01/03/2025
Also on March 1: On this day in 2016, Gayle McCormick passed away.
https://youtu.be/LFLKpAkvudQ
She was 67 and suffering from previously undetected cancer that had metastasized. She’s best known as the lead singer with Smith, a band that scored a top 5 hit in 1969 with their recording of “Baby It’s You,” co-penned by the late Burt Bacharach. It outsold the original (by The Shirelles, which was also covered by The Beatles of course) but was their only significant hit. The band was discovered at a club in LA by Del Shannon, who helped swing their record deal with ABC-Dunhill and also arranged their take on “Baby It’s You.” Their album, A Group Called Smith, was loaded with covers: by the Rolling Stones, The Youngbloods, The Zombies, The Clique, and Bo Diddley as well as Muddy Waters, but following an unsuccessful follow-up, the group split.
Hailing from St Louis, Gayle was a classic blue-eyed soul singer with a big voice. Her professional career began with The Klassmen. (Yes, a name destined to be misread as something far darker.) They scored a local hit in 1967 (https://youtu.be/2NpMAXupjlk ) before she went west and moved on to bigger and better with Smith. Interestingly, though she was regarded as the lead singer, a cut she didn’t sing lead on sold in the millions as a track on the Easy Rider soundtrack. When the original recording of The Band’s “The Weight.” proved too costly to license, Dunhill asked Smith to produce a soundalike cover: https://youtu.be/nMQ6QrsTPfw
After Smith dissolved, Gayle had one more hit that landed just within or just outside the Top 40, depending on which chart one references. 1971’s “It’s A Cryin’ Shame” (https://youtu.be/TRkvhoduIxI ) was issued on the first of three solo albums she produced before retiring from the business.