Artist:The San Remo Golden Strings
Song:Hungry for Love
Album:Anthology
The 1965 single Hungry for Love was a top 30 hit. That's pretty good for an instrumental. The San Remo Golden Strings was an easy listening instrumental band with a twist. They were from Detroit and included members of The Detroit Symphony and the Motown studio group The Funk Brothers. It looks like the group was the brainchild of Golden World Records owner Ed Wingate mostly to irritate Motown owner Berry Gordy. The San Remo Golden Strings were on Golden World's Ric-Tic label. He even gave the group a European sounding name so Gordy wouldn't think they were from Detroit. Wingate and partner Joanne Bratton started Golden World to compete with Motown. They usually signed acts that Motown rejected like The Reflections who scored a top ten hit in 1964 with the single (Just Like) Romeo and Juliet. The most notable Golden World artists were Edwin Starr and The Fantastic Four. Wingate asked some local musicians if they would be interested in recording an album for the easy listening market with a Detroit twist. A lot of the band were members of the Detroit Symphony Orchestra. But there were also musicians from Motown's studio group The Funk Brothers. Obviously they would be in trouble if Gordy ever found out. But Wingate wanted that Motown vibe. And The Funk Brothers provided that. Plus they got paid. Wingate brought in Funk Brothers trumpeter Gil Askey to produce the music and recruit The Funk Brothers. The album Hungry for Love was released and the single Hungry for Love reached #27 on the Billboard Hot 100. There were no Motown songs on the album. They were mostly faux Motown. Hungry for Love was originally recorded by The Reflections. After The San Remo Golden Strings appeared on the 1965 Edwin Starr hit Agent Double-O-Soul, Gordy found out what was happening and put a stop to it. Supposedly he fined each Funk Brother that was in the band a million bucks. Golden World and Ric-Tic continued to be a Motown irritant until Gordy bought the company for a million bucks. This paid off when Edwin Starr became a big star. This San Remo Golden Strings budget comp was released by the Belgian reissue label Marginal Records in 1998. I recommend this to instrumental music fans. Here's a video for Hungry for Love by The San Remo Golden Strings.
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