📺Video to Vinyl💿: The Hudson Brothers and the Gestalt of Razzle Dazzle
They shot in between 2 desired audiences: Over the heads of pre-teeners (who loved the flashy colors and goofiness), they were too cartoonish for the "serious" record-collecting teens & young adults.
FRONT ROW & BACKSTAGE spared no expense in hiring Family Guy’s Glenn Quagmire and Peter Griffin to introduce today’s article; hey, what’s scale today, $1200?:
Richard Unterberger of AllMusic wrote of the group: “Those that remember The Hudson Brothers usually think of them as a bubblegum act of sorts, due to the fact that they hosted some comedy-variety TV shows in the mid-’70s [but, to be fair, who didn’t?]. But, they were in fact a real group, extremely Anglophile in orientation, with heavy debts to The Beatles and Beach Boys, and occasional hints of The Kinks.
“They weren’t nearly as deep or clever as The Move, as infectious or energetic as Badfinger, or even as ambitious as ELO.”
This spotlight on The Hudson Brothers was inspired by a recent 3-artist collab between
, creator of Musings of a Broken Record, and myself. This Hudson Brothers focus, then, is expanded quite a bit from that original article, accessible here:
Brett the Younger (on right in video still below) tells the story of his Hudson Brothers (in 5 breezy minutes), starting at the beginning:
Northwest Passage
The Hudson brothers, in 1967, in their initial iteration as The New Yorkers, with “Mr. Kirby,” written by the two eldest bros, Bill (far left) and Mark (far right); Brett’s standing in the center (in still from video):
The New Yorkers weren’t the only adolescent brother-poppers extant in the mid-’60s (and recording…for a major label, yet). Meet Fritz, Jeff, and Mike Kirchner, the three be-freckled Bantams, on Warner Bros. Records (it must’ve impressed somebody…this article is linked on Discogs’ bio page for The Bantams!):
Audio Autopsy, 1966, Warner Bros. Records: The Pre-Teen Bantams, Rock's First Boy Band
It’s common knowledge, as well as a pop cultural landmark, that when The Beatles appeared on CBS-TV’s The Ed Sullivan Show in February 1964, hundreds of thousands, if not untold millions of kids picked up Sears guitars and started growing their hair!
Not to be outdone, three Tulsa tiny tots toddled down to Austin’s South By Southwest (SXSW) fest some 30 years later, and got themselves signed to Mercury Records:
Inside Tracks #19: Hanson, "Where's The Love" 1997 + the 2021 Bowling For Soup Cover/Collab!
Hanson traveled from their Tulsa hometown to play in A…
While we’re in the ballpark, and before we get to study hall, here’s 1974 RCA Records singer/songwriter/recording artist, Stephen Michael Schwartz, in an exclusive photo from his personal collection! He’s about 12 here, in November 1965, performing (as The Naturals with friend, Craig, on drums) at an L.A.-area shopping center talent search. They won First Prize performing Petula Clark’s “Downtown” hit (with Stephen singing)!
Stephen has a special place, FRONT ROW & BACKSTAGE, and his 20 incredible, first-hand accounts of the ‘70s L.A. record biz behind-the-scenes can be accessed by clicking here!
👉Links to more📺Video to Vinyl💿exclusive peeks at end of this article! Each features revealing vinyl and screen dives into the careers of Lisa Hartman, Don Grady, Henry Winkler, Lynda Carter, and Carol Burnett! You may also click on their names here!
There Auto Be a Law
In the ‘60s, they collectively went by the name of a particular Chrysler, The New Yorkers. Granted, it’s their name, but before they settled on “The Hudson Brothers,” they went by the single moniker, Hudson, yet another car company (1909-1954, after which they—the car company—merged with AMC).
It’s 1972, and their self-titled debut was released by (then-independent) Playboy Records. The single from it was a particularly bland and indistinct number called “Leavin’ Its Over.” With no clear label PR direction, and certainly no TV show around which to plan an ad campaign, the Sears young men’s department was the go-to for the back cover:
The following year (1973), the band caught the ear of Elton John’s lyricist, Bernie Taupin, who not only got the band signed to his boss’s Rocket Records (distributed by MCA), but produced their Totally Out of Control album, as well, in 1974. This was about when I discovered them (I was 19, and as Music Director, was also behind the mic at U of Houston’s FM campus station with a daily, 3-hour shift).
Around this same time, the trio had also signed a deal with Neil Bogart’s new Casablanca Records, and recorded and released Hollywood Situation (above right), their 3rd album (it peaked at #174 on the album charts).
More color, snazzier duds, and even a smile or two on these two albums! Plus, the Hollywood Situation cover (above right) has a soundstage shot taken on set for their show.
The quick Wiki snapshot of that busy, early- to mid-’74 time period, the starting-off point of the lads’ looming small screen domination: “After the group appeared as guests of The Sonny Comedy Revue on ABC in early 1974, noted TV producer, Chris Bearde [and writer/producer, Allan Blye], were impressed by the brothers’ stage presence, and offered them their own variety hour on the CBS network for the summer slot vacated by The Sonny & Cher Comedy Hour.
“The Hudson Brothers Show aired Wednesday nights on CBS from July 31 to August 28, 1974. The show was so successful that CBS devised The Hudson Brothers Razzle Dazzle Show, which aired on Saturday mornings, from September 7, 1974, to August 30, 1975, in a half-hour format. The group’s television exposure resulted in the brothers becoming teen idols.”
Here’s a 15-minute snippet from the Razzle Dazzle Show. It’s impossibly manic, frantic, and dizzying, but a perfect snapshot of major network variety fare, mid-’70s, with skits, costumes, choreography…..oh yeah, and music:
picks up the Hudson story: On Casablanca, they hit with the Paul McCartney-esque “So You Are A Star” (written, arranged, and produced by The Hudson Brothers). Taken from their Hollywood Situation album, It got to #21 in the U.S. in November 1974, and #5 in my home country, Canada:
Brad: Back on Rocket Records, the retro “Rendezvous” from early 1975, was produced by Taupin, and appeared on their Ba-Fa album (above), which languished at #176, chart-wise.
The Brothers wrote “Rendezvous,” with a co-write by The Beach Boys’ Bruce Johnston, who had just had his “I Write the Songs” released as a single for the very first time by David Cassidy for his first post-Partridge Family solo album, The Higher They Climb, on RCA (produced by Johnston). My 1975 interview with David in a downtown Houston penthouse can be read about and even heard, here:
1975 was big for the song: The Captain and Tennille were the first to actually record it, and included it on their Love Will Keep Us Together album in May, followed by Cassidy’s single in July. Barry Manilow’s October release exploded to be the version most people know by heart. Back to our rendezvous with “Rendezvous”:
Mark: By 1976, they were signed to Arista Records, where they had a minor hit single with “Help Wanted” (written by Chris Bond, produced by Dennis Lambert and Brian Potter, and arranged by guitarist, Dean Parks, who played on the song). They included the song on their 1978 Arista album, The Truth About Us.
The single peaked at #70 in the States and #78 in Canada:
Mark: The track is a more mature-sounding record than their previous teen pop-oriented hits. There’s some Paul McCartney-esque touches on the chorus as well as a few “blue-eyed soul” elements. It’s a really solid track that, like a lot of the brothers’ recorded output, just didn’t chart higher. Perhaps their reputation as teen idols hindered any chances of a bigger hit.
The brothers recorded together for a few years after this (including the Damn Those Kids album on Elektra Records in 1980). They appeared in two movies during this last half of their career, 1978’s Darren McGavin vehicle, Zero To Sixty, and the 1983 horror spoof Hysterical.
Bill married Goldie Hawn and later, Laverne & Shirley star, Cindy Williams. He’s likely best known, in my age bracket, as the father of Kate and Oliver Hudson, his children with Hawn who were born while the group was still around.
Mark Hudson (above) dabbled in acting and later had a prolific career working with Ringo Starr. Brett worked in film production, co-founding the now-defunct production company, Frozen Pictures.
Say g’night, Mark; say g’night, Bill; say g’night, Brett!
👉File Under Video to Vinyl..more to enjoy:
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Great piece. Good to see some animation in here too :)
Damn deep dive. Thanks. And new to me.