Jango Song Of The Day-The Foundations

Artist:The Foundations
Song:Build Me Up Buttercup
Album:The Very Best Of...The Foundations





The British group The Foundations is mistakenly perceived as a one hit wonder for the 1968 hit Build Me Up Buttercup. They also had a hit in 1967 with Baby Now That I've Found You but what confuses some fans is that there were two different lead singers. In England they were perceived as a soul group and that's what the group wanted to be. But producer Tony Macauley had other ideas that led to the demise of the band. The basis of The Foundations was a group called The Ramong Sound led by Jamaican born sax player Mike Elliott and lead singer Clem Curtis. He was a former professional boxer from Trinidad. The rest of the horns were Jamaican sax player Pat Burke and Dominican Tromobonist Eric Allandale. Keyboard player Tony Gomez was born in Sri Lanka and guitarist Alan Warner, bassist Peter Macbeth and drummer Tim Harris were all from London. They started playing gigs in London and record shop owner Barry Class became their manager. He got them an audition with Pye Records producer Tony Macauley. Their first single Baby Now That I've Found You reached #11 on the Billboard Hot 100. They had been picked up in the US by MCA's UNI label. When follow up singles didn't do well, the group started to question Macauley's songs. They wanted to write their own songs and he didn't go for that. So Elliott and Curtis left The Foundations and Colin Young was brought in as the new lead singer. He was from Barbados. He sang lead on Build Me Up Buttercup and it reached #3 on the Billboard Hot 100. Macauley wrote the song with Manfred Mann lead singer and pianist Mike D'Abo and he played piano on the session. The conflict continued between Macauley and The Foundations and they split up in 1970. You can get all their hits on this comp from Sanctuary. He wanted them to be a pop group and they wanted to be a soul group which is what they were in concert. Clem Curtis, Colin Young and Alan Warner have all led versions of The Foundations over the years. And Warner has been part of both Curtis & Young's groups. It's very confusing. It all came to a head when Build Me Up Buttercup was used in the 1997 film There's Something About Mary and Curtis and Young went to court to untangle the rights to the name. Curtis can call his group The Foundations. Young can call his group The New Foundations. Warner calls his Alan Warner's Foundations. Here's the video for Build Me Up Buttercup by The Foundations from Something About Mary.