German progressive jazz-rock band that released four albums between 1970-1974.

Based out of Stuttgart, Joy And The Hit Kids released several singles before changing their name to Joy Unlimited. Fronted by the excellent soul/blues influenced voice of Joy Fleming, they released their first album, Overground, for Polydor in 1970. (Confusingly, this was released as Turbulence in the UK and as self-titled in the USA.) The group linked up with composer and ballet choreographer Lothar Höfgen for what was to be a series of three (!) conceptual albums based on “rock ballets.” The first was 1971’s classic Schmetterlinge (Butterflies in the U.S.). After that, Joy left for a solo career.

Joy’s replacement was American singer Ken Traylor, who sang on the otherwise rather similar-sounding Reflections. Male folksinger Joschi Dinier fronted the band for their last album, the more pensive and pastoral Minne, with lyrics in an old dialect of German based on the medieval poetry of Walther von der Vogelweide. Read more on Last.fm. User-contributed text is available under the Creative Commons By-SA License; additional terms may apply.