"Reach Out of the Darkness" | ||||
---|---|---|---|---|
Single by Friend & Lover | ||||
from the album Reach Out of the Darkness | ||||
B-side | "Time on Your Side (You're Only 15 Years Old)" | |||
Released | October 1967 | |||
Genre | Sunshine pop | |||
Length | 3:08 | |||
Label | Verve Forecast | |||
Songwriter(s) | Jim Post | |||
Producer(s) | ||||
Friend & Lover singles chronology | ||||
|
"Reach Out of the Darkness" is a song by American folk duo Friend & Lover from their debut studio album of the same name (1968). It was released as the lead single from the album in October 1967, by Verve Forecast Records. Jim Post is credited as the sole writer of the song, whilst production was helmed by Bill Lowery and Joe South. The song peaked at number 10 on the US Billboard Hot 100 and is Friend & Lover's only top 40 hit, which has often resulted in the duo being labeled as a one-hit wonder. [1] In Canada the song reached number 6. [2] The title never appears as such in the recording, though the nine mentions of "Reach Out in the Darkness" in the lyrics come close. The song is notable for its repeated opening line, "I think it's so groovy now that people are finally getting together." The song's follow-up, “If Love is in Your Heart”, stalled at number 86 a few months later, and reached number 54 in Canada. [3]
The song was written and composed by James “Jim” Post, who together with his then-wife Catherine “Cathy” Post (nee Conn) comprised the duo Friend & Lover. Ray Stevens played keyboards and arranged the strings, with Joe South and Bill Lowery producing. [4] The 1969 follow-up album, also titled Reach Out of the Darkness, was recorded in Atlanta and produced by Buddy Buie.
The song was featured in the 1988 film 1969 and in the TV series Night Stalker (episode 6) and Beverly Hills, 90210: "The Time Has Come Today" (season 4, episode 25). [5] The track was used in the closing scene and credits on the AMC series Mad Men: "A Man With a Plan" (season 6, episode 7). [6] The scene in question was June 1968, when the news of Robert Kennedy's assassination was breaking on television, with characters watching the story unfold in stunned silence, some weeping. [7] The song continued to play, superimposed over audio of the news reports from the assassination, during the closing credits.
Krush sampled it for their song "Let's Get Together (So Groovy Now)," from the soundtrack to the comedy film Mo' Money, starring Damon Wayans and Stacey Dash. [8]
In a concert in San Francisco's Golden Gate Park on 2 September 2007, as the city celebrated the 40th anniversary of the Summer of Love, Jim Post contradicted Unterberger's album sleeve notes [4] when he claimed that, when he was in New York City, he wrote and composed the song (loosely corroborating the aforementioned Verve Records Discography) and that it became popular in San Francisco after a Selective Service sit-in there (there was a Selective Service Office protest in San Francisco on 16 October 1967), then went to the Midwest and the South, finally taking off in New York City corresponding to Martin Luther King's assassination in April 1968. However, an extensive search of music surveys currently available on-line shows instead that, depending on the survey, the song had no noticeable exposure until several weeks after that assassination, peaked anywhere from mid May to late July with none of the peaks attributable to any crisis[ citation needed ], and in any event possessed essentially none of the claimed behavior. On New York's WABC Music Radio surveys, the song belatedly debuted at #50 the week of June 4, 1968 (the day before the assassination of Robert F. Kennedy), rose to #13 the following week and eventually peaked at #1 the week of July 23 before falling off rapidly. [9] [10] [11]
Cracker is an American rock band formed in 1990 by lead singer David Lowery and guitarist Johnny Hickman. The band's first album Cracker was released in 1992 on Virgin Records; it included the single "Teen Angst ", which went to #1 on the U.S. Modern Rock chart. The band's follow-up, the 1993 album Kerosene Hat included the hit songs "Low", "Get Off This", and "Euro-Trash Girl".
"Unchained Melody" is a 1955 song with music by Alex North and lyrics by Hy Zaret. North wrote the music as a theme for the prison film Unchained (1955), hence the song title. Todd Duncan sang the vocals for the film soundtrack. It has since become a standard and one of the most recorded songs of the 20th century, most notably by the Righteous Brothers in 1965. According to the song's publishing administrator, over 1,500 recordings of "Unchained Melody" have been made by more than 670 artists, in multiple languages.
Joe South was an American singer-songwriter, guitarist, and record producer. Best known for his songwriting, South won the Grammy Award for Song of the Year in 1970 for "Games People Play" and was again nominated for the award in 1972 for "Rose Garden".
The Beau Brummels were an American rock band. Formed in San Francisco in 1964, the band's original lineup included Sal Valentino, Ron Elliott, Ron Meagher, Declan Mulligan, and John Petersen (drums). They were discovered by local disc jockeys who were looking to sign acts to their new label, Autumn Records, where Sylvester Stewart—later known as Sly Stone—produced the group's early recording sessions. Initially, the band's musical style blended beat music and folk music and typically drew comparisons to the Beatles, while their later work incorporated other music genres such as psychedelic rock and country rock.
Gene Chandler is an American singer, songwriter, music producer, and record-label executive. Chandler is nicknamed "the Duke of Earl" or, simply, "the Duke." He is best known for his most successful songs, "Duke of Earl" and "Groovy Situation", and his association with the Dukays, the Impressions, and Curtis Mayfield.
"Dominique" is a 1963 French language popular song, written and performed by Belgian singer Jeannine Deckers, better known as Sœur Sourire or The Singing Nun. The song is about Saint Dominic, a Spanish-born priest and founder of the Dominican Order, of which she was a member. The English-version lyrics of the song were written by Noël Regney. In addition to French and English, Deckers recorded versions in Dutch, German, Hebrew, Japanese, Korean, and Portuguese.
"MacArthur Park" is a song written by American singer-songwriter Jimmy Webb that was recorded first by Irish actor and singer Richard Harris in 1968. Harris's version peaked at number two on the Billboard Hot 100 chart and number four on the UK Singles Chart. "MacArthur Park" was subsequently covered by numerous artists, including a 1970 Grammy-winning version by country music singer Waylon Jennings and a number one Billboard Hot 100 disco version by Donna Summer in 1978. Webb won the 1969 Grammy Award for Best Arrangement Accompanying Vocalist(s) for the Richard Harris version.
K-Ci & JoJo is an American R&B duo, consisting of brothers Cedric "K-Ci" Hailey and Joel "JoJo" Hailey. Natives of Charlotte, North Carolina, they are also the lead singers of the chart-topping R&B group Jodeci with the DeGrate brothers—Donald and Mr. Dalvin. They are known for the 1998 smash hit "All My Life" which was the No.1 song on the Billboard Hot 100 for three weeks and received multiple Grammy nominations. They were also featured artists on another No.1 Billboard Hot 100 hit single, 2Pac’s 1996 song "How Do U Want It", which also received a Best Rap Performance by a Duo or Group Grammy nomination in 1997. K-Ci & JoJo also achieved mainstream success with the 1999 hit "Tell Me It's Real", which peaked at No.2 on the Billboard Hot 100. Their 2001 song "Crazy" was included on the Save the Last Dance soundtrack and peaked at No.11 on the Billboard Hot 100.
Chad & Jeremy were a British musical duo consisting of Chad Stuart and Jeremy Clyde, who began working in 1962 and had their first hit song in the UK with "Yesterday's Gone" (1963). That song became a hit in the United States in the following year as part of the British Invasion. Unlike the rock-music sounds of their peers, Chad & Jeremy performed in a soft, folk-inflected style characterized by hushed and whispered vocals. The duo had a string of hits in the United States, including "Willow Weep for Me", "Before and After", and their biggest hit, "A Summer Song". After some commercial failures and divergent personal ambitions, Chad & Jeremy disbanded in 1968.
Friend & Lover was an American folk-singing duo composed of husband-and-wife team Jim and Cathy Post. The duo is best known for its hit single "Reach out of the Darkness", which reached number 10 on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 chart in the summer of 1968.
"Be My Lover" is a song recorded by German Eurodance group La Bouche and released in March 1995 by Arista and RCA as the second single from their debut album, Sweet Dreams (1995). The song was written by group members Melanie Thornton and Lane McCray with Uli Brenner and Gerd Amir Saraf, who co-produced it with Frank Farian. It remains their most successful song, alongside "Sweet Dreams", and was a worldwide hit. In Europe, it was a number-one hit in the Czech Republic, Germany, Hungary, Romania, and Sweden, as well as on the Eurochart Hot 100. In the US, the single reached numbers five and six on the Cash Box Top 100 and Billboard Hot 100, and also topped the Billboard Hot Dance Club Play chart for two weeks in December 1995. To date, it has sold six million copies worldwide. Two different music videos were produced to promote the single. "Be My Lover" earned La Bouche the 1996 Echo award in Germany in the category for Best Dance Single as well as the ASCAP award in the US for the 'Most Played Song in America'. It was dubbed into many megamix tracks and has had several remix versions.
"A Groovy Kind of Love" is a song written by Toni Wine and Carole Bayer Sager based on a melody by the classical composer Muzio Clementi.
"L'amour est bleu" is a song recorded by Greek singer Vicky Leandros with music composed by André Popp and French lyrics written by Pierre Cour. It represented Luxembourg in the Eurovision Song Contest 1967 held in Vienna, placing fourth.
Jimmie David Post was an American folk singer-songwriter, composer, and playwright. In 1968 his pop song "Reach out of the Darkness" charted on the Billboard Hot 100 for 14 weeks, peaking at number 10.
"Leave the Pieces" is a song written by Jennifer Hanson and Billy Austin, and recorded by American country music duo The Wreckers for their debut album Stand Still, Look Pretty for which it served as lead single with a February 7, 2006, release. Though it was the first single from their first album, it was The Wreckers' third single overall: they had released two singles in 2005, "The Good Kind", which peaked at #115, and "I'm Feeling You", in collaboration with Santana, which peaked at #55.
"Soul Man" is a 1967 song written and composed by Isaac Hayes and David Porter, first successful as a number 2 hit single by Atlantic Records soul duo Sam & Dave, which consisted of Samuel "Sam" Moore and David "Dave" Prater. In 2019, "Soul Man" was selected for preservation in the National Recording Registry as "culturally, historically, and aesthetically significant" by the Library of Congress. It was No. 463 in "Top 500 Greatest Songs of All Time" by Rolling Stone in 2010 and No. 458 in 2004.
"(You're My) Soul and Inspiration" is a song by American pop duo the Righteous Brothers. It was the group's first hit after leaving their long-time producer Phil Spector. The song was written by Barry Mann and Cynthia Weil, who also wrote the group's first hit "You've Lost That Lovin' Feelin'" along with Phil Spector. It is the title track of their album. The single peaked at No. 1 on the US Billboard Hot 100, and reached No. 15 on the UK Singles Chart. Billboard ranked the record as the No. 3 single for 1966.
"A Hazy Shade of Winter" is a song by American music duo Simon & Garfunkel, released on October 22, 1966, initially as a stand-alone single, but subsequently included on the duo's album Bookends (1968). It peaked at number 13 on the Billboard Hot 100.
"I Can't Stay Mad at You" is a song written by Gerry Goffin and Carole King. It was originally recorded by American country artist Skeeter Davis, becoming her second top-ten hit on the Billboard Hot 100 in 1963. "I Can't Stay Mad at You" followed on the popular success of Davis' earlier 1963 crossover hit "The End of the World". The song was one of the first Goffin-King compositions to be recorded by a country music performer.
"San Francisco Girls (Return of the Native)" is a song by the American psychedelic rock band Fever Tree, written by the songwriting duo Scott and Vivian Holtzman, and was released for the group's third single—their first on Uni Records—in March 1968 (see 1968 in music). It was the only single by Fever Tree to reach the Billboard Hot 100 and also appears on their first album Fever Tree.