A Taste of Honey

A Taste of Honey was a funk/disco/R&B band from Los Angeles, California. The group first formed in 1971. The line-up was: Janice Marie Johnson (guitar/bass/vocals), Hazel Payne (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 tours in such places as Spain, Alaska, Thailand, Morocco and Japan). The group were discovered by Capitol Records in 1976 and signed up with the label two years later. 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 went on to pursue a solo career, 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).