Inner Circle (JM)

About

Also known as: Inner Circle-, Inners Circle, Tell Me Lies, The Inner Circle, The Inner Circle Band

Few reggae acts can claim a theme song that ran on American TV for decades, but Inner Circle pulled it off with "Bad Boys", the track that became the signature of the Fox reality show COPS. The Jamaican band, built around brothers Ian and Roger Lewis, had been a serious force since the late 1970s when only Bob Marley outranked their frontman Jacob Miller in Jamaican popularity. Miller's death in a car crash in 1980 tore the band apart, sending the Lewis brothers and keyboardist Bernard "Touter" Harvey to Miami, where they eventually built their own Circle House studio. After regrouping in 1986, Inner Circle found a second wave of global recognition. "Sweat (A La La La La Long)" became a massive international hit, and "Bad Boys" went from album cut to cultural fixture after being picked up as the COPS theme in 1989 and then reissued to even greater commercial success in the early 1990s. Their catalog stretches from roots reggae through pop leaning crossover territory, and the band has kept recording and touring long after most acts would have coasted on their back catalogue.