Blood, Sweat & Tears is the second album by the band Blood, Sweat & Tears, released in 1968, with several of its cuts released as singles in 1969. It was a huge commercial success, rising to the top of the U.S. charts for seven weeks and yielding three successive Top 5 singles. It received a Grammy Award for Album of the Year in 1970 and has been certified quadruple platinum with sales of more than four million units in the U.S.
Bandleader Al Kooper and two other members had left Blood, Sweat & Tears after their first album. Bobby Colomby and Steve Katz searched for a replacement singer and selected David Clayton-Thomas. Three more musicians joined to bring the band to nine members. Columbia assigned James William Guercio (who was simultaneously working with new band Chicago) to produce a new album. It was recorded at the then state of the art CBS Studios in New York City. The studio had just taken delivery of one of the first of the model MM-1000 16-track tape recorders, built by Ampex. The new technology allowed for far more flexibility in overdubbing and mixing than the 4- and 8-track tape recorders which were standard in 1968. The album was among the very first 16-track recordings released to the public.
Not only did the album contain three songs that neared the top of the charts as singles — “Happy,” “Spinning Wheel,” and “And When I Die” — but the whole album, including an arrangement of “God Bless the Child” and the radical rewrite of Traffic’s “Smiling Phases,” was wonderfully accessible. It was a repertoire to build a career on, and Blood, Sweat & Tears did exactly that, although they never came close to equaling this album.
The album was selected for the 2006 book 1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die.
Tracklist
1. "Variations on a Theme By Erik Satie" (1st and 2nd Movements) – 2:35
2. "Smiling Phases" (Steve Winwood, Jim Capaldi, Chris Wood) – 5:11
3. "Sometimes in Winter" (Steve Katz) – 3:09
4. "More and More" (Vee Pee Smith, Don Juan) – 3:04
5. "And When I Die" (Laura Nyro) – 4:06
6. "God Bless the Child" (Billie Holiday, Arthur Herzog Jr.) – 5:55
7. "Spinning Wheel" (David Clayton-Thomas) – 4:08
8. "You've Made Me So Very Happy" (Berry Gordy Jr., Brenda Holloway, Patrice Holloway, Frank Wilson) – 4:19
9. "Blues - Part II" (Blood, Sweat & Tears) – 11:44
10. "Variations on a Theme By Erik Satie" (1st Movement) – 1:49
Personnel:
• David Clayton-Thomas - lead vocals except as noted
• Lew Soloff - trumpet, flugelhorn
• Bobby Colomby - drums, percussion, vocals
• Jim Fielder - bass
• Dick Halligan - organ, piano, flute, trombone, vocals
• Steve Katz - guitar, harmonica, vocals, lead vocals on "Sometimes In Winter"
• Fred Lipsius - alto saxophone, piano
• Chuck Winfield - trumpet, flugelhorn
• Jerry Hyman - trombone, recorder
Media Info:
Bitrate: 320 kbps
Channels: joint stereo
Samplerate: 44100
Encoder: LAME 3.99
MPEG-1 layer 3
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