United (Commodores album)
studio album by the Commodores

United is the twelfth studio album by the Commodores, released on October 7, 1986, on Polydor Records.
Overview
The album reached number 17 on the Billboard Top R&B Albums chart. "Goin' to the Bank" climbed to number two on Billboard Hot R&B Singles chart. "Take It from Me" peaked at No. 38 on the US Billboard R&B singles chart. Another single, "United in Love", peaked at No. 22 on the US Billboard Adult Contemporary chart.
Covers
The Commodores covered Peabo Bryson's "Let's Apologize" from his 1985 studio album Take No Prisoners.
Critical reception
Ken Tucker of the Philadelphia Inquirer claimed most of "the time, the album succumbs to the usual flaw of veteran vocal groups - sophisticated technique applied to mediocre material."
Alex Henderson of Allmusic also found "An abundance of studio musicians and outside songwriters are employed on this high-tech, pop-minded urban contemporary outing, and not surprisingly, the Commodores no longer sound distinctive...United has its moments, but it pales in comparison to 1970s classics like Movin' On, Caught in the Act, and Hot on the Tracks." Lennox Samuels of the Dallas Morning News noted "the group, now fronted by William "Clyde' Orange and J.D. Nicholas, needs good material in order to make a good record. The Commodores don't have that here.
The public source identifies “United (Commodores album)” as studio album by the Commodores. This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around United, Commodores and album.
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Object files, edition statements, performance records and contemporary criticism preserve different stages of the work’s history. The source revision retrieved here is dated Aug 8, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q7887298. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1986 and 1985.
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This entry incorporates text from “United (Commodores album)” 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.