Holly Go
Softly A song that was probably the
most loved, seldom remembered hit, that was never a hit, was Holly
Go Softly by an Arizona group called Cornerstone. I have searched
for quite some time to find some information on the group with not
much success. Very little seems to have surfaced about this group
that disappeared as quickly as they emerged. What I have found is
that they were from Phoenix and the lead singer was Steph
Hudson.
If you search the forums you’ll find lots of people
who say they remember the song being played in their hometown
including mine, here in Syracuse. Below are links to WOLF surveys
from 1970 where the song reached number ONE. Everyone liked it, why
wasn’t it a HUGE hit? Some say it was released at the
same time as another version of the song by a group called The
Magnificent Men and the two sort of canceled each other. That
according to Dave Bupp, lead singer for The Magnificent Men.
No one knew which to play.
There is a fellow on one forum
named Billie Courtright who says he met Hudson some years back and
obtained the original sheet music for the song from Hudson. Others
say they saw Hudson play in Denver in the 70’s and thought the group
was from that area. They did apparently take a shot at the pop
charts with two other singles. “When You Wake Me Girl” on Liberty
56110 which preceeded Holly, and “With Her, Father Paul” on Liberty
56179 shortly after.
As I have written about in the past with
Thomas & Richard Frost, changes at Liberty Records during that
time period seemed to keep promotions of the Liberty artists very
still, poor at best. Possibly one of the reasons that the
Fifth Dimension left for Bell Records from the Liberty owned Soul
City label. (Notice the promo copy is the older Liberty
label).
The song premiered as a “Hitbound” on WOLF’s Hot 30
on February 25, 1970. It remained Hitbound until it
entered the chart at #25 on March 18. It climbed to 18, 14,
and to #4 for 2 weeks. Then it replaced Edison
Lighthouse at #1 on April 22 for one week. It finally inched it’s
way back down but remaining in the top ten for another two weeks,
finally falling off the chart on May 20.
Holly Go Softly was
on Billboard’s Bubbling Under chart at #104 starting March 21, 1970.
It stayed on that chart for four weeks. The single was on Liberty
Records # 56148 and was more upbeat that the almost-ballad Mag-Men
version which didn’t chart at all.
Holly is co-written by
Toni Wine who penned such hits as A Groovy Kind Of Love, Black
Pearl, Candida and What Are You Doing Sunday among many others
including some she had recorded herself. She has toured with
many great acts and still does to this day. You can visit her
website at www.ToniWine.com.
The song
itself is about, for lack of any other way to explain it, a kept man
who is supported by keeping this woman Holly Kingsley, happy while
he is waiting for his big break. Realizing all the while that
it's wrong. I never paid much attention to what the song was
about until I played it one evening on my Saturday Night Oldies Show
on Y94FM. What some people will do to succeed, I
thought. Oh
well!
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