The Music of Hamilton, Joe Frank & Reynolds

Book excerpt: In the mid-60s, a group of studio musicians turned an Alka-Seltzer commercial into a novelty hit, "No Matter What Shape (Your Stomach's In)". Unwilling to go on the road to promote it, a new group was formed by Dan Hamilton, Joe Frank Carollo and Tommy Reynolds, who were then credited with the song. When its popularity waned, the three formed a new group using the name "Hamilton, Joe Frank & Reynolds." Their first record resulted in the hit song "Don't Pull Your Love," and earned a Gold record, Reynolds unexpectedly left the band. Soon Hamilton, Carollo and Alan Dennison signed a contract with Playboy Records, with the stipulation they keep their original band name. They struck gold again with their first record for Playboy, "Fallin' In Love." It was Playboy's only #1 pop hit. This is the story about how this great soft rock group came to be. It looks carefully at the group's entire music legacy and explores previously unreleased songs that were discovered during research for the book.