Lyte Funkie Ones was an American pop boy band consisting of lead singer and
primary songwriter Rich Cronin, Devin Lima, and Brad Fischetti. Before Lima
joined the group in 1999, the third member was Brian Gillis, who was with
the group from its start in 1995. The band is best known for their hit songs
"Summer Girls", "Girl on TV", and "Every Other Time". The band sold over 5
million records worldwide. History
= Origins and Gillis' departure= In 1995, in New Bedford, Massachusetts,
Rich Cronin 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. In 1997, they released a cover of New
Kids on the Block's "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 and Debut Album= 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. Devin decided
that the group should discontinue being called Lyte Funkie Ones and use the name
LFO exclusively instead. 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, MA. 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 song called "Summer Girls". It was
produced by Dow Brain and Brad Young of Underground Productions. This song gave
LFO their path to success. "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, part of the Clear Channel network, also helped LFO's popularity
through frequent promotion and airings of the song "Summer Girls" before the
song's national Top 10 status. Their debut album, LFO, sold over 2.5
million copies worldwide, and scored two Top 10 hits on the Billboard Hot 100:
"Summer Girls" and "Girl on TV". In 1999, "Summer Girls" was nominated for a
Billboard Music Award for Top Selling Single of the Year; the song sold over
1.5 million copies in the U.S. The song itself contained numerous non sequiturs,
such as "You're the best girl that I ever did see/The great Larry Bird,
jersey 33" and "Fell deep in love, but now we ain't speakin'/Michael J. Fox was
Alex P. Keaton". This album featured many vocals from original member Brian.
The label loved the original versions of the records so much that they left all
of the vocals from Brian, including leads on "Can't Have You" The group was
a part of a show called LFO Live from Orlando.
The year 2000 was a busy year for LFO, featuring nonstop tours, performing at
over 230 concerts that year. They also served as opening act for Britney
Spears, and co-headlined Nickelodeon's All That Music & More summer tour. They
also found success in the UK at the same time when second single, the Dow Brain
and Brad Young co-written "Girl on TV", entered the UK chart at #6. In 2000, the
band won the Nickelodeon Kids' Choice Award for Favorite Group of the Year.
Play Along Toys made dolls of the group in 2001.
= Life Is Good and first split= They appeared on The Amanda Show as
guest stars, singing a song while Amanda danced in the background with the show's
signature 'dancing lobsters'. At the end, LFO described Amanda as 'the most
beautiful girl in the world'. The episode has been repeated on Nickelodeon
since its creation. In the summer of 2001, the group
released their sophomore and final album, Life Is Good, with the release of
only two singles "Life Is Good" and "Every Other Time", which was the only
commercial release from the album. After lackluster record sales of the album and
the late-1990s/early-2000s boyband craze coming to an end, LFO officially decided
to part ways in February 2002. = Reunion and second split=
On June 3, 2009, LFO posted a blog entitled "LFO is Back" on their
unofficial MySpace page which announced that they have reunited and are going on
the Malcolm Douglas Tribute tour beginning September 23, 2009, with
Rookie of the Year, Go Crash Audio, and Kiernan McMullan. A new song titled
"Summer of My Life" was also announced in association with the reunion.
However, the reunion was short-lived. On September 28, 2009, LFO announced
through their YouTube page LFOVIDEOS that they had permanently broken up.
They never had a chance to record a third studio album because of the death
of Rich Cronin. However, the individual members of the band planned to continue
making music with their various side projects.
= Rich Cronin's death= Cronin died on September 8, 2010, after
battling leukemia, at the Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston
Massachusetts. He was survived by his parents, Richard
and Doris of Kingston; his brother, Michael of Kingston; his sister,
Cassandra of Plymouth; his aunt and uncle, John and Cornelia Noonan of West
Roxbury; and his cousins, Katie, Jack and Patrick, all of West Roxbury.
Post break-up In an attempt to form a pop group
without having it labeled as a boy band, Cronin founded Bad Mood Mike in 2003.
The project failed, as it never produced an album, and ended after a few months.
Cronin was later in a group called Loose Cannons with Toothpick. He was also part
of the TV show Mission: Man Band, which aired on VH1.
In March 2005, Cronin sought treatment for constant headaches, and was
diagnosed with leukemia. He underwent chemotherapy in Boston, and by January
2006, his leukemia was in remission. In 2008, Cronin launched his first
solo-studio album named Billion Dollar Sound.
Lima released his first solo track back in 2006. It is a cover of the Sly & the
Family Stone song of the same name “If You Want Me To Stay” for the tribute
album Different Strokes by Different Folks.It led to him performing in a
tribute to Stone on the 2006 Grammy Awards alongside Steven Tyler and Joe
Perry of Aerosmith, Maroon 5, Joss Stone, John Legend and will.i.am.
Lima, along with his new band The Cadbury Diesel, has released their debut
record Mozart Popart in July 2008. Lima is performing music under the alias Live
From Orlando. The disc helped push Lima past the bubblegum tunes of his past,
thanks to the rock and roll feel of songs like “Hangin’ With You” and the
soulful R&B tune “Me Veda.”Him and his band performed a song called Rocky Road
for the film American Pie Presents Beta House back in 2007. In late 2013, Lima
formed a group with electronic artists DJ Shakka and Ayj as The Mack Pack,
releasing two singles in 2014, "Golden" and "Out of Control", and are currently
working on several singles. Brad Fischetti has since become a
pro-life activist. He tweets about it from time to time. In a statement to E!
News, Fischetti, denies harassing any women outside the clinic, but he
adamantly stands by his anti-abortion views and says he regrets not speaking
out more when LFO was at the height of its fame. He is also is a musical
director for a church. Fischetti and Lima are currently
collaborating on a new hip-hop project called The Xiles. They released a
Christmas EP last year and revealed in December that they’d already begun
recording their debut album, American Genie: Volume 1.They announced through
their YouTube username that they were working on it.
Live performances on TV The group has been on numerous TV shows
and episodes as performers. These include All That and The Amanda Show.
They made a cameo in the 2001 film Longshot.
Members Discography
= Albums= = Singles=
= Music videos= References
External links LFO at AllMusic
LFO Live in Orlando Part 1 on YouTube LFO Live in Orlando Part 2 on YouTube