Song:Precious and Few
Album:Oldies But Goodies Vol. 15
The 1972 top five hit Precious and Few was the only hit for Climax. The funny part is it sat unreleased in the record company vault for two years. It was a fluke that it was even released. Sonny Geraci was the lead singer of The Outsiders who had a top five hit with Time Won't Let Me in 1966. They were from Cleveland and were an early example of Blue Eyed Soul. When they split up in 1968, Geraci moved to Los Angeles and formed a new version of The Outsiders. But guitarist Tom King successfully sued Geraci for the use of The Outsiders name. So Geraci called the new band Climax. Other members were guitarist Walter Nims, keyboard player John Stevenson and bassist Larry Cox. They didn't have a regular drummer. They used studio musicians. Marc Gordon was the manager of The Fifth Dimension and husband of Florence LaRue. He started Rocky Road Records with distribution by The Fifth Dimension's label Bell Records. He signed Climax and Precious and Few was recorded in 1970. The song was written by Walter Mims. It appears that Gordon was not happy with the recording and told Cox to re-record the song emphasizing Geraci's vocals. But the song wasn't released until a Bell Records executive heard it on a radio station in 1972 and decided to release it. It reached #3 on the Billboard Hot 100. It was their only chart hit. According to Geraci, The Fifth Dimension were unhappy with Gordon starting a new record company. So Gordon had to put out that fire and then Climax got lost in the shuffle when Clive Davis bought Bell and changed the name to Arista. Climax only released one album and the second album was never released. Geraci resurfaced in 1983 with The Peter Emmett Project on MCA Records. When that bombed, He moved back to Cleveland and worked for the family renovation business. Today he tours the oldies circuit as Sonny Geraci and the Outsiders. You can get Precious and Few on this various artists comp that is part of a long running series. It has original artists doing original versions. Here's Climax performing Precious and Few 1972.
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