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After years of success as founding members of a funk band called "The Pacemakers" followed by a year as James Brown's backing band, "the JBs", William Earl "Bootsy" Collins, his brother Phelps "Catfish" Collins, and friend Frankie Waddy joined George Clinton's funk group "Funkadelic". In 1976, along with Joel Johnson, Gary "Mudbone" Cooper, Robert Johnson and The Horny Horns, they formed Bootsy's Rubber Band, a separate touring unit of George Clinton's P-Funk collective. The group recorded five albums together, the first three of which are often considered to be among the quintessential P-Funk recordings. The group's 1978 album "Bootsy? Player of the Year" reached the top of the R&B album chart and spawned the #1 R&B single "Bootzilla".
Like Clinton, Bootsy took on several alter egos, from Casper the Funky Ghost to Bootzilla, "the world's only rhinestone rockstar monster of a doll", all as parts of the evolving character of an alien rock star who grew gradually more bizarre as time went on (see P-Funk mythology). He also adopted his trademark "space bass" around this time.
In 1990, Bootsy collaborated with Deee-Lite on their massive hit "Groove Is in the Heart" where he contributed additional vocals. Although he also appeared in the music video playing the bass, the bassline in the song is actually a sample of a Herbie Hancock song called "Bring Down the Birds". Bootsy's Rubber Band became the defacto backing musicians for Deee-Lite during a world tour. The Rubber Band also recorded the EP "Jungle Bass", their first recording in 11 years.
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