga Continues, which featured the singles "Girl Cut It Out", "It`s in the Mix" - which was dedicated to Soul Train and its host Don Cornelius in one verse, and a cover of Wilson Pickett`s "In the Midnight Hour", which featured gospel group The Mighty Clouds of Joy. In 1987, Troutman scored his most successful solo album with Unlimited, which featured the massive hit, "I Want To Be Your Man", which rose to number one R&B and number three on the Billboard Hot 100. In 1988, Troutman worked with Scritti Politti providing talk box vocals on the hit "B

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