Paul Williams. My relationship with the man is complicated.
On one hand he has penned immaculate pop hits for the Monkees and Three Dog Night among others, while on the other his dreaded early '70s Carpenters-phase leaves me completely cold. Not to mention Barbra Streisand. Sorry.
However, towering above all that is his seminal debut solo album "Someday Man" from 1970. This Soft Rock/Sunshine Pop classic has few equals in the genre.
In the mid-'60s Paul Williams was, by his own account, "An out of work actor who started writing songs for his own amusement."
By 1968, though, he had started writing songs with one Roger Nichols, who had the previous year recorded the "Roger Nichols & The Small Circle of Friends" album for A&M Records (Another Sunshine Pop classic, according to many). But also by then Williams had formed the group The Holy Mackerel with his brother Mentor Williams - himself later a composer of Dobie Gray's fantastic 1973 Soul/Country hit "Drift Away" - and others, and they recorded their sole self-titled LP for Reprise in '68.
Mixed male/female singing groups like Mamas & the Papas, The Sunshine Company and Spanky & Our Gang were all the rage during this era and The Holy Mackerel proudly placed themselves in that line.
But as far as The Holy Mackerel LP goes, it's an almost too eclectic effort mixing C&W with Psychedelic Soft Rock and the then-burgeoning Bubblegum sound. So it's an understandably uneven album which sounds at times either frustrating and/or fascinating, but definitely not without its charms.
Mostly it's written by Williams alone, although one of it's stronger cuts "Bitter Honey" is a Nichols/Williams composition.
In the wake of the album's commercial failure there were a couple of non-LP 45s issued. Among them was the Nichols/Williams penned "I Just Haven't Got What it Takes", which later resurfaced as "To Put Up With You" by American Breed and several others before Williams himself at long last recorded the definitive version for the "Someday Man" album.
After the inevitable break-up of The Holy Mackerel Nichols and Williams really hit their stride - although they merely enjoyed an "artistic success" to begin with. Dobie Gray recorded a great version of "Do You Really Have a Heart" - later also to appear on the "Someday Man" album - while The Monkees had the first crack at "Someday Man" itself (both were issued in 1969).
But it wasn't until spring 1970 when the absolute Nichols/Williams artistic pinnacle appeared in the form of that first Paul Williams solo album, "Someday Man".
Today, though, both Williams and Nichols claim it was much more of a collaborative effort than that. Perhaps, then, the credits say it all: Lyrics by Paul Williams; music by Roger Nichols; produced by Roger Nichols.
Basically, the record consisted of properly recorded versions of what had been their best publishing demos of the previous two years.
Although initially this record, as they say, disappeared without a trace, it's just incredible how many of its songs have been covered by other artists. For instance, "So Many People" - a personal favourite of both of its writers - has no less than seven different versions listed on YouTube - but the original betters them all!
The title track has "only" five notable covers listed on YouTube, and again it's Williams very own version which tops the list...
Similarly, the aforementioned "Do You Really Have a Heart" inspired at least seven covers, none of which is quite worthy apart from Dobie Gray's original recording and Paul Williams' very own "interpretation".
All of which just goes to show how far and wide aforementioned publishing demos travelled.
Backed by bits of "The Wrecking Crew" (Hal Blaine, Larry Knechtel), "Someday Man" sounds superbly timeless and classic today, and it just beggars belief it was so overlooked at the time.
In the past decade people have awoken up to its charms though, most notably with Mojo magazine rightly claiming it to be a "lost classic" a few years back.
In the aftermath of that long overdue recognition a lovingly compiled "Deluxe Expanded Edition" CD re-issue was released in the U.K. by Now Sounds/Cherry Red a couple of years ago. Needless to say it's an essential purchase.
By pure curiosity (I'd always loved the Monkees' version of the title cut, while also viewing Paul Williams merely as "the guy who wrote some songs for the Carpenters"), I was just lucky enough to stumble upon a nearly unplayed original vinyl copy of "Someday Man" some years ago and was I ever in for a revelation!
Since then it's been a constant companion, both enjoyed and admired regularly...
Nov. 9th, 2012: And they just made a movie about this guy. Hooray for Hollywood! Or something.
A few years ago I read Ken Emerson's amazing account of the Brill Buliding era, "Always Magic in the Air". In fact, everyone even vaguely interested in the golden era (the early '60s) of American pop music should. Furthermore, for every ill-informed idiot who claims there wasn't a whole lot going on Stateside until the almighty Beatles first crossed the Atlantic in '64, this should be a required reading.
Focusing on the masters of song, such as Leiber & Stoller, Goffin & King, Pomus & Shuman, Greenwich & Barry, Mann & Weil, Bacharach & David, and Sedaka & Greenfield, Emerson's tale was obviously an inspiration for the good folks at U.K.'s Ace Records, who launched their still-ongoing CD "Songwriter series" around the time the book was first published, in the mid-'00s.
Apart from the aforementioned songwriter teams, said series have also featured the early works of Neil Diamond and Phil Spector (separately, of course :-), plus career overviews of Boyce & Hart, Randy Newman, Sloan & Barri, Lee Hazlewood, Bert Berns, Chip Taylor, and Jackie DeShannon - to name but a few.
Of course every serious music enthusiast owns, for instance, Bobby Vee's big hit version of Goffin & King's "Take Good Care of My Baby". But not everyone's aware of the fact that Dion recorded the original version of that little gem. Well, Ace's compilers take both matters into account and include Dion's scarcely heard interpretation rather than Bobby's more familiar - and, frankly, better - one on their Vol. 2 collection of Goffin & King's compositions.
There are numerous other similar examples of how these excellent Ace series both educate and entertain the listener.
Digging for dusty obscurities ripe for (re)discovery is also something the Ace people obviously see as an often rewarding challenge.
Apart from the obvious highlights of the series (Goffin & King Vol. 1, Mann & Weil, Greenwich & Barry), personally I was also pleasantly surprised by the Sloan & Barri CD, as well as the Penn & Oldham, Jackie DeShannon, and Chip Taylor collections. Previously something I thought were merely a few hit wonders, thanks to the Ace folks, I am now a proper fan.
According to the almighty Wikipedia, this here is the ultimate defintion of Nederpop.
Whatever. Thru the years (and decades) I've always been fascinated by the abilty of the Dutch to make such authentic-sounding and internationally-appealing pop/rock - yet unique in its own way. From the unforgettable late '60s riffage of Shocking Blue's "Venus" to Diesel's equally exceptional, yet not nearly as renowned, late'70s/early '80s sounds of "Sausalito Summernight".
And although I prefer to focus on my era of expertise - in short; the '70s - as far as I know, the Dutch might very well still be doing it right.
So, as one sometimes does, I decided to make a list. Not a Top 5 - or even a Top 10 - but a Top 11 of Nederpop artists of the past and their crowning moments. In MY opinion. And I can not stress that last sentiment heavily enough.
Already it's been pointed out to me that key artists such as BZN, Earth & Fire and The Cats are all absent from said list. So sorry, but I am just not familiar enough with them!
Furthermore, in some folks' opinion I probably leave out Bonnie St. Claire & Unit Gloria's musical manifesto "Clap Your Hands and Stomp Your Feet", as well as George Baker Selection's ultimate holiday hit "(Una) Paloma Blanca". But sorry again; I just ain't too keen on 'em!
However, feel free to set me (and anyone else interested) straight via the liberal and ever so open-minded comment system here below.
But without any further adiue, here's my Top 11, in a pretty much chronological order...
SUNNY FOUR/"Goodie Good Ice Cream Man" (1969)
Shamefully, I was only introduced to this bona-fide Bubblegum classic via a "rather recent" cover version. The Andersons!'s (featuring the wonderfully versatile Robbie Rist) killer rendition of this obscure Nedergum classic on Not Lame's excellent "Rigth to Chews" Bubblegum tribute CD from 2002 very nearly even equals the original.
And, admittedly, I know absolutely NOTHING else about the original. I am only TOLD (by the dubious "authority" that is YouTube) that it is Dutch, but it appears to be the sole release by the ever mysterious Sunny Four.
Arranger/producer Carl Maduri seems to have worked in the U.S. both before and after - if it is, in fact, the same person.
THE SHOCKING BLUE/"Venus" (1969) & "Never Marry a Railroad Man" (1970).
OK, "Venus" definitely needs no introduction. SHOCKingly though, it is perhaps a lesser known fact that the song borrowed heavily (and that's not an understatement) from the Big Three's (featuring the future "Mama" Cass Elliott) 1963 folk hit "The Banjo Song (Oh! Suzanna)"....
However, my other favourite Shocking Blue song is somewhat less well-known. "Never Marry a Railroad Man" from 1970 nonetheless built upon the true and tested formula of "Venus", although it's somewhat more "original" in another sense of the word....if you know what I mean.
GEORGE BAKER SELECTION/"Little Green Bag" (1969)
Initially, a merely moderate hit internationally ( #21 in the U.S.; didn't chart in the U.K.). But via Quentin Tarantino's 1992 brakthrough film "Reservoir Dogs" it eventually enjoyed the resurgence it truly deserved.
And puzzlingly enough, it sounded nothing at all like anything the so-called George Baker would ever attempt again.
Born Johannes Bouwens (also known as Hans Bouwens), he took up the more internationally-friendly name of George Baker in the late '60s after a brief stint with the Dutch band Soul Invention, which then evolved into the George Baker Selection.
Mid '70s success was secured as the sunny-sounding "Paloma Blanca" (also known as "Una Paloma Blanca") became a worldwide hit.
Since then, our "George" has had a Euro hit or two and still enjoyes some success on the oldies circuit in the continent.
FOCUS/"Hocus Pocus" (1972) & "Sylvia" (1973)
And now for something completely different...
The yodelling Prog-rockers Focus lead by flutist extraordinaire Thijs Van Leer and guitarist Jan Akkerman, these guys made at least two bona-fide Nederprog classics in 1972's "Hocus Pocus" and the following year's "Sylvia".
MOUTH & MAcNEAL/"How Do You Do" (1972) & "I See a Star" (1974)
What adjectives can one muster up about the unusual pairing of Willem Duyn (AKA Mouth) and Sjoukje van't Spijker (Alias Maggie MacNeal), masterminded by producer Hans van Hemert, who later also put together Dutch disco act Luv? Perhaps predictably, the beauty and the beast certainly springs to mind.
The once-heard-never-to-be-forgotten "How Do You Do" went on to become their biggest hit, reaching the U.S. Top 10 and selling approx. 2 million worldwide.
In 1974 they represented the Netherlands in the Eurovision Song Contest with "I See a Star", but finished "only" third. However, this was the very year when ABBA won with "Waterloo", so the competition was most certainly somewhat stiffer than usually.
Well, shortly after the '74 ESC the pair split-up and went their seperate ways.
Both did continue in the music business and Sjoukie has done so, mostly, under her real name.
Duyn, meanwhile, kept trading in on his Mouth & MacNeal fame with other partners but tragically died of a heart attack in 2004 at the age of 67.
BONNIE St. CLAIRE & UNIT GLORIA/"Voulez-vous (Yes I do, I Love You)" (1974)
The brainchild of Peter Koelewijn, yet another '60s/'70s Dutch songwriter/producer, who originally discovered blonde singer Cornelia Swart (AKA Bonnie St. Claire) in the late '60s, and recorded her successfully solo before teaming her up with the backing band Unit Gloria.
In 1972 their greatest hit, "Clap Your Hands and Stamp Your Feet", was released to a worldwide acclaim and regional cover versions bonanza. "The Dutch Suzi Quatro" had arrived.
However, in my humble opinion, their greatest moment came in 1974 with "Voulez-vous". Hmmm... Yes, please.
GOLDEN EARRING/"Radar Love" (1974) & "Twilight Zone" (1982)
Remarkably, formed in the early '60s and still active today, Golden Earring along with the Rolling Stones and a handful of others, at 50+, is one of the world's oldest surviving Rock bands.
A wordwide hit in 1974, "Radar Love" is arguably their magnum opus. A "Heavy Rock" classic on a pair with Edgar Winter's "Frankenstein" and Fogath's "Slow Ride", it's a rock-solid classic of the genre.
Eight years later, Golden Earring again made a mark, this time on the MTV generation with their memorable music video to the hunting "Twilight Zone"...
TEACH-IN/"Dinge-Dong/Ding-A-Dong" (1975)
Another Eurovision Song Contest entry, though this time a winner, this song is just plain silly! But silly fun. "Dinge-Dong", the original Dutch-language version is way better than the obligated English version which became a big hit all over Europe.
Regrettfully, later on in the decade, this group was churning out dreadful disco-fare such as "Dear John" - a John Travolta tribute no less. C'est la vie.
PUSSYCAT/"Mississippi" (1976)
A convincing C&W pastiche from Amsterdam of all places just goes to show, once more, the Dutch pop people's ability to adapt.
It SHOULD've been a worldwide hit but settled for a sizeable Euro smash (#1 in the U.K., no less).
Fronted by a trio of singing sisters, one of whom, Tonny Willé - the lead, still today performs as Pussycat in Oldie festivals around Europe - Germany in particular (the pic below was taken by yours truly at one such occasion, in Essen Germany in December 2008).
"She was just seventeen, if you know what I mean". How can that intro ever go wrong?
That, combined with the Guys'n'Dolls/The Great Gatsby image of those people and the winning mid-to-late '70s contemporary pop/disco sounds not unsimilar to ABBA, they somehow could not fail.
Their debut single and biggest hit, "Rock & Roll Star" wasn't as good as the second one, "Oh me, Oh My, Goodbye", though, but check out this unashamedly ABBA-esque promo clip.
DIESEL/"Sausalito Summernight" (1979) & "Down in the Silvermine" (1979)
A bunch of seasoned Nederpop veterans (Kayak) sporting an uncertain image, they somehow cracked the U.S. Top 40 in 1981 with "Sausalito Summernight", a song they'd had a hit with in their native Netherlands two years previously...
Undeniably a pretty unique piece of music for the early '80s, today it still stands out as something that should've been much bigger and better known.
"Down in the Silvermine", another single from their original 1979 Dutch debut album, is most memorable in its resemblance to Slade's 1984 hit "Run Run Away". Well, just judge for yourself...
And there it is: The Golden Age of Nederpop/Glam/Gum/Prog...as far as I'm concerned. Again and always, feel free to challenge my opinion and show me the error of my ways and/or introduce me to something I am not aware of...
It is always sad to hear of one of your musical heroes' passing. After all, in many cases you've grown up with their music; it has been a constant presence throughout your life.
Thus today, upon learning about Davy Jones' untimely death at 66 from a heart attack, one's thoughts inevitably turn to the past: to one's youth specifically. Music having been such a big part of my life for as long as I can recall, The Monkees' music has been there longer than most other.
I can very vaguely remember The Monkees' T.V. series being on in the late '60s, but being born in 1964, I was certainly way too young to acknowledge and appreciate them at the time.
As a teenager I dug feverishly into my older sisters' record collections when they weren't around...and usually without their knowledge. And I seem to recall a snowy winter's day in '77 or '78 when I came across The Monkees "Greatest Hits". And to make a long story short, I've been a fan ever since...
The Monkees were controversial from the very beginning - to say the least. People either loathed or loved them. Sure, they were "manufactured", but still recorded some of the most memorable pop songs of the '60s - many of which were written by some of the best songwriters of ANY era. Goffin/King, Neil Diamond, Harry Nilsson, Boyce/Hart, Paul Williams, etc. and so on.
Davy being the only Brit in the band, having been a star of stage and screen in his homeland from a very young age (he appeared on the same Ed Sullivan Show as The Beatles in 1964, as a member of the Broadway cast from "Oliver!" - he received a Tony nomination for his performance - which he had previously performed in London), he became instantly recognizable to American T.V. audiences due to his accent first and foremost, as well as his physical stature (He was short, which became a running gag throughout The Monkees' two years on the air).
The Monkees were an immediate hit and Davy, in particular, was the popular pin-up choice.
The Monkees' history is very well documented elsewhere, so I see no reason to dwelve any deeper into their remarkable history here.
Nonetheless, their mid-period albums such as "Headquarters" (1967 - The first album they were allowed to play their own instruments on), "Pisces, Aquarius, Capricorn & Jones, Ltd." (1967), "The Birds, The Bees & The Monkees" (1968) as well as the soundtrack to their film "Head" (1968 - Co-written by one Jack Nicholson), are all certified late '60s pop classics.
But inevitably when the T.V. series went off the air their popularity waned and by 1970 the game was up.
Solo careers were launched all around and Davy's debut post-Monkees effort was 1971's "Davy Jones" on Bell Records.
A nice enough bubblegum album, "The Road to Love" is one of its strongest cuts.
But in spite of a memorable guest appearance on "The Brady Bunch", sales were disappointing and Davy's solo career never really took off.
During the '70s Monkees reunions and semi-reunions (Dolenz, Jones, Boyce & Hart) were attempted, but with diminishing returns.
In the early '80s Davy returned to solo work and briefly became a big star in Japan.
During the mid-'80s The Monkees' old T.V. series started to enjoy a revival in re-runs on American cable stations, MTV in particular, and the old Monkee music was also up for a timely reappraisal and critical re-evaluation.
Thus the time for a reunion was ripe and in 1986 Arista Records issued a new compilation album on CD - then a new format - which also contained a couple of recently recorded Monkee tunes, including their version of the Mosquitos power pop classic "That Was Then, This is Now"...
For the past 25 years Monkees reunions (usually minus Michael Nesmith, though) have been a regular occurrence.
In between those Davy always returned solo work (his last show was a couple of weeks ago) as well as the occasional T.V. and film gig. His first love, horses (he was a jockey in his younger days), was never far from his heart and mind either.
Rest In Peace "Someday Man" - You will be missed!
A trivial footnote: Without Davy, there wouldn't have been a David Bowie. Bowie, initally known as David Jones, was forced to change his name to something else as soon as Davy Jones became a household name. Hmmm.
Sometime during 1981 I started to hear a song on the radio that was completely different from anything else going on at the time. Not that it was overly original or anything like that. Far from it. But it contained this impossibly catchy "Ah-ah-ah-ah-ah-ah-ah" built-up chorus to the "They don't write 'em like that anymore" main chorus. It was simple, to the point and irresistible.
Soon enough I found out that this song, "The Breakup Song (they Don't Write 'em)", was by the Greg Kihn Band. And, aptly enough, the album was called "RocKihnRoll" and I just had to have it.
But although the album didn't really live up to Breakup Song's enormous power pop potential, it was nonetheless a mix of originals and covers alike so gloriously and refreshingly out of sync with the primitive synth-pop and stale AOR stadium rock of the time that one couldn't help but getting caught up in it. Particularily, "When the Music Starts" became another instant and constant favourite...
"The Breakup Song" hit the Top 20 in the U.S. and a couple of years later the Greg Kihn Band even had a No. 2 hit in the territory with "Jeopardy" - a song which didn't even sound remotely like them!
By then though, Kihn, I believe, had lost the pop plot while I for one had lost interest...
Fast forward 20 years...
Vinyl was dirt-cheap, so life was good. And, as one does in such circumstances, I started checking out some old favourites. Greg Kihn (Band) amongst these. Especially the early titles on the brilliant Beserkley label ("The Home of the Hits"...as the tagline went. The fabulous Rubinoos, Jonathan Richman, Eartquake, and others also called it home although, unfairly, the actual hits were few and far between).
"Greg Kihn" (Beserkley, 1976)
A very impressive debut, indeed. From the get-go, the familiar approx. 7 to 3 mixture of originals and covers is firmly established.
Initially, upon hearing those early LP's, I felt the Matthew King Kaufman (Beserkley boss) and Glen Kolotkin production wasn't punchy enough. However, as I became more familiar with the material, I think its somewhat sparse production remains its main strength. Just take a listen to one of the key original tracks on this album...(Click on the link below)
OK, let's try to ignore the horribly un-PC album cover before we move on to the MUSIC itself...
Swiftly and firmly the triumphant debut was followed-up by this well-worthy and more band-oriented effort.
It kicks off with a fine Buddy Holly-cover, "Love's Made a Fool of Me", while the original "Real Big Man" is also, err, a real treat on Side 1.
However, Side 2 is a winner nearly all the way through. It starts off with the excellent Kihn composition "Hurts So Bad", and leads us through Springsteen's "For You" and climaxes with another excellent original, "Madison Avenue".
Kihn was one of the first artists to cover Bruce Springsteen. Check out his fine interpetation of "For You" below...
An altogether heavier affair than its predecessors, this eight-song selection is rather light on memorable hooks and choruses but not an unpleasant effort at all.
Including for the first and last time no covers, "Remember", with its Spanish flourishes, and "Sorry" are the obvious highlights here.
Also, Kihn's last credited solo LP for a while...
"With the Naked Eye" (Beserkley, 1979)
The first proper Greg Kihn BAND album, although these guys had been backing him for years.
Also, admittedly, my favourite Greg Kihn (Band) album of all time!
Chock-full of irresistable hooks and choruses, pop maestro Kenny Laguna had effectively been added to the production team of King Kaufman and Kolotkin by this point in time.
A lite Reggae-tinged "Moulin Rouge" (inexplicably, a flop 45), along with "Getting Away With Murder" and another great Springsteen cover, "Rendezvous", are the standouts here...
Issued the same year as Billy Joel's multi-million selling "Glass Houses" album, this very similarily entitled (but far more worthy) LP unfortunately fell between the cracks.
Not nearly as strong as its predecessor, it nonetheless contains one of Greg Kihn's greatest self-penned cuts ever, "Anna Belle Lee". How on earth this song failed to become the bona-fide classic it certainly deserves to be is anyone (else's) guess...
An odd and under-produced cover of Bacharach's & David's "The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance" (After all, how can you ever top Gene Pitney?) and Graham Gouldman's unremarkable Yardbirds hit "For Your Love" flesh-out an otherwise 'paint-by-numbers' set.
The following year's "RocKihnRoll", featuring the flawless "Breakup Song", was most certainly a step upwards.
But now we've come full circle.
Arguably, the best recods in my humble opinion remain Greg's first solo album, "Greg Kihn" (1976), and Greg Kihn Band's first album, "With the Naked Eye" (1979).
Today Greg Kihn is a popular radio show host.
His recorded legacy is poorly-served on CD. Although there is a fine, albeit unsatisfactory, "Anthology" CD out there, one can always dream about that elusive 4 CD box set. RocKihnRoll on!
Issued at the very height of the Summer of Love, it's really absurd that this record isn't generally considered to be among that season's very best. Obviously though, it's up against some fairly fierce competition ("Sgt. Pepper", "Surrealistic Pillow", "Headquarters", "Are You Experienced", "Younger Than Yesterday", "Forever Changes", etc.).
Nonetheless, it is one of those rare records where nearly every single cut is a classic. The only song I have the very slightest of beef with here is also the only cover; namely Stevie Wonder's "A Place in the Sun". Don't get me wrong, it's all very nice'n'smooth, but also so very unnecessary. Why does a band that can come up with self-penned classics such as "Groovin'", "A Girl Like You", "How Can I Be Sure" (covered by everyone from Dusty Springfield to David Cassidy) and "You Better Run", all on the same album, need to cover anyone - even though it's a genius like Stevie Wonder?! Well, I might be 45 years late, but I'm just asking...
Their third and last LP as the YOUNG Rascals, "Groovin'" is also their best - bar none. In it, all the elements of the unparalleled Rascals sound come together and blend perfectly. Garage rock meets Pop meets Psychedelia meets Latin, via their ever winsome Blue-eyed Soul which no other band of any era ever bettered.
Unusual for albums made in the late '60s which were more often than not issued both in Stereo and Mono, this is a record clearly made just for Stereo. One of its highlights, "Find Somebody" is a good example of that.
Apart from the obvious hits - AND "Find Somebody" - Gene Cornish's "I'm So Happy Now" and "I Don't Love You Anymore" are also eye-openers and prove that he was another songwriting force to be reckoned with within the Rascals' ranks, although Felix Cavaliere's and Eddie Brigati's songs were usually chosen as the singles.
So "A Girl Like You", the album's opener and another Cavaliere/Brigati composition, became one of the record's biggest hits. And as this following live performance from the Ed Sullivan Show on June 4th, 1967, goes to show - regardless of the screaming girls in the audience - The Rascals were an amazing bunch of musicians. Their drummer Dino Danelli just might be one of the unsung heroes of '60s Pop.
Curiously, "You Better Run" was more than a year old when it appeared on the "Groovin'" album. Issued as a single in May 1966, it owed a lot more to the (Young) Rascals' Garage rock roots than the rest of the album. The excellent "I Ain't Gonna Eat Out My Heart Anymore" from the Young Rascals' self-titled debut LP is another good example of that particular side of the Rascals.
Never mind The Kinks, along with Paul Revere & the Raiders, the Rascals were responsible for bringing Garage rock - a predecessor to Punk - into the American mainstream...and Top 10.
After "Groovin'", the Rascals certainly continued to make great singles, but, unfortunately, never made another great album. Good albums - yes, but "Groovin'" remains their sole crowning moment in that area.
