Song:Close Your Eyes
Album:The Best of Peaches & Herb: Love Is Strange
Most fans should be familiar with Peaches & Herb's 70s hits like Reunited and Shake Your Groove Thing. But that was the third version of the duo. The original version of Peaches & Herb scored a top ten hit with Close Your Eyes in 1967. It's an old doo wop song so the music was more traditional soul than the 70s recordings. They were from Washington, DC. Peaches was the real nickname of Francine Barker (born Francine Hurd Apr. 28, 1947 in Washington). She had a trio called The Darlettes. They signed with the Columbia label Date Records and their name was changed to The Sweet Things. Meanwhile producer Van McCoy met Herb Fame (born Herbert Feemster Oct. 1, 1942 in Washington) at a record store where Fame worked. After recording a couple of singles for The Sweet Things, Date house producer David Kapralik suggested pairing up Fame and Barker. The single We're In This Thing Together went nowhere. But the B-side Let's Fall In Love got some radio airplay. So they called the duo Peaches & Herb and decided to record some more singles. Close Your Eyes reached #8 on the Billboard Hot 100 in 1967. The song was written by R & B legend Chuck Willis and it was recorded by The Five Keys in 1954. They had a few more hits like For Your Love and Love Is Strange. You can get them on this comp. Francine didn't like touring so she was replaced by Marlene Mack of The Jaynetts. Francine recorded a couple of solo singles. Fame left the music business in 1970 to become a police officer. But in 1976 he returned at the urging of Van McCoy with a new Peaches Linda Greene. And they had a lot of success. There have been several Peaches over the years and a version of Peaches & Herb still tours the oldies circuit. Here's a video for Close Your Eyes by Peaches & Herb.
I listened to Shake Your Grove Thing on the radio and then Reunited all through out the late 70's. I loved Peaches and Herb. They were good and so right for the time. Thanks for the bio and information Frank. You have brought back some really fond memories for me.
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