Artist:The Souther-Hillman-Furay Band
Song:Fallin' in Love
Album:The Souther-Hillman-Furay Band
When David Geffen was running Asylum Records in the 70s, they were having so much success with country rock like Eagles, he thought he could put a supergroup together and recreate the magic of Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young (CSNY). That's what The Souther-Hillman-Furay Band (SHF) was supposed to be. The one thing Geffen forgot was that CSNY constantly argued and that led to them splitting up despite their success. The members of SHF certainly had the pedigree to be a successful band. All three are accomplished singer songwriters. John David Souther was mostly a songwriter. He was in Linda Ronstadt's band. Chris Hillman was in The Byrds, The Flying Burrito Brothers and Stephen Stills' band Manassas. Richie Furay had been in Buffalo Springfield and Poco. Hillman brought with him pedal steel guitarist Al Perkins from The Flying Burrito Brothers, keyboardist Paul Harris and percussionist Joe Lala from Manassas and drummer Jim Gordon from Derek and the Dominos. So SHF could have been successful. And their 1974 debut album The Souther-Hillman-Furay Band did OK. The album reached #11 on the Billboard 200 and the single Fallin' in Love reached #27 on the Billboard Hot 100. Furay wrote Fallin' in Love. All three guys wrote songs for the album. Richard Podolor (Three Dog Night) produced. But the album was not reviewed favorably. There were high expectations and the album was underwhelming. The reissue label Wounded Bird has released the album on CD. For the 1976 album Trouble in Paradise, Asylum brought in veteran Atlantic Records producer Tom Dowd. It didn't help. The album didn't sell and the critics panned it. Meanwhile, Perkins converted Furay to evangelical Christianity and he was driving the others nuts. That's when SHR split up. Souther scored a top ten hit with the 1979 single You're Only Lonely and was a successful songwriter. He died in Sept. 2024. Hillman went on to lead The Desert Rose Band and they had success on the country charts. Furay recorded as The Richie Furay Band in the late 70s. When that was unsuccessful, he started his own ministry in Broomfield, CO until his 2017 retirement. So though The Souther-Hillman-Furay Band may have seemed like a good idea at the time, it didn't turn out very well. Here's a video for Fallin' in Love by The Souther-Hilman-Furay Band.
No comments:
Post a Comment