I was all set to write my intro about this week's tune being released when I was in high school and being a big hit and how much I hated it until I got older...except my memory failed me. Hamilton, Joe Frank & Reynolds did have a #1 hit when I was in high school with a song called "Falling In Love" which was a terrible song and still is. This week's tune was actually released when I was in sixth grade, and while I did come to appreciate it more as I got older, it never started from such a low bar.
Every now and again while doing my half-assed research for my weekly featured song, I read about a band whose history isn't all that interesting, but for the first time this week it dawned on me that not being interesting is exceedingly relative as how uninteresting can it have been to have had two top five singles and made music for a living for the better part of ten years--compared to, oh, I don't know, being an Assistant Manager at K-Mart? Anyhoo, Hamilton, Joe Frank & Reynolds (for the record, a trio--Dan Hamilton, Joe Frank Carollo, and Tommy Reynolds) formed in 1968, managed to score a record contract by 1970, and went on to have a several hits before disbanding in 1976. They reunited for two years from 1986-1988 for one supposes the obligatory oldies tour, before calling it a career for good. For their career, the band released four albums with three of them charting on the Billboard 200, and nine singles with eight of them hitting the Billboard Hot 100 (and, as noted above, two of them hitting the top five). Founding member Dan Hamilton passed away in 1994; the whereabouts of the other two band members went above and beyond my half-assed research....
"Don't Pull Your Love" was the first single the band ever released, from their debut album entitled, appropriately enough, Hamilton, Joe Frank & Reynolds. The single reached #4 (with a bullet!); the album hit #59 and was the highest charting LP of their career.
Fun Fact: "Don't Pull Your Love" was originally chosen to be covered by 60's pop band the Grass Roots, but they passed on it calling it "too lightweight" (whoops!). However, they eventually came around and the the 90's they were performing it in their live shows.
While "Don't Pull Your Love" may have been chosen to be a single for the Grass Roots, the song was actually written with Elvis Presley in mind (you may have heard of him--sold a couple records in his day). And if you listen closely--yup, there's a time or two in the song when you might think the King himself was singing. This one is your basic "don't leave me baby because I love you so" song (my favorite line "I'll...cry for a hundred years", and the band provides from the heart vocals, a catchy melody, and some dynamite horns to whet your pop palate. The 70's was a decade that was rivaled only by the 60's for great singles, and "Don't Pull Your Love" is a prime example of vintage seventies pop.
Lyric Sheet: "Don't pull your love out on me, baby/If you do then I think that maybe/I'll just lay me down and cry for a hundred years..."
Enjoy:
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Peace,
emaycee
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