A Taste of Honey

A Taste of Honey was a funk/disco/R&B band from Los Angeles, California. The group was formed in 1972. The line-up was: [Janice-Marie Johnson (bass/vocals), [Carlita Dorhan] (guitar/vocals), Perry Kibble (keyboards) and Donald Ray Johnson (drums). A Taste of Honey started out playing at various clubs in Southern California and at American military bases in both the United States and abroad (the band did USO and US Navy tours in such places as Spain, Alaska, Thailand, Morocco, Taiwan, the Philippines, Korea, Okinawa, and Japan). In 1996 Hazel Payne replaced Carlita Dorhan. The group was discovered by Capitol Records in 1977. They scored a massive smash in 1978 with the infectiously funky disco song "Boogie Oogie Oogie", which peaked at #1 on the Billboard pop charts for three consecutive weeks, sold over two million copies, and earned the group a Grammy Award for Best New Artist on February 15, 1979. The follow-up song, "Do It Good", was a #13 hit on the R&B radio charts. By 1980, the band had become a duo consisting of only Janice Marie Johnson and Hazel Payne. In 1981, A Taste of Honey had another huge success with their cover of the lovely Japanese ballad "Sukiyaki", which soared to #1 on the R&B radio charts and climbed all the way to #3 on the Billboard pop charts. The band broke up in the early 80s. [Janice-Marie Johnson] has released two solo LPs, and continues the legacy of A Taste of Honey as A Taste of Honey featuring Janice-Marie, [Hazel Payne] became an international stage actress, Donald Ray Johnson has recorded several blues albums and continues to play the drums (he's also a well-known blues singer/drummer in Western Canada), and Perry Kibble sadly died of heart failure at the tragically young age of 49 in 1999. In 2004, Janice Marie Johnson and Hazel Payne reunited to perform on the PBS TV specials Get Down Tonight: The Disco Explosion (2004) and My Music: Funky Soul Superstars (2005).