The week of July 24, 1976 the #1 hit in America was Kiss And Say Goodbye by The Manhattans. Winfred “Blue” Lovett said that they didn’t name themselves after the city as you might think. They were named after the cocktail drink. He said they were named the Dulcets. It meant they sang melodic tones but if someone in the audience didn’t know that then the name didn’t make sense. He didn’t fully explain why they named themselves after the drink.
Most of the group was from New Jersey. But when the Air Force sent some of them overseas they returned with 2 new members. At a contest at the Apollo Theatre in 1964 they came in third. However, it was a turning point in the groups’ career as an executive for Carnival Records was there and signed then to a contract. In March 1965 they had their debut single on the pop charts. The song I Wanna Be (Your Everything) peaked at 68. Later, they changed to King Records and had some R & B hits but failed to crack the pop charts.
In 1972 they were signed to Columbia Records. With a major label behind them they were allowed to get more involved with the production of their music. Blue Lovett wrote many of their songs. He said that sometimes they would come to him while he was sleeping but none of them were good enough to make him get out of bed in the middle of the night. Then came one that he just couldn’t get out of his head. So he dragged himself to his piano in the middle of the night and wrote the song. It was Kiss And Say Goodbye. Lovett says that he liked his songs to tell a story and this one was about a love triangle. Something that we have all been through at one time or another. It entered the charts on April 17, 1976 and was #1 the week of July 24, 1976. Their next big hit came in 1980 with Shining Star. It went to #5 on the pop charts and in 1985 had a hit with a Sam Cooke remake You Send Me on the adult contemporary charts.
No comments:
Post a Comment