The Time, also known as Morris Day and the Time and The Original 7ven, is an American musical group founded in Minneapolis in 1981. Their work has been a part of the formation of the Minneapolis sound, featuring a mix of soul music and dance music with funk, rock n roll, and more. Led by singer-songwriter Morris Day the band members are known for having been close Prince associates, and are arguably the most successful artists who have worked with Prince, achieving particular popularity with R&B fans with tracks such as "The Bird", "Cool", and "Jungle Love". Former members Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis went on to a prominent production career after they left the band in 1983, while Day and guitarist Jesse Johnson recorded solo material in addition to their work with the Time. Career Prince and formation The Time was assembled under a clause in Prince's contract with Warner Bros. that allowed him to recruit and produce other artists for the label. Inspired by the musical film The Idolmaker (1980), about a rock promoter, Prince decided to put together a pop-funk group that would serve as an outlet for material in the vein of his own early albums, while he explored other genres and styles in his own career. By 1981, Prince had built The Time out of an existing Minneapolis funk/R&B unit, Flyte Tyme, which featured Cynthia Johnson on lead vocals and sax, Anton (Tony) Johnson on guitar, David Eiland on saxophone, Jellybean Johnson on drums, Jimmy Jam and Monte Moir on keyboards, and Terry Lewis on bass. To the last four were added Jesse Johnson on guitar and a lead singer and childhood friend named Morris Day, as well as Jerome Benton, who was a promoter drawn from another local band called "Enterprise", who became Day's comic foil. Success The band went on to release four funk albums, generally light and humorous in tone, strongly influenced by Funkadelic, Parliament, James Brown and Sly Stone. Although they scored numerous hits during the early 1980s, including "Cool" (1981), "Jungle Love" (1985), "777-9311", "Get It Up" (1981), "Gigolos Get Lonely Too", and "The Walk", mostly on the R&B charts, they never approached superstardom. With the exception of singer Morris Day, who was required to follow Prince's guide vocals note-for-note, none of the band played on their debut album. Prince instead played all the instruments himself, crediting the production to