Cross Country was an American harmony trio from Brooklyn, New York, United States. [1] The folk rock band was formed as a side project of The Tokens, and featured three of its members: Jay Siegel, Mitch Margo and Phil Margo. [1]
The group's first release was a single consisting of a cover of Rock and Roll Music backed by Just A Thought. [2] It failed to chart.
Thereafter, the group released a self-titled album on the Atco Records label, featuring a top 40 cover of Wilson Pickett's "In the Midnight Hour". [1] The Cross Country version is altogether different from Pickett's 1965 soul hit. The first two minutes of the Cross Country single is considerably slower with an acoustic backdrop, picking up a bit with some psychedelic touches in the last third of the track, which was a little over three minutes in length (3:14). This single reached No. 30 in the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 in late 1973. [1]
Two non-LP singles followed, Tastes So Good to Me/A Ball Song, and Penny Whistle Band/Lord Can't Sing a Solo, neither of which charted.
The trio disbanded in 1974, with the members moving on to either record production and/or song writing duties. [1]
Wilson Pickett was an American singer and songwriter.
"The Lion Sleeps Tonight" is a song originally written and recorded by Solomon Linda under the title "Mbube" for the South African Gallo Record Company in 1939. Linda's original was written in Zulu, while the English version's lyrics were written by George David Weiss.
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"In the Midnight Hour" is a song originally performed by Wilson Pickett in 1965 and released on his 1965 album of the same name, also appearing on the 1966 album The Exciting Wilson Pickett. The song was composed by Pickett and Steve Cropper at the historic Lorraine Motel in Memphis, later the site of the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr. Pickett's first hit on Atlantic Records, it reached number one on the R&B charts and peaked at number 21 on the pop charts.
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