Month: February 2022

1979 Orleans – Love Takes Time 

John Hall grew up in upstate New York. He began playing piano when he turned four, studied French Horn in school, and taught himself to play guitar and bass. His college career ended early when he began working full time in clubs. He formed the group Kangaroo, which released an album in 1967. John released his own solo album in 1970.

He formed the band Orleans with Wells Kelly and Larry Hoppen in Woodstock, New York, in 1972. Larry’s brother Lance joined the group a few months later and the band an album in each of the next four years.

The band had recorded the song Dance With Me on their second album, but it was a newer version they recorded a year later that became their first top forty hit. The single reached #6 on the Hot 100 in 1975. Their next single, Still The One, then reached #5 the next year. John and his first wife (Joanna) wrote both of those hits.

John was unhappy with the direction of the group’s music and left the band in 1977 and again pursued his solo career.

The remaining members of the group replaced him by adding two more musicians and recorded a song co-written by Larry and Marilyn Mason. The single Love Takes Time put the band back on the charts and reached #11 on the hot 100 in 1979.

A few more albums came and went but the band never charted again after the end of the seventies.

John went on to co-found Musicians United for Safe Energy and he and Joanna co-wrote the song Power. At the No Nukes concert in 1979, John sang lead on the song backed up by Carly Simon, Jackson Browne, Graham Nash, Bonnie Raitt and others.

Wells died in 1984, and a memorial concert celebrating his life led to the other three ex-members reuniting and touring. The band ceased to exist in 1997 but reformed again in 2002.

John was elected to the United States House of Representatives from 2006 to 2010. He rejoined Orleans in 2012 and continues to appear with the group.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orleans_(band)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Love_Takes_Time_(Orleans_song)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Hall_(New_York_politician)

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1978 Meco – Theme From Close Encounters 

Meco Monardo grew up in Pennsylvania, the son of a trombone player. While he wanted to play the drums, his father helped steer him to the trombone instead. Meco became accomplished enough to join the high school band while he was still in elementary school. He studied classical music and jazz in college and became a session musician from 1965 to 1974. He also began arranging music, especially horn sections for pop songs.

Meco began producing music, including co-producing the hit Never Can Say Goodbye for Gloria Gaynor. 

The first Star Wars film came out in 1977 and created quite a stir. The soundtrack by John Williams impressed just about everybody, and the result was a good-selling soundtrack album. They released the single Star Wars (Main Title), and it quickly reached #10 on the Hot 100.

Meco attended the movie on its opening day and saw the film at least three more times by the next day. Disco was rapidly becoming mainstream, and he spoke with Neil Bogart at Casablanca Records and pitched recording a disco version of the soundtrack. Neil initially brushed off the idea, but when the film and soundtrack became more popular, he relented.

Meco released the single Star Wars Theme/Cantina Band and reached the top of the Billboard Hot 100. 

Near the end of 1977, the next Science Fiction film to feature a John Williams soundtrack came out: Close Encounters Of The Third Kind. Once again, John Williams released a single that featured music from the film and reached #13 on the Hot 100 in 1978.

Meco covered the theme song again with his own single, Theme from Close Encounters of the Third Kind. Unfortunately, the single did not outperform the John Williams single; it peaked at only #25 on the Hot 100 in 1978.

Meco continued to create albums and singles based on film soundtracks through 1985, after which he retired from music and began work as a commodity broker.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meco
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Theme_from_Close_Encounters_of_the_Third_Kind

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1977 Santana – She’s Not There 

Rod Argent set his sights on being a musician by the time he was eight years old and recruited other school kids to form the group that became The Zombies in 1961. He also wrote all three of the group’s biggest hits, including their first hit single, She’s Not There.

Santana released two top ten hits in 1969 and 1970, had a pair of singles reach #12 and #13 on the Hot 100 in 1970, and had one hit in 1972 that only reached #36. After that, the band successfully toured and released a few gold or platinum albums, but for five years, the band failed to reach the top forty again.

The band’s 1977 double album Moonflower included both live and studio recordings. The jazz-infused cover of She’s Not There took the band back into the top forty of Billboard’s Hot 100 chart, reaching #27 in December.

While the band would manage a few more minor hits over the next twenty years, it would be 1999 before they returned to the top ten and reached the top of the Hot 100 twice with Smooth and Maria Maria.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Santana_(band)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Santana_discography#Singles
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/She%27s_Not_There#Santana_cover

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1976 L.T.D. – Love Ballad 

“Love, Togetherness, and Devotion” seems a tad long for the name of a band, so in 1968, a group of five musicians formed L.T.D. in Greensboro, North Carolina. They picked up a sixth member when they moved to New York City.

More importantly, when the band went to Providence, Rhode Island, for a show, they discovered Jeffrey Osborne and he joined as their drummer and singer.

Two years later, the band relocated to California and picked up four more members. The group signed with A&M Records and then added another drummer so that Jeffrey could become their front man.

The band began recording singles and albums in 1974, but their first arrival on the charts came with Love Ballad in 1976. 

That single took the band to the top of the R&B chart. They even peaked at #20 on the Hot 100.

Other than a single that spent a week at #40, the band only had one other single on the Hot 100. Back In Love Again reached #4 on the Hot 100 and again took them to the top of the R&B chart in 1977. Sadly, I have a hard time remembering the last time I even heard that song on an oldie station.

Jeffrey left the group to pursue a solo career in 1980.

The band recorded new albums after Jeffrey left in 1981 and 1983, but never charted with another single again after those releases. Three of the members reformed the group in 1999 and they continue to appear in live shows.

Love Ballad had a second run at the charts in 1979 when George Benson covered the song. His single did slightly better than the original on the Hot 100, peaking at #18. The record also reached #3 on the R&B chart.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/L.T.D._(band)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Love_Ballad_(L.T.D._song)

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1975 Ambrosia – Holdin’ On To Yesterday 

Four musicians who wanted to produce music that was a blend of musical styles chose the name Ambrosia to reflect that kind of mix. The four members were Burleigh Drummond on drums, Christopher North on keyboards, David Pack on guitar and vocals, and Joe Puerta on bass and vocals.

While all the members of the group shared at least some writing credits on their songs, David was the primary writer and Joe and Burleigh were his most frequent co-writers. The band’s music tended to be progressive in nature, but ballads kept creeping into their albums.

The group auditioned for A&M Records, but it was 20th Century Fox Records that signed the group and released their first two albums. Freddie Piro produced the band’s first album. The first single from the album was Holdin’ On To Yesterday, which peaked at #17 on the Hot 100 in 1975.

Alan Parsons created a remix of the song with a pumped-up bass that sounds significantly better than what I remember hearing on the radio.

Alan also produced the band’s second album and all four members of the group played on the first Alan Parsons Project album. David later wrote, sang, and played on several of the later Alan Parsons Project albums.

The group’s second single had an unusual co-writer. Cat’s Cradle is a science fiction novel that Kurt Vonnegut wrote, and the novel contained a poem that the group put to music. The result was the single Nice, Nice, Very Nice, a single that peaked at only #63 on the Hot 100.

In 1976 the group was invited to contribute a song to the documentary film All This And World War II. The film interspersed video clips from World War II with music written by the Beatles and performed by a variety of other artists. The film bombed, but the creators made money from sales of the double album they released from the soundtrack. Ambrosia recorded the first song on the film, their new version of Magical Mystery Tour. The single managed to reach #39 in 1977 and proved to be a popular inclusion on their tours.

The group finally hit gold with the million-selling single, That’s How Much I Feel in 1978. The record got up to #3 on the Hot 100, as did their next hit single in 1980, The Biggest Part Of Me.

While the group only reached the top forty one more time in 1980, they continued touring for two more years. Bruce Hornsby joined the group briefly during that period before leaving for a successful solo career.

When the band’s 1982 album failed to connect with the public, the band broke up. David then produced a solo album in 1985.

In 1989, the group reunited and returned to touring. A few lineup changes occurred. The biggest change came when David announced he was leaving the group permanently in 2000. He became a Grammy-award winning producer who worked with a lengthy line of A-list musicians.

The band still continues to tour and maintains a website at https://www.ambrosialive.net/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ambrosia_(band)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ambrosia_discography#Singles
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Holdin%27_on_to_Yesterday

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1974 Albert Hammond – I’m A Train 

World War II caused the Hammond family to relocate from Gibralter to London, where Albert Hammond was born. The family returned to Gibralter after the war ended, and Albert grew up there. He joined the Diamond Boys as a singer in 1960 and remained with the group when they moved to Madrid.

Albert co-founded Family Dogg with several other Spanish musicians. They had a top ten hit in the UK in 1969. One of the other group members was Mike Hazlewood; Albert and Mike began writing songs together.

Leapy Lee reached #16 on the Hot 100 in 1968 with Little Arrows, the first song written by the pair that broke into the US Hot 100. 

Two years later, Roger Greenaway and Tony Burrows took another song written by Albert and Mike into the Hot 100, Gimme Dat Ding. The British television show The Pipkins used the song on their show, and they released the single using that name for the artists.

Albert began recording his own records as early as 1963, but never reached the charts until the release of the Down By The River. The single only reached #38 on the Hot 100 in 1972 before falling off the chart.

A few months later, It Never Rains In Southern California reached #5 on the Hot 100 and #2 on the Adult Contemporary (AC) chart. 

Albert and Mike wrote the song I’m A Train in the sixties and a group called Les Troubadours released the song as La Chaîne. The British group Colors of Love released the English version in 1968, but did not become a big hit.

Albert released the song as his follow-up single to his big hit, and it reached #31 on the Hot 100 and #15 on the AC chart in late 1974.

Albert and Mike wrote songs for many other artists through 1974, after which Albert began writing songs by himself or with other co-writers. Perhaps the most successful of those songs was One Moment in Time, which Whitney Houston recorded as the theme song fom the 1988 Summer Olympics.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Albert_Hammond
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Albert_Hammond_discography#Singles
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/I%27m_a_Train

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1973 Three Dog Night – Pieces Of April 

Dave Loggins was the second cousin of singer-songwriter Kenny Loggins. He released his first album, Personal Belongings, in February 1972. The album was a collection of soft rock/folk-rock songs he wrote and played acoustic guitar on. Several studio musicians aided in the recording. The first single from the album was Claudia, but the release went unnoticed.

Somebody did notice another song on the album since soon after, Three Dog Night recorded Pieces Of April on their album Seven Separate Fools. The first single from their album was Black & White, which reached the top of the Hot 100 late that Summer. They also released the album with something special inside: seven oversized playing cards, each of which featured a photo of one member of the group.

Because of the band’s name, people think of Three Dog Night as only having three members. Vocalists Danny Hutton, Cory Wells, and Chuck Negron did indeed form the band in 1967. They hired additional musicians to back them up and initially worked with Brian Wilson and recorded as Redwood.

When that didn’t work out, they dropped their backup band and started over with four new musicians. After one more change, they settled into a lineup that lasted through their hit records: Michael Allsup on guitar, Jimmy Greenspoon on keyboards, Joe Schermie on bass, and Floyd Sneed on drums. Danny’s girlfriend suggested changing the group’s name to Three Dog Night after she read an article about indigenous Australians who slept with one, two, or three dogs when the weather got cold, colder, or really freezing.

Late in the year, the band released their second single from the album, Pieces Of April, a ballad that Chuck sang lead on. The single peaked at #19 in early 1973.

Dave also released the original version of his song in 1973 as the B-side of Think’n Of Your, but neither side of that single charted.

After Three Dog Night’s success with Dave’s song, he was able to record a second album. He released the single Please Come To Boston in 1973 and reached #5 on the Hot 100 and #1 on the Adult Contemporary chart.

After years of not charting, in 1979 Dave recorded a completely different arrangement of Pieces Of April. The new single reached #22 on the Adult Contemporary chart and was the last time Dave had any measurable success.

Three Dog Night’s career continued strong for a few more years before the hits ran out and the lineup then started to evolve. Al Ciner from The American Breed  and later Rufus joined the group.

Several other members came and went over time. Danny began having health and drug problems and the group fired him and replaced him with by Jay Gruska in 1975.

The group continues to tour and released a single as recently as 2017.

https://www.allmusic.com/artist/dave-loggins-mn0000962168/biography
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dave_Loggins
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Three_Dog_Night
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Three_Dog_Night_discograph

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1972 Honey Cone – One Monkey Don’t Stop No Show 

Edna Wright’s father was a pastor in Los Angeles. Edna and her sister Darlene sang in the choir at the church. Darlene became the lead singer of the Blossoms in 1958 and began using the stage name, Darlene Love. That group’s members sang on an endless string of records as lead singers and/or backup singers.

From 1962 to 1964, Edna and Carolyn Willis also joined the Blossoms, working with Phil Spector. In 1964, Edna sang lead on the single Yes Sir, That’s My Baby, which was credited to Hale & the Hushabyes. The backup vocalists on her record included The Blossoms, Brian Wilson of the Beach Boys, Sonny & Cher, and Jackie DeShannon, but somehow the record wasn’t a hit.

Edna and Carolyn left the Blossoms and sang background vocals on several more hit singles before joining up with Shelley Clark on a broadcast of the Andy Williams Show in 1969. Eddie Holland, Brian Holland, and Lamont Dozier had just left Motown and formed HDH Records. Eddie saw the performance and offered to sign Edna to a recording contract, but she insisted she wanted to sing in a group. As a result, the label ended up signing the three young women as a trio. Eddie named the trio Honey Cone after an ice cream flavor.

The Honey Cone had several top thirty hits on the R&B chart their first two years but did not break into the Hot 100 in a big way until their release of Want Ads in 1971. The single topped both the Hot 100 and the R&B chart and sold over a million copies.

Their next single did nearly as well. Stick Up again sold a million copies and topped the R&B chart but peaked at #11 on the Hot 100.

The single One Monkey Don’t Stop No Show only reached #15 on the Hot 100 and #5 on the R&B chart in early 1972, after which their records slowly became less and less successful.

The group finally disbanded in 1973. Their record label put together a new Honey Cone and released a single in 1976, but it failed to chart.

Edna married Greg Perry, who had produced and co-written many of the group’s hits. She has recently toured with two new backup singers as Edna Wright and The Honey Cone.

Carolyn has made a living recording jingles. She also sang on Get Closer by Seals and Croft and has sung on records and toured singing background vocals for Neil Diamond, Boz Scaggs, and Carly Simon.

In 1985, Shelley married bass-player Verdine White, a member of Earth, Wind, And Fire. She represents celebrities through the W&W Management Company that she formed.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Honey_Cone

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1971 Helen Reddy – I Don’t Know How To Love Him

Perhaps the most successful play of the seventies began life as just an album because Jesus Christ Superstar could not raise enough money to produce a play. Instead, the producers created an album recording. The success of the recording led to a Broadway production of the play that earned over 200 million dollars.

The production company picked Murray Head’s title song, Superstar, as the first single from their album. The single stalled at #74 on the Hot 100 in 1970. About a year later, the song re-entered the chart and fell off again after reaching #60. The single made one more run on the chart a few weeks later and finally peaked at #14. Murray also sang the song in the film.

One song in the play used the melody from the 1967 song Kansas Morning. The new lyrics changed the song to I Don’t Know How To Love Him. Singer Yvonne Elliman sang the song on the album and later on Broadway.

An executive at Capitol Records thought the song had the potential to be a hit, and asked Linda Ronstadt to record it, but Linda hated the song. Eventually, Helen Reddy (who also disliked the song) recorded it for Capitol, and the single got released in 1971. 

When the single entered the charts, Polydor Records quickly released Yvonne’s soundtrack version of the song. Perhaps the two records reaching the charts prevented either of them from being a bigger hit: Helen’s version peaked at #13 on the Hot 100 and #12 on the Adult Contemporary chart while Yvonne’s version reached #28 and #15, respectively.

The song provided each singer with their first charting solo record in the US, and they each went on to record multiple more hits.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jesus_Christ_Superstar
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Helen_Reddy
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Helen_Reddy_discography#Singles
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/I_Don%27t_Know_How_to_Love_Him#Helen_Reddy_version

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1970 Joe South – Walk A Mile In My Shoes 

 In 1958, the National Recording Corporation was established in Atlanta. Their early studio musicians included Ray Stevens, Jerry Reed, and Joe South.

The Big Bopper was a disc jockey in Texas who was on his way to record a novelty song. He needed a song for the B-side of the single and wrote Chantilly Lace while riding to the studio. Disc Jockeys found and immediately started playing the B-side, which turned into a top ten single.

As a result, nobody really paid any attention to the song that was released as the A-side. That was a novelty song that the Big Bopper wrote to connect two other novelty songs, The Purple People Easter Meets The Witch Doctor. Somehow, Joe recorded and released the single on NRC records and the result became his first charting single. It reached #47 on the Hot 100 in 1958.

After a few more singles that didn’t even do that well, Joe concentrated more on writing songs and working as a studio musician. He played guitar on Tommy Roe’s Sheila, Simon and Garfunkel’s second album, and Aretha Franklin’s Chain of Fools. He even played bass guitar on Bob Dylan’s album Blond On Blond.

Billy Joe Royal began recording five songs written by Joe in 1965. 

Joe finally had his own hit record in 1969 with Games People Play. The record won two Grammy awards and Joe got to sing his song on The Ed Sullivan Show with Tommy Roe and Billy Joe Royal as his backup singers.

Joe’s only other personal top forty single came in 1970 when he recorded Walk A  Mile In My Shoes. The single peaked at #12 on the Hot 100.

Lynn Anderson recorded Joe’s song Rose Garden and reached the top of the Country charts and #3 on the Hot 100 in 1970 and 1971. That led to a successful career as a Country music songwriter.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joe_South
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Walk_a_Mile_in_My_Shoes

I have collected older articles about Lost or Forgotten Oldies in my books.

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