The Isley Brothers’ 11th album marked the official dawn of a new, still funkier era for the shape-shifting group—younger Isleys Ernie and Marvin, as well as Rudolph’s brother-in-law Chris Jasper joined the original trio of brothers in the spotlight (hence the album’s title). Ronald, Rudolph and O’Kelly Jr were content to let their new, younger bandmates continue to push the music in a funkier, more expansive direction while they handled the family band’s business. 3+3 was the band’s first release to be certified platinum, and the beginning of their most commercially successful decade as a group. It also included their first explicit forays into funk-formatted songs—tunes sprawling across two parts to span both sides of a 45. “That Lady”, a rework of their own 1964 composition “Who’s That Lady”, and “Summer Breeze,” a Seals and Crofts cover that continued their years-long project of turning soft-rock hits into funk jams, both used that two-part structure to great effect. “That Lady” was the Isley Brothers’ second biggest hit to that point, reaching the top ten of the pop charts thanks to Ernie’s screaming guitar and its contrast with the song’s gentle, persistent groove. “That Lady”, along with other uptempo tracks like “If You Were There” and “What It Comes Down To”, helped form the bridge from funk to disco; yet there’s an undeniable rockish core to the release. They kept guitar front and centre, and almost half the album is covers of hits by white artists—key to an argument that the Isley Brothers kept building into their albums: that even if radio would never say so, they were rock pioneers, as much or moreso than the artists whose songs they were transforming.