The group was comprised of three brothers: Ronnie, Charles and Robert Wilson. Ronnie, the oldest, started the band with other members in the late '60s in a lineup that had about 10 members at any given time. When his brothers were old enough, they joined him and Ronnie parted ways with the other members, paring the group down to a trio.
They were originally called the Greenwood-Archer-Pine Band, named after three streets in their hometown of Tulsa, Oklahoma that were an epicenter of Black business. They shortened the name to The G.A.P. Band for promotional purposes, and eventually simplified it further to become The Gap Band. Charles Wilson said it could also mean "God's Anointed People."
The Gap Band was one of the top funk bands of the early '80s, but they first made waves when Leon Russell, also from Tulsa, brought them on as his backing band in the early '70s. They released their first album, Magicians Holiday, on Russell's Shelter Records, but it went nowhere. A few years later they signed a deal with the producer Lonnie Simmons, who put them on his Total Experience label. Simmons became a key songwriter in the group as well as their producer, and it was with him that they had their biggest hits, including "You Dropped A Bomb On Me" and "Burn Rubber On Me (Why You Wanna Hurt Me)."
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