AccuRadio Song Of The Day-We Five

Artist:We Five
Song:You Were On My Mind
Album:AM Gold: 1965





Here's a big hit that gives a good idea of where the folk movement was headed by 1965. Obviously it was becoming pop music. You Were On My Mind was the only big hit for We Five. It's a very memorable song and holds up well. But We Five only had one other chart hit and faded away by 1967. The group was from San Francisco led by guitarist Mike Stewart. He was the brother of John Stewart of The Kingston Trio. He formed The Ridgerunners while attending the University of San Francisco with guitarists Jerry Burgan and Bob Jones. Singer Beverly Bivens was introduced to Stewart by Terry Kirkman who went on to form The Association. With the addition of bassist Pete Fullerton, the group name was changed to We Five. They were managed and produced by Kingston Trio manager Frank Werber. The story goes that Herb Alpert saw them at the Hungry i in Los Angeles and signed them to A & M Records. You Were On My Mind was We Five's first single and it reached #3 on the Billboard Hot 100 in 1965. As you probably know, the song was written by Canadian folk legend Sylvia Tyson and was recorded by Ian & Sylvia in 1964. No doubt Stewart heard that version and wrote a very uptempo arrangement. Sylvia said she was unaware of this cover version until she heard it on her car radio. It made her a lot of money. It was nominated for a Grammy. Of course it's always hard to follow up a big hit. We Five had a top forty hit with Let's Get Together which in 1969 was a hit for The Youngbloods. And after that they recorded a second album and stalled. The demise of We Five was when Beverly Bivens married jazz musician Fred Marshall. He wanted her to leave the group but he wanted to produce her records. A & M didn't like that idea. Beverly says she only intended to leave the music business for a couple of years and it turned out to be four decades. She has been working with her sax player son Joshi Marshall. You can get You Were On My Mind on this Time Life various artists comp. Burgan, Jones and Fullerton tried to keep We Five together. Burgan's wife Debbie became the new lead singer. They recorded a third album but it tanked. Fullerton left music to become a minister in 1970. A version of We Five still tours today. Mike Stewart became a record producer and produced Billy Joel's Piano Man. He died in 2002. Here's We Five performing You Were On My Mind on The Hollywood Palace 1965.