BLOOD, SWEAT & TEARS 1969

BS&T SOUL CHORUS - Dick Halligan, Bobby Colomby (7)
Original Recordings Produced by James William Guercio
Engineering Department: Roy Halee and Fred Catero
Arranged by Dick Halligan, Fred Lipsius and Al Kooper
Management: Dennis Katz, Bennett Glotze
Produced for Compact Disc by Bob Irwin
Mastered by Vie Anesini at SONY MUSIC STUDIOS, New York
Tracks 11 and 12 Mixed by Jen Wyler at SONY MUSIC STUDIOS, New York
Legacy A&R: Steve Berkowitz
Project Director: Stephan Moore
A&R Coordination: Patti Matheny & Darren Salmieri
Cover Art: Timothy Quey
Back Cover Photo: Harrie George
Inside Art: Bob Cato
Design: John Berg
Art Direction: Howard Fritzson
Design: Watts Design?
Photography: SONY MUSIC Photo Archives: Don Hunstein, Sandy Speiser
Packaging Manager: Michael Cimicata
All Compositions are BMI except "Smiling Phases" (ASCAP)

"From the very beginning",

original BLOOD, SWEAT & TEARS drummer Bobby Colomby explains, "there was a concept for the band that included more of a jazz orientation and more experimentation. We had an opportunity for the guys to display whatever talent they had."

BLOOD, SWEAT & TEARS put so many different sounds together, they rank high among '60s rock innovators. Just adding horns to a rhythm section was nothing new. It was a core element of rhythm and blues, even using musicians with jazz chops. However, featuring the jazz musicians and their improvisational soloing was something few R&B groups did. Where the R&B jazz players more often than not came out of the era when jazz bands played to dancers, the BS&T horn section came out of the post-bop ethos wherein people listened to jazz. Randy Brecker would move on to Horace Silver's band. Lew Soloff worked with Mingus.Their version of "rock jazz" (as opposed to Miles' "jazz rock") was unique. That it became the stuff of chart-topping gold and platinum records was exceptional. It became a sound that intrigued the public and spawned hoards of imitators during the early 70s (remember CHASE, DREAMS, LIGHTHOUSE & IDES OF MARCH?)

Although most bands name their first albums after themselves, BLOOD, SWEAT & TEARS followed about a year after the group's debut. Child Is Father To The Man. A lot had happened in the interim. For one thing, the group's co-founder, lead singer and main songwriter, Al Kooper, had left the band, as had trumpet players Randy Brecker and Jerry Weiss. Still, COLUMBIA president Clive Davis continued to love the idea of the band and told them the company stood behind them. With that in mind, the group started to rebuild. The first order of business was finding a new lead singer.

"We had considered, and even rehearsed with Laura Nyro", recalls the band's drummer Bobby Colomby. "We were talking about Steve Stills and other people. But Steve Katz and I had heard this group called the David CLAYTON-THOMAS COMBINE at Steve Paul's SCENE, a New York rock club. Every time the singer sang, I just looked up at the stage and said, 'Is that voice coming from that guy? He sounds like Bobby "Blue" Bland.' Really powerful singing. So, when we were going through who we thought could be our singer, Steve Katz said, 'What about that Canadian guy that we heard at the SCENE?"

The group invited Clayton-Thomas to audition, asking him to come ready to sing some of the songs from their first album. He came in with "I Love You More Than You'll Ever Know".

"Out comes this magnificent voice that I thought matched the power of the horn section" , Colomby recalls. "To me, that was always essential. It had to be a very compatible sound. He knocked us flat on the first verse of that tune. We knew we had found our singer."

Lew Soloff and Chuck Winfield came on board to play trumpet. Jerry Hyman joined on trombone. The nine musicians took up residence in a rehearsal loft above the Garrick Theater in Greenwich Village, working out new material and running the new players through the older songs.

"I was pretty excited while we were rehearsing", says Colomby. "I really enjoyed it. It was a positive time. I had an idea we were onto something when, in the middle of the hot summer in Greenwich Village, there were people just standing on the hot street, listening to us rehearse.

"When we played our first engagement at the Cafe Au Go-Go on Bleecker St., right next to the GARRICK THEATER, I saw lines around the block," he continues. "I had no idea who they were there to see. I didn't realize the word of mouth on the band had spread to the extent that there would be that many people there to hear us."

Flush from this success, the band went into the studio. "We didn't have a lot of material, but we had stuff that we had played live. When you know your material, when you've had a chance to play it out, it really does make it a lot easier to record."

As diverse a group of players as you could put in a room, the material the chose reflected that eclecticism. BLOOD, SWEAT & TEARS runs the gamut from MOTOWN to Satie, from Billie Holiday to Laura Nyro.

"The way the band chose material was extremely democratic", Colomby concurs. "If these nine musicians agreed on a song, then it probably would work for us. Like the Erik Satie piece, or "God Bless The Child". Obviously, there was no continuity in the song selection. The musicians in the band liked those tunes, so we did them. We had no master plan, no strategy. We just went into the studio and had fun."

The band had played one of those tunes almost since the beginning, a cover of "You've Made Me So Very Happy", a Brenda Holloway MOTOWN tune that had scratched the top 40 (#39 in 1967). By the spring of 1969, BS&T's version of the song became something that eluded the band with their first album: a bona fide hit, reaching #2 on the chart and staying there for three weeks, going gold in the process. They followed this with another gold single "Spinning Wheel".

"Stylistically, "Spinning Wheel" was simple enough where we could have fun with it, make an almost comedic, overblown arrangement of a very simple tune," Colomby recalls. "It was about fun. When it became a hit record, in a way I was thinking, 'My God, they don't get the joke! They're serious.' And as time went on, it became more and more serious, because it became a big hit."

By the next fall, the band was up at #2 and gold again, this time with a cover of Laura Nyro's "And When I Die". When the smoke cleared, BLOOD, SWEAT & TEARS spent seven weeks atop the Billboard album chart, sold over three million copies and won the GRAMMY® AWARD for Album Of The Year and another one for Pop/Rock/Contemporary-Other for the album track "Variations On A Theme By Erik Satie". Beyond being the group's commercial apex, the album represented the group's peak in many more personal ways,

"By the summer, we were off of a massive hit," Colomby recalled of the wake of BLOOD, SWEAT & TEARS. "Our manager was trying to extract the last nickel out of us, so we were touring incessantly. When it came time to record our next album, we didn't have time to stop and organize a thoughtful record.

"We did some interesting stuff," he adds wistfully, "but I didn't feel any of the joy I felt recording our second album."

— Hank Borowitz
Spring 2000

With the 1969 release of their self-titled second album BLOOD, SWEAT & TEARS (now with lead vocalist David Clayton-Thomas) catapulted onto the charts with their smash hits "You've Made Me So Very Happy", "And When I Die" and the antheinic "Spinning Wheel". Blending their many diverse styles into an altogether new pop sound, the record established BLOOD, SWEAT & TEARS as one of the most dynamic bands of their time.

©2000 SONY MUSIC ENTERTAINMENT Inc. /
Originally Released 1968 (1-12),
Originally Released 1969 (1-10) SONY MUSIC ENTERTAINMENT Inc. /
"COLUMBIA" is the exclusive Trademark of SONY MUSIC ENTERTANMENT Inc.
"Legacy" are Trademark of SONY MUSIC ENTERTAINMENT Inc.

Chart History:

According to Al Quaglieri in the What Goes Up! liner notes, this record was released December 11, 1968 (COLUMBIA 9720). All Music Guide lists it as January of 1969. Three top five singles came from the album, "You've Made Me So Very Happy", (COLUMBIA 44776) released 2/15/69 was the first gold single, peaking at #2. The next single, "More And More / Spinning Wheel", (COLUMBIA 44871) released 6/07/69 also peaked at #2 and went gold. Finally, released in September of 1969, the third gold single from the album, "And When I Die / Sometime's In Winter" (COLUMBIA 45008) was released 10/25/69 and also made #2 by November. It was the first time since the RIAA started certifying gold records that an album had spawned three gold singles. The album peaked at #1 on the U.S. Charts, staying there for seven weeks, going double platinum by the end of 1969, and stayed on the top 40 for 66 weeks. It is also available in a Mobile Fidelity Labs Gold Disc, which has recently gone out of print.

The GRAMMY's:

March 11, 1970 saw BS&T win GRAMMY's for Album Of The Year, Best Arrangment (Fred Lipsius for "Spinning Wheel") and Best Contemporary Instrumental Performance. ("Trois Gymnopedies On A Theme By Erik Satie".) Despite their pop success, it should be noted that CHICAGO has only won Grammy's for a Record Cover (Chicago X) and Male Pop Vocal ("If You Leave Me Now")

David Clayton-Thomas says:

"You've Made Me So Very Happy" was one of those songs where I flew into New York from Toronto and it was the first thing I recorded with BLOOD, SWEAT And TEARS. We walked out of the recording studio and every band member knew we'd just cut a hit record. It was just magic from the first note to the last".

Bobby Colomby notes that "Guercio really didn't stick around for a lot of that record. He left before the thing ws really done, he lost interest; he hated David, he hated Steve, it was like "these guys are prima donnas, I can't stand it, I gotta get outta here".

It should also be noted that James William Guercio only produced the album because COLUMBIA promised him they would sign and release the first album by the CHICAGO TRANSIT AUTHORITY.

William Ruhlmann of the All Music Guide writes:

Arguably, the BS&T that made this self-titled second album, consisting of five of the eight original members and four newcomers, including singer David Clayton-Thomas, was really a different group from the one that made the debut album, Child Is Father To The Man, which was largely under the direction of singer / songwriter/keyboard player / arranger Al Kooper. BS&T Mark II had certain similarities to the original: the musical mixture of classical, jazz, and rock elements was still apparent, and the interplay between the horns and the keyboards was still ocurring, even if those instruments were being played by different people. Kooper was even still present as an arranger on two of the tracks, notably the initial hit "You've Made Me So Very Happy". But the second BS&T, under the aegis of producer James William Guercio, was a less adventurous unit, and, as fronted by Clayton-Thomas, a far more commercial one. Not only did the album contain three songs that neared the top of the charts as singles "Happy", "Spinning Wheel" and "And When I Die", but the whole album, including an arrangement of "God Bless The Child" and the radical rewerite of TRAFFICS's "Smiling Phases", was wonderfaully accessible. It was a repetoire to build a career on, and BS&T did exactly that, although they never came close to equalling this album.

1. Variations On A Theme By Eric SATIE

( instrumental )

2. Smiling Phases

Do yourself a favor,
Wake up to your mind
Life is what you make it
You see, but still you're blind

Get yourself together,
Give before you take
You'll find out the hard way,
Soon you're gonna break
Hey hey hey

Smiling phases
Showing traces
Even if they bust you
Keep on smiling through and through
And you'll be amazed at the gaze
On their faces as they sentence you

You don't need a lawyer
When you're in a fix
Someone gets to pay up
Your friends are full of tricks
But happiness is something
That you just can't buy
Own up to the truth girl,
Your love has gone on by

Smiling Phases bring you flowers
You can line 'em up
And you can watch 'em grow for hours
And you'll be amazed at the way that they stare
as they walk by your door.

Do yourself a favor,
Wake up to your mind
Life is what you make it
You see, but still you're blind

Get yourself together,
Give before you take
You'll find out the hard way,
Soon you're gonna break
Hey hey hey

Smiling phases
Going Places
Even if they bust you
Keep on smiling through and through
And you'll be amazed at the gaze
On their faces as they sentence ...you !!

3. Sometimes In Winter

Sometimes in Winter
I gaze into the streets
and walk through snow and city sleet
behind your room

Sometimes in Winter
forgotten memories
remember you behind the trees
with leaves that cried

By the window once I waited for you
laughing slightly you would run
trees alone would shield us in the meadow
makin' love in the evening sun

Now you're gone girl
and the lamp posts call your name
I can hear, them
in the spring of frozen rain
now you're gone girl
and the time's slowed down till dawn
It's a cold room and the walls ask
where you've gone

Sometimes In Winter
I love you when the good times
seem like mem'ries int he spring
that never came

Sometimes In Winter
I wish the empty streets
Would fill with laughter from the tears
that ease my pain

4. More And More

Uh huh,
Hey yeah, yeah yeah ..
Like medicine baby
you're good for me
Like honey, darlin' girl
I know you're sweet to me
Each passing day,
brings us much closer together
and the love you bring me darlin'
just gets better and better
that's why my love for you
keeps on growin'
more and more
all the time
more and more
all the time, yeah !

Uh huh,
Gonna say it again, now now now
Hah !
Like a ship that's driftin' baby
you're apart from me
like old man time
you controll my destiny
if from my life, you ever tried to go
it would destroy in a second
what took a lifetime to mold
that's why my love for you
just keeps on growin'
more and more
all the time
more and more
all the time

Uh huhhhh
Let me hear ya !

[Instrumental Break]

As sure as a sunrise
I'll stand by your side
as sure as the daybreak
I'll love you for Heaven's Sake
I'm ready to pay, yeah
my dues for lovin' you
For lovin' you too much woman,
you know I stand accused

More,
and more
all the time
More and More !
Yeahhhhhh

5. And When I Die

I'm not scared of dying
and I, don't really care
if it' s peace you find in dying,
well then, let the time be near

If it's peace you find in dying,
well then dying time is near
just bundle up my coffin,
'cause it's
cold way down there,
I hear that it's
cold way down there, yeah
crazy cold, way down there

And when I die, and when I'm gone
there'll be, one child born
in this world
to carry on, to carry on

[Piano Solo]

Now troubles are many
there as
deep as a well
I can swear there ain't no Heaven
but I pray there ain't no hell
Swear there ain't no Heaven
and I'll pray there ain't no hell
but I'll never know by livin'
only my dyin' will tell, yes only my
dyin' will tell, oh yeah,
Only my dyin' will tell

And when I die, and when I'm gone
there'll be, one child born, in this world
to carry on, to carry on
yeah yeah

[Instrumental Solo]

Give me my freedom
for as long as I be
All I ask of livin'
is to have no chains on me
All I ask of livin'
is to have no chains on me
And all I ask of dyin' is to
go natrually, only wanna
go naturally
Here I go !
hey hey
Here come the devil
right behind
look out children, here he come
here he come, heyyy

Don't wanna go by the devil
don't wanna go by the demon
don't wanna go by satan
don't wann die uneasy
just let me go
naturally

And when I die, and when I'm dead
dead and gone
there'll be
one child born, in our world
to carry on, to carry on

6. God Bless The Child

Them that's got, shall get
them that's not, shall lose
so the Bible said, and it still is news
mama may have, and papa may have
God bless' the child,
that's got his own
that's got his own

Yes the strong seem to get more
while the weak ones fade
empty pockets don't
ever make the grade
As mama may have
and papa may have
God bless' the child
that's got his own
that's got his own.

And when you got money,
you got a lots of friends
crowdin' 'round your door
When the money's gone
and all you're spendin' ends
they won't be 'round any more
no, no, no more

And rich relations
may give you
a crust of bread and such
you can help yourself
but don't take too much
mama may have
and your papa may have
but God bless' the child
that's got his own
that's got his own
God bless' the child who can stand up and say

I've got my own
Ev'ry child's, got to have his own!

7. Spinning Wheel

What goes up
must come down
spinning wheel
got to go around
talkin' 'bout your troubles
it's a cryin' sin
ride a painted pony
let the spinning wheel spin

You got no money
you got no home
spinning wheel
all al lone
talkin' 'bout your troubles and you,
you never learn
Ride a painted pony
let the spinning wheel turn

Did you find
your directing sign
on the straight and narrow highway

Would you mind a reflecting sign
Just let it shine
within your mind
and show you, the colors
that are real

Someone's waiting
just for you
spinning wheel,
spinning true
Drop all your troubles by the riverside
ride a painted pony
let the spinning wheel fly

8. You've Made Me So Very Happy

I've lost at love before
got mad and closed the door
but you said try, just once more

I chose you for the one
now I'm havin' so much fun
you treated me so kind
I'm about to lose my mind

You made me so very happy
I'm so glad you
came into my life

The others were untrue
but when it came to lovin' you
I'd spend my whole life with you
'cause you came and you took control
you touched my very soul
you always showed me that
lovin' you is where it's at
You made me so very happy
I'm so glad you
came into my life

I love you so much it seems
You're even in my dreams
I can hear you
yeah I can hear you calling me
I'm so in love with you
all I ever want to do is
thank you baby
thank you baby

You made me so very happy
you made me so very happy baby
I'm so glad you came
into my life

Ev'ry day of my life
I wanna thank you
You made me so very happy
Oh, I wanna spend my life with you
thank you baby
thank you baby
Back to Track Listing

9. Blues Pt. 2

Mmm Mmmm
There's been some women in my life, yeah
you could say I've known my share
Some of them cried for me
some of them just didn't care, mmmm
some of them been hard on me
some of them tore me up deep inside
some of them were good to me, mmm
some of them never even tried
But woman, let me tell you
you're ev'ry girl I've ever known
you make me feel so very happy sometimes
and then you make me feel so all alone
and sometimes I reach out for you
yeah, but you just won't take my hand
and sometimes in winter
when I'm lonely tired and cold
you know if feels so good in the middle of the night
just to have your hand to hold
please, why don't you tell me where I stand
yeah, take my hand
don't turn your back on me girl, no
turn around and take a good long look at a man in love
Mmmmmmm, yeah yeah yeah
Turn around right now
take a good look at a man who needs your love, yeah
can you see him baby ?
tell me what you see !
I want to know, does he look like your man
And if he does, I want you to tell me one little thing
tell me, whoa
why don't you hold him, love him, kiss him, squeeze him
stand beside him, never let him go, ohhh
God knows you love him
(fades into Variations On A Theme)

10. Variations On A Theme By Erik SATIE

( instrumental )

1. Variations On A Theme By Eric SATIE

2. Smiling Phases

3. Sometimes In Winter

4. More And More

5. And When I Die

6. God Bless The Child

7. Spinning Wheel

8. You've Made Me So Very Happy

9. Blues Pt. 2

10. Variations On A Theme By Erik SATIE

( instrumental )

( instrumental )

BLOOD, SWEAT & TEARS