Soul Brothers Six
American rhythm and blues band

The Soul Brothers Six were an American rhythm and blues band formed in Rochester, New York, during the mid-1960s. They are best remembered for their songs "Some Kind of Wonderful", which was later a hit for Grand Funk Railroad and "I'll Be Loving You" which was a hit record on the 1970s Northern soul scene in the UK.
History
The band was originally called the Soul Brothers Five and featured brothers Sam Armstrong, Charles Armstrong, Moses Armstrong, Harry Armstrong and Gene Armstrong. Shortly after the group's formation, vocalist John Ellison joined, prompting a name change. This line-up released two unsuccessful singles in 1965, "Stop Hurting Me" and "I Don't Want to Cry", before both Harry Armstrong and Gene Armstrong left the group, being replaced by Vonn Elle Benjamin and Lester Peleman.
It was this line-up that released the single "Don't Neglect Your Baby" before Sam Armstrong left the group to be replaced by Joe Johnson. They then signed a deal with Atlantic Records after being introduced to Jerry Wexler by a Philadelphia DJ and subsequently released "Some Kind of Wonderful" which reached No. 91 on the Billboard Hot 100. They followed with several more unsuccessful singles before being dropped by Atlantic.
This prompted Charles Armstrong, Harry Armstrong, Vonn Elle Benjamin and Lester Peleman to leave the group and be replaced by James Swails Jr, Charles Pevy and Eddie Reno. This line-up released four singles as John Ellison and the Soul Brothers Six (despite there only being five band members) during the 1970s, before disbanding.
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Vocabulary and entity names are the principal evidence signals here, because they determine the precision of every later search. The source revision retrieved here is dated May 25, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q7564178. VIAF identifies the subject as 144572764. The Library of Congress control number is no99043112. 3 of 3 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1965.
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This entry incorporates text from “Soul Brothers Six” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.