Song:Cool Jerk
Album:Ultimate 60's Soul Smashes
This 1966 top ten dance classic was the only big hit for The Capitols. The group was ultimately unsuccessful because they were unable to take advantage of the success of Cool Jerk. The Capitols started out in Detroit in 1962 as The Three Caps with lead singer and drummer Sam George, guitarist Donald Storball and keyboardist Richard Mitchell McDougall. They met producer Ollie McLughlin while performing at a Barbara Lewis concert. McLaughlin produced her music and owned Karen Records. They released the single Dog and Cat in 1963. It went nowhere and The Capitols disbanded. But the group reformed in 1966 after Storball and new member Ralph Julius Jones wrote a song to capitalize on The Jerk dance craze. In Detroit, there was a version of the dance popular in clubs called The Pimp Jerk. The group called it Cool Jerk so it wouldn't get banned. So George called McLaughlin and told him he thought they had a hit and McLaughlin immediately booked the studio time. It helped that legendary Motown session musicians The Funk Brothers played on the song. They were under contract to Motown but it wasn't the only time they did sessions on the side. When Cool Jerk became a hit, McLaughlin sold it to Atco Records knowing that he was too small to handle it. It reached #7 on the Billboard Hot 100 in 1966. The Captiols released two albums and several more singles but nothing caught on and they split up in 1969. Cool Jerk was officially a one hit wonder. Cool Jerk is still a very popular song and appears in films all the time, most significantly the 1997 film Home Alone 2: Lost In New York. You can get it on this Rhino budget comp of Atlantic soul classics. Sam George died in 1982 after being stabbed during a domestic dispute. Don Storball was a cop in Michigan and still lives in Detroit. Here's a video for Cool Jerk by The Capitols.
No comments:
Post a Comment