to distribute the label's recordings. He then transferred the Gap Band and Yarbrough & Peoples (who were already signed to his production company) to the Total Experience label. Gap Band IV was released in early 1982 and spawned three singles, which all peaked in the top-40 on the dance charts and top-2 on the R&B songs: #1 "Early in the Morning", #2 "You Dropped a Bomb on Me" (both of which Simmons helped write), and #1 "Outstanding", the first two of which Simmons wrote. The album went platinum within a year. Later in 1982, he signed Robert "Goodie" Whitfield to the label. His debut album, Call Me Goodie, peaked at #31 R&B. The Gap Band's 1983 release, Gap Band V: Jammin' (#2 R&B, #28 Billboard 200), saw Simmons take a reduced writing/producing role; he co-wrote only one song. The album went gold, headlined by the only Simmons co-penned single, "Party Train", which went to #3 on the R&B charts. Yarbrough and Peoples released Heartbeats that year, and it peaked at #25 R&B, and the title track went to #10 R&B. One of their 1984 singles, "Be a Winner", topped the R&B charts. In 1984, Total Experience began a new distribution deal with RCA Records. Even though his two major acts produced hits well into the mid-80s, Total Experience began to falter. During 1984 and 1985, the label expanded from three acts to fourteen, including Bernie Hamilton & the Inculcation Band and Switch. Not a single one of the newcomers released more than one album with Total Experience (two of them only produced one song) and none of them scored any hits. Meanwhile, Yarbrough and Peoples got married and moved back to Texas, and Goodie quit. This left the Gap Band as the label's sole act by 1986. The Gap Band's subsequent releases, Gap Band VII and Gap Band 8, received chart success due to heavy radio airplay but sold few actual copies. The Gap Band's final hurrah with Total Experience, Straight from the Heart, got a top-40 song from the title track but failed to sell, causing the Gap Band to leave for Capitol Records. With no acts remaining, Lonnie dropped out of music, and his company turned to motion picture and video production. Simmons died on February 6, 2019. Legacy Music written by Lonnie Simmons has been sampled heavily in contemporary R&B and hip hop music. References External links