The Main Ingredient

Best known for their 1972 US hit 'Everybody Plays the Fool', the Harlem-based New York soul band The Main Ingredient started out life in 1964 as 'The Poets' until, inspired by the product label on a bottle of Coca Cola, the band changed their name.

Early in their career the band wrote what was to become an anthem for the black-power political movement, the song 'Black Seeds Keep On Growing'. The track was written by founding member Donald McPherson who tragically died of leukemia in 1971 just as the band were on the cusp of major success.

McPherson was replaced by Cuba Gooding Sr. The arrival of Gooding coincided with the success of 'Everybody Plays the Fool' and its million-selling success was repeated in 1974 with 'Just Don't Want to Be Lonely' which also introduced the band to UK audiences when it made the top 30. It was to be the band's only UK chart entry and shortly afterwards the band started to lose momentum compounded when Gooding left to go solo with Motown in 1977. Although several of the original members have died, Jerome Jackson and Stanley Alston continue to perform intermittently under The Main Ingredient name.