{"id":47292,"count":1,"description":"Rufus was an American funk band, from Chicago, Illinois; best known for launching the career of lead singer Chaka Khan. They had several hits throughout their career, including \"Tell Me Something Good,\" \"Sweet Thing,\" and \"Ain't Nobody.\"\nIn 1967, The American Breed had a top ten hit with the classic rock single, \"Bend Me, Shape Me\". After this success, members Kevin Murphy, Al Ciner and Lee Graziano were forced to create a new group after several members left the group. Recruiting Vern Pilder and Chuck Colbert from the bar band Circus, the group re-emerged in 1969 under the name Smoke. In 1970, female vocalist Paulette McWilliams and musician James Stella were added and the group's name changed again to Ask Rufus. Willie Weeks would replace Vern Pilder after the name change. In 1971, the band signed a contract with Epic Records recording an album that wasn't released. Weeks was replaced by Dennis Belfield. In early 1972, Epic dropped their contract. Former American Breed drummer Andre...","link":"https:\/\/www.skateboarding-lessons.com\/go\/tag\/rufus\/","name":"Rufus","slug":"rufus","taxonomy":"post_tag","meta":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.skateboarding-lessons.com\/go\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags\/47292","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.skateboarding-lessons.com\/go\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.skateboarding-lessons.com\/go\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/taxonomies\/post_tag"}],"wp:post_type":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.skateboarding-lessons.com\/go\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts?tags=47292"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}