SONG OF THE DAY

“You’ve Made Me So Very Happy” by Blood, Sweat & Tears (Blood, Sweat & Tears, 1969). Written by Brenda Holloway, Patrice Holloway, Frank Wilson and Berry Gordy.

MY TAKE

This is a song I’ve loved since childhood. It’s really emotional, especially the lead vocals (though I do get weepy from the amazing brass section’s work in this song). The bridge has the lyrics that are my true emotional favorite: “I love you so much you see,/ You’re even in my dreams,/ I can hear you, I can hear you callin’ me…” David Clayton-Thomas, the band’s lead singer for this song, is practically screaming this out. It’s really visceral and devoted but at the same time really balanced well by the sweeping orchestration behind it Man, I love bridges. Almost as good as second verses. And track #8’s. Read the facts below because it’s really fascinating, the history of this band was all news to me. I didn’t even know the song was a Motown cover until today. They never play the original on the Oldies station in Motown. I would know, I listened to it endlessly from 1989-2001, so I think I can say with some authority that it wasn’t on rotation in the Motor City.

INTERESTING FACTS (a la wikipedia)

– “You’ve Made Me So Very Happy” was released first as a single in 1967 by Brenda Holloway on the Tamla label.

– By 1967, Brenda Holloway had been recording for Motown Records since 1964 and had struggled with Berry Gordy over control of her music, alleging that Gordy had forced her to sing Mary Wells’ “leftover tracks” after the Motown singer left the label in 1964.

– Along with her sister Patrice, using music provided by Frank Wilson and with additional help from Gordy himself, Holloway co-wrote “You’ve Made Me So Very Happy”.

– Ironically, Holloway recorded the song after a breakup with a former boyfriend.

– Reaction to the song was stronger than Holloway’s previous offerings, rising to #39 on the Billboard Hot 100 and becoming Holloway’s third Top-40 pop single. The song also peaked at #39 on the Billboard R&B singles chart. Shortly after the release of the song, Holloway left Motown.

– After two more years singing background for acts like Joe Cocker, Holloway retired to marry a preacher and have a family.

– The song was later a huge hit for jazz-rock band Blood, Sweat & Tears in 1969.

– The song became one of the group’s biggest hits, reaching #2 on the Billboard Hot 100 in the United States in April 1969 and #35 in the United Kingdom in May of that year.

– The song was also covered by fellow Motown acts such as Edwin Starr and Blinky in 1969, The Temptations in 1970, The Miracles, also in 1970, and Diana Ross in 1994 on a Berry Gordy tribute album. Lou Rawls also covered the song. It also been covered by Pop international superstar Gloria Estefan, she included the song on her album Hold Me Thrill Me Kiss Me in 1994, which was a collection of covers who inspired her musical career.

– Blood, Sweat & Tears (also known as “BS&T”) is an American music group, originally formed in 1967 in New York City.

– Since its beginnings in 1967, the band has gone through numerous iterations with varying personnel and has encompassed a multitude of musical styles. Check out this list of all of the past members of the band, there are close to 180 musicians that have been a part of the many incarnations of this band!

– What the band is most known for, from its start, is the fusing of rock, blues, pop music, horn arrangements and jazz improvisation into a hybrid that came to be known as “jazz-rock”. Unlike “jazz fusion” bands, which tend toward virtuostic displays of instrumental facility and some experimentation with electric instruments, the songs of Blood, Sweat & Tears merged the stylings of rock, pop and R&B/soul music with big band, while also adding elements of 20th Century Classical and small combo jazz traditions.

-After they lost their first lead singer, Al Kooper, the band was considering Stephen Stills and Laura Nyro before deciding upon David Clayton-Thomas, a Canadian singer, born in Surrey, England. Reportedly, folk singer Judy Collins had seen him perform at a New York City club and was so taken and moved by his performance that she told her friends Bobby Colomby and Steve Katz about him (knowing that they were looking for a new lead singer to front the band). With her prodding, they came to see him perform and were so impressed with him that Clayton-Thomas was offered the role of lead singer in a re-constituted Blood Sweat & Tears.

– Blood, Sweat & Tears, the group’s self-titled second album, was produced by James William Guercio and released in late 1968.

– The album was much more pop-oriented, featuring decidedly fewer compositions from within the band.

– The record quickly hit the top of the charts, winning Album of the Year at the Grammy Awards over The Beatles’ Abbey Road, among other nominees.

– The album spawned three major hit singles: a cover of Berry Gordy and Brenda Holloway’s “You’ve Made Me So Very Happy”, Clayton-Thomas’ “Spinning Wheel”, and a version of Laura Nyro’s “And When I Die.” All three singles reached #2 on Billboard magazine’s Hot 100 survey.

– The commercial and critical acclaim enjoyed by the band in 1969 culminated in an appearance at the Woodstock Festival, in which the band enjoyed headliner status.

– Arguably, as a result of Al Kooper’s departure, Blood, Sweat & Tears had difficulty maintaining its status as a counterculture icon at a time when record company executives deemed this characteristic importance as a tool to lure young consumers. This was compounded by a United States Department of State-sponsored tour of Eastern Europe in 1970. Any voluntary association with the government was highly unpopular at the time and the band was ridiculed for it. In retrospect, it is now known that the State Department subtly requested the tour in exchange for more amicability on the issuance of a visa to Clayton-Thomas.

– After returning to the U.S., the group released Blood, Sweat & Tears 3; which was another popular success, spawning hit singles with a cover of Carole King’s “Hi-De-Ho” and another Clayton-Thomas composition, “Lucretia MacEvil”. Album reviews sometimes focused solely upon the band’s willingness to work with the U.S. State Department, without bothering to discuss the actual music. Compounding the image problems of the band was a decision to play at Caesars Palace on the Las Vegas Strip, widely seen at the time as a mainstream venue for acts that did not engage in radical politics. In 1970, the band provided music for the soundtrack of the film comedy The Owl and the Pussycat, further damaging the group’s underground reputation.

VIDEO OF THE DAY