The Meters formed in New Orleans in 1965, coalescing around keyboardist Art Neville, guitarist Leo Nocentelli, bassist George Porter Jr., and drummer Joseph 'Zigaboo' Modeliste. They grew out of Art Neville & the Sounds, a group Art had formed with his brothers Aaron and Charles on vocals; Allen Toussaint and Marshall Sehorn hired the group — minus the vocalists — as the house band for their Sansu Enterprises label, where they played on records by Earl King, Lee Dorsey, Chris Kenner, Betty Harris, and Toussaint himself before recording under their own name.
Their debut single 'Sophisticated Cissy' and its follow-up 'Cissy Strut' (both 1969) established the template for what would become known as New Orleans funk — a spare, syncopated approach built on the interlocking rhythms of Modeliste's drums and Porter's bass, with Neville's organ and Nocentelli's guitar weaving around them. 'Cissy Strut' reached No. 4 on the R&B chart and No. 23 on the Billboard Hot 100; 'Sophisticated Cissy' reached No. 7 R&B. 'Look-Ka Py Py' and 'Chicken Strut' followed them to No. 11 on the R&B chart in 1970.
Through the early 1970s the band developed their sound with a series of landmark albums on Josie Records, before moving to Reprise and recording with Dr. John. 'Look-Ka Py Py,' 'Hand Clapping Song,' and 'Hey Pocky A-Way' became standards in the New Orleans canon — 'Hey Pocky A-Way,' from Rejuvenation (1974), was a Top 40 R&B hit, and 'They All Ask'd for You,' from Fire on the Bayou (1975), became the unofficial theme song of the Audubon Zoo. In 1975 Paul McCartney invited them to play the release party for his Venus and Mars album aboard the Queen Mary in Long Beach; Mick Jagger was in the room, and the Stones booked them to open their 1975 American and 1976 European tours. That same year the band took part in the Wild Tchoupitoulas project, and Cyril Neville joined the Meters after the record came out.
The original Meters broke up in 1977, after separating from Toussaint and Sehorn over artistic control and losing a fight over the rights to the band's name: Art and Cyril formed the Neville Brothers with Aaron and Charles, and the rest became session players around New Orleans. Reunions followed from 1990 on, with Russell Batiste Jr. on drums in place of Modeliste; Nocentelli left in 1994 and was replaced by Brian Stoltz, and the band carried on as the Funky Meters. The original four reunited for a show at the Warfield in San Francisco in 2000, and again at Jazz Fest in 2005. 'Cissy Strut' was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame in 2011, the band received the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award in 2018, and they have been nominated four times for the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Their influence is foundational: on hip-hop — Amerie's '1 Thing' is built on 'Oh, Calcutta!,' Public Enemy's 'Timebomb' on 'Just Kissed My Baby,' A Tribe Called Quest's 'Clap Your Hands' on 'Hand Clapping Song' — on jam bands, and on the entire lineage of New Orleans funk that runs through the Neville Brothers, Galactic, and countless contemporary artists. Art Neville retired from performing in December 2018 and died July 22, 2019, at 81; in April and May 2026, the surviving founders reunited as the Meters, with Cyril Neville and Ivan Neville taking Art's place.
