Biography:

LFO (an acronym for Lyte Funkie Ones) were an American pop and hip hop band consisting of singers Devin Lima (born Harold Lima; March 18, 1977 – November 21, 2018),^[1] Brad Fischetti (born September 11, 1975), and Rich Cronin (August 30, 1974 – September 8, 2010). Before Lima joined the group in 1999, the third member was Brian Gillis (known as “Brizz”; c. 1975 – March 29, 2023), who was with the group from its start in 1995; the group disbanded after Cronin’s death in 2010 but briefly reunited (with Fischetti and Lima as a duo) in 2017 before Lima’s own death a year later. Their single “Summer Girls” reached number 3 on the Billboard charts, and the band has sold over four million records worldwide.

History

Origins and Gillis’s departure (1995–1998)

In 1995, New Bedford, Massachusetts, Rich Cronin and Brad Fischetti met Brian “Brizz” Gillis. LFO had marginal success with the remake of the Yvonne Elliman song “If I Can’t Have You“, which missed the Top 40, reaching No. 54 on the UK Singles Chart.^[2] In 1997, they released a cover of the 1990 New Kids on the Block hit “Step By Step” as a single.

In 1999, Gillis was frustrated with the lack of progress that the group had made so he left to pursue a solo career, which led him to multiple college tours and a job in the music industry, with a radio promotion position in Florida with BMG.

Lima’s arrival

After Gillis left, Fischetti and Cronin still wanted to continue to pursue their dreams of making it big, so they headed back to the United States and had an open audition. Devin Lima, an employee of a hardware store at the time, was chosen in place of Gillis. Lima decided the group should go by the initials LFO rather than Lyte Funkie Ones.

In the UK, however, they were unable to use the abbreviated name of LFO due to an IDM act on the Warp Records label who had been using the name since 1988.

Still signed with Trans Continental and now with Arista Records, LFO recorded some new material with Dow Brain, Brad Young and Danny Wood of New Kids on the Block, at Underground Studios’ second location; the basement of a 200+ year old house in Needham, Massachusetts.

Wood had been a long-time friend of original member Brian Gillis. Among the songs LFO had recorded in an attempt to make a demo, was a track entitled “Summer Girls” (produced by Dow Brain and Brad Young of Underground Productions).

This song, “Summer Girls” made its way to the Top 10, eventually reaching the number 3 position on the Billboard Hot 100, and the number 1 position on the Billboard single sales chart.

New York City radio station Z100 (WHTZ 100.3FM-MHZ), also helped LFO’s popularity through frequent promotion and airings of the song “Summer Girls” before the song’s national Top 10 status.

Credits: