Song:Let It Out (Let It All Hang Out)
Album:Dick Bartley's Rock & Roll Oldies Show: One Hit Wonders of the 60s, Vol. 2
Let It Out is one of the goofiest top 20 hits in pop history. The Hombres were a group that were mostly behind the scenes guys and after their brief fame, they went back to that. The Hombres were from Memphis and started out as the road band for Ronny & The Daytonas. Remember G.T.O.? Guitarist Gary McEwen, organist B.B. Cunningham Jr. and drummer John Hunter went to high school together. McEwen and Cunningham wrote Let It Out and attempted to shop the song to record companies. Meanwhile Little Rock, AR native Jerry Masters joined on bass. Legendary record company owner Shelby Singleton liked the song and brought in producer Huey P. Meaux and the record was licensed to Verve Forecast Records. The group originally called themselves The Bandits and then settled on The Hombres. Let It Out reached #12 on the Billboard Hot 100 in 1967. Cunningham says the song was a goof on Bob Dylan's Subterranean Homesick Blues and the opening preaching was based on Red Ingle's 1947 classic Cigarettes, Whiskey & Wild Wild Women. The Hombres recorded an album but it went nowhere and a classic one hit wonder is born. And you can get it on this Dick Bartley comp from Rhino. The Nails successfully covered Let It Out in the 80s and Cameron Crowe used it in his film Elizabethtown. John Hunter died in 1976 but Jerry Masters and B.B. Cunningham Jr. became recording engineers and still do that today as far as I know. Here's a video for Let It Out (Let It All Hang Out) by The Hombres.
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