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My first installment is probably one of my
favorite songs ever, to not make it big.
If I were to be backed into a
corner and told I absolutely have to pick my favorite song of all time, it
would be ‘She’s Got Love’ by Thomas & Richard Frost.
Here are a
couple of incredibly talented Northern California brothers who never
really caught a break.
Rich and Tom Martin played rock and roll, surf
music and garage rock for nearly a decade. John Antoon, who later
became their manager, heard the Martins and signed them to his publishing
company and later to Imperial Records.
In the 60’s, promotion
was everything to get a record played on the radio. Imperial Records
had just been purchased by Liberty Records and soon to fall under the
umbrella of United Artists Records.
With a lot on their plate, the
suits at UA decided that the boys were not important enough to push very
hard as new artists. Even their critically acclaimed album
“Visualize” which was just about to be finished was deemed unimportant and
shelved never to be released until being rediscovered several years ago
and reissued.
In fact, it was cancelled at such a late stage that
production masters complete with catalogue number and half-completed
artwork sat in the vaults until a few years ago. Tom and Rich's next
project was an accomplished country-rock album for UNI Records while the
truly unique pop experiment of "Visualize" remained a closed chapter until
its reissue.
The album includes: Intro/She's Got Love / Where Did
Yesterday Go / Woodstock / On Our Way Home / The City / The Word Is Love /
With Me My Love / Gotta Find A New Place To Stay / December Rain / Come
Clap Your Hands / If I Can't Be Your Lover/Outro Bonus Tracks Hello
Stranger / Fairytale Affair / Open Up Your Heart / Everyday Judy
.
Therefore ‘She’s Got Love’ not really being promoted as a hot new
single, never really got the airplay it deserved and only reached number
83 nationally while it reached Top 20 in many smaller markets and even Top
10 in certain cities like Los Angeles.
Richard says ‘She’s Got Love’
was written about a girl that he and a friend picked up one day
hitchhiking. They recognized her as being a model and tried to make
conversation, but she never said a word except “thanks” after they dropped
her at her destination.
He believes the record was banned on many
stations because of the line in the song “and she won’t give it out to no
one”.
’She’s Got Love’ which included Mars Bonfire on guitar (best
known for writing Born To Be Wild) was actually their demo submitted to
Imperial Records and was released as it was recorded with only (as Richard
put it) “massive amounts of strings and horns” added.
Click below to
listen to She's Got Love by Thomas and Richard Frost.
Released
October 25, 1969. Peaking at number 83, it stayed on Billboards Hot 100
for 4 weeks. |
