Who was singing in the 5 heartbeats?

Coming in on the tail end of a rhythm and blues singing group explosion, The Five Heartbeats (Robert Townsend, Michael Wright, Leon, Harry J. Lennix, Tico Wells) rise and fall within the space of seven years. Along the way, the group deals with all manner of fame and fortune distractions -- jealousy, greed, too much womanizing and drugs all take a toll. Their troubles culminate when executive Big Red (Hawthorne James) is arrested for the murder of manager Jimmy Potter (Chuck Patterson).

When it comes to Black cinema, few films hold as much significance and prestige in Black culture as The Five Heartbeats. Released 30 years ago today, the film is directed by Robert Townsend and co-written by Townsend and Kenan Ivory Wayans. The film is a dramedy that spotlights the golden era of R&B quartets and quintets. Loosely based on the lives of the Temptations and other soul giants of the 1950s and 60s, (The Dells appear on the soundtrack and were technical advisers on the film). The Five Heartbeats movie tracks the highs and lows of a group that overcame insurmountable odds to become superstars.

All these years later, the film has definitely stood the test of time and has become one of the most important films of the era—further cementing Townsend’s legacy as a trailblazer of Black filmmaking. Over the length and breadth of his remarkable career, The Five Heartbeats is arguably the crown jewel of Townsend’s filmography.

On the 30th anniversary of the classic film, BET.com shares our picks for the 10 most iconic scenes from The Five Heartbeats.

J.T. Matthews (Leon), the ladies man of the group, feels like he’s in a career slump. After getting some advice from his brother Duck (Robert Townsend), J.T. goes out and has a sing-off with Michael “Flash” Turner (John Canada). They both compete for the attention of a young lady in the audience on their song, “Just In Case.”
J.T was singing so damn hard that he blew Flash out of the way and the lady fell out right next to her man. J.T. is back!
As the old adage goes, “You never judge a book by its cover.” That’s exactly what Terrence “Dresser” Williams (Harry J. Lennix) does when he first catches a glimpse of Sarge (Richard Nicholas). Despite Sarge’s advanced age and chain-smoking, he still has the moves. After Dresser does his best dance combination, Sarge shows him up in front of everybody and becomes the group’s choreographer. Mission accomplished.
When Eddie King Jr. (Michael Wright) slides on stage and grabs the mic, a legend is born. He just left a card game with the lead singer Bobby, but Bobby got shot when they were on the run and couldn’t make the gig. Enter Eddie and the moment he starts singing “Nothing But Love” while the other guys join in, the rest is history.
From the moment he appears on the screen, Big Red (Hawthorne James) gives off this big savage energy. He seems about as slick as his hair, just as some record executives were known to be during this era. He manipulates Eddie, tries to extort Jimmy, sets him up to be murdered, and then has the nerve to show up to the funeral with crocodile tears, soliciting Eleanor (Diahann Caroll), Jimmy’s widow. She smacks him in the middle of service and tells him to roll out. In every way imaginable, Big Red is one sorry, low-down dude.
Big Red was Suge Knight before Suge Knight was Suge Knight. Victor “Bird" Thomas (Roy Fegan) learns this lesson the hard way when he interrupts Big Red and his boys to ask for his money. Big Red tells him his office hours are from 9-5 but Bird isn’t trying to hear any of that. After getting smacked up and hung over a balcony, Bird finally understands that he should probably have taken that advice.
When Jimmy Potter (Chuck Patterson) is killed at the hands of Big Red, it is devastating to the group. After the funeral, the guys meet in the tunnel where Dresser confronts Eddie, who was in cahoots with Big Red just before Jimmy’s death. Dresser commences to give Eddie a major beatdown. But just like a real family, he embraces him as they all weep and asks, “What’d he ever do to you?”
When The Five Heartbeats show up for the talent showcase at the Apollo, they have plenty of obstacles to overcome. The biggest one was that the house pianist has to play the group’s music. After not being able to pick up the song, Duck throws him off the seat and Eddie kills his solo, melting Bird’s girlfriend who was sent to boo them from the front row. The scene has now become a popular gif. The rest of the group goes into an acapella version of “A Heart Is a House for Love.” What a scene!
After struggling with drug addiction and homelessness, the future doesn’t look too bright for ole Eddie King Jr (Michael Wright). But when Duck accepts an invitation to come to Anthony “Choirboy” Stone (Tico Wells) father’s church, he is stunned to see Eddie giving a soul-stirring rendition of “I Feel Like Going On” in the choir.
Who would have thought that Eddie King Jr. would have put the bug in Duck’s ear to reconcile with J.T.?
In the final scene, after ALL the drama they’ve been through, The Five Heartbeats reunite with their family over at J.T.’s crib. After Flash’s whack video comes on the T.V., J.T. calls for the guys to assemble to show everybody how it should be done. J.T., Dresser, and Choirboy join hands but the other two need more convincing.
After Eddie and Duck finally join in, The Five Heartbeats perform one of their old routines one last time, a fitting end to a classic Black film.

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In 1991, after the success of his self-funded project, Hollywood Shuffle Keenan Ivory Wayans and Robert Townsend decided to take on a studio film, a first for Townsend. The collaboration didn’t do so well in theaters but over 20 years later, it’s a favorite in the black community. You know the lines and the songs. Check out these behind the scenes secrets.

Where did the story come from?

Though the story was based on several R&B groups and solo artists, including The Temptations, The Dells, Frankie Lymon and Sam Cooke, Robert Townsend told Black Voices that the breakup of The Temptations when he was a child, inspired the story. “I grew up with a lot of the singing groups from the ’60s, such as The Temptations, The Dells and The O’Jays. I always loved music. When The Temptations broke up, I took it personally. [The Five Heartbeats] came out of that.”

Maybe you were smarter than the rest of us; but for years several people thought Eddie’s last name was Kane. In all actuality, his name was King…like Martin Luther. He said that in an attempt to utilize the country, southern accent he put a little twang on it.

It’s hard to imagine anyone else playing the role of Ladie’s Man, “JT,” made famous by the man who is consistently cast as a philanderer, Leon. Though he played the role to a tee, it wasn’t meant for him initially. Keenan Ivory Wayans, who wrote the script for the movie, along with Townsend, was supposed to play JT. Leon told Black Voices how he ended up getting the role. “I didn’t know Robert before then. He saw me at the MTV awards with Madonna, and told me he saw me in her video ‘Like a Virgin.’ I think Keenan Ivory Wayans was supposed to play the role in the film but he got ‘In Living Color,’ and he couldn’t do it. Before that happened, Robert wanted me to do the film.”

The scene where Duck sings with his little sister, as she’s cleaning the room, is one of the most memorable in the film, but it was a last minute addition that almost didn’t make the cut. The studio wasn’t too keen on Townsend singing lyrics off of pieces of balled up paper lying around the room. When you reflect on it, it is kind of corny; but Tressa Thomas’ voice is so unbelievable, it was worth keeping.

Watching the film, you would never notice this but really, the only reason the dance scene with Sarge was composed of black and white photos instead of moving footage is because Townsend and the crew ran out of money for the production. Townsend told Global Grind, the lack of money actually turned out not to be so bad.

“It forces creativity sometimes when you have limitations, so it kind of forced my creative radar to go up higher.”

To promote the film, the cast decided to perform concerts, debuting the songs that would later be featured in the film. But of course none of the cast members, with the exception of Leon, can sing in real life, so the Dells were actually the ones backstage singing, while the actors performed on stage. Though the cast did plenty of promotion for the film, when it was released into theaters, it didn’t perform like people expected it to.

Tico Wells, who plays Choirboy, had a different audition process than everybody else. Townsend told Black Voices,“he came to a big cattle call in New York City and I did improv with him for about 15 minutes, then said, ‘He’s gonna be Choirboy!”‘

You know what they say, some times real life can be stranger than fiction. The whole scene where Bird is being dangled from a window is based on an incident that supposedly happened to real life singer, Jackie Wilson. Apparently, draping folks over balconies, like rugs is what’s hot in the music industry. It’s been done at least a couple of times that we know about.

Several of the cast members have said that during the rehearsal process, they really became like a group. They described, fighting with each other, enduring each others’ ego trips and naturally, learning to work together. On a reunion show with Mo’Nique, the Five Heartbeats, minus Harry Lennix, who played “Dresser,” explained that Robert was the Heartbeat that couldn’t dance and Harry was the peace keeper in the group.

The actors really did take the group thing very seriously. So seriously, that “Eddie” and “Flash” had a bit of tension between them as they were acting out the scenes where Flash was supposed to be taking Eddie’s spot as the lead singer. On the Mo’Nique reunion show, Robert Townsend shared a conversation between the two.

“The scene where he slams the door and says If you ain’t got it, you ain’t gon get it, cuz you ain’t got it, [Flash said to me] Man, I’m a black belt. He can’t be in my face saying all of this stuff to me. I’ma fight him.”

Thankfully they didn’t have to take it that far.

When Eddie’s dad is telling him he will not amount to anything, literally “You ain’t gon’ be ish cuz I ain’t ish,” you can see that his mustache is falling off of his face. Maybe the editing team didn’t notice that. Or maybe they didn’t have enough takes to get rid of the scene.

Hawthorne James, the man who played record exec, “Big Red,” had a strong background in Shakespearean theater. In Shakespeare’s play, Richard III, Richard comes in and, as he says, “woos Lady Ann over the casket.” He was the one who suggested that Big Red come to Jimmy’s funeral and try to get with Eleanor, played by Diahann Carroll.

That scene was made awesome, mostly because of the slap Diahann Carroll delivered. In recounting that scene, Hawthorne said that Diahann Carroll slapped him 30 times while they were trying to get that take. Hawthorne said the whole time he was hoping that Carroll wouldn’t hit him in the ear. On the very last take, that’s exactly what she did. Hawthorne said his ear rang for three days afterward.

Cult Classic

Though the movie failed to produce the numbers the studio would have wanted at the time, The Five Heartbeats went on to become a classic film in the black and even mainstream community. (You know networks love to show the edited version of that movie on tv, sometimes weekend after weekend.) Over 20 years after the film was released, fans still run up on Leon “JT” and ask him ‘how he could do his brother like that.’ Others still recognize Tressa Thomas, a grown woman, though she was only 11 when the movie was filmed. Another man even came up to Townsend and said that he was strung out on heroin when he saw the film; but the last scene with “Eddie” singing “I Feel Like Going On” inspired him to do better.

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