{"id":24106,"date":"2023-01-11T05:30:02","date_gmt":"2023-01-11T10:30:02","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/?p=24106"},"modified":"2023-01-12T08:34:17","modified_gmt":"2023-01-12T13:34:17","slug":"the-cowsills-all-in-the-family-part-2-of-4","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/2023\/01\/11\/the-cowsills-all-in-the-family-part-2-of-4\/","title":{"rendered":"The Cowsills: All in the Family (Part 2 of 4)"},"content":{"rendered":"

Continued from Part One<\/a>\u2026 <\/i><\/p>\n

Mercury Records producer Shelby Singleton was always on the lookout for talent, and when he happened upon the Cowsills, he signed them to a deal. With Singleton producing the sessions, the quartet cut two singles in 1966, \u201cMost of All\u201d b\/w \u201cSiamese Cat\u201d and \u201cParty Girl\u201d b\/w \u201cWhat\u2019s it Gonna Be Like.\u201d Singleton released both on Mercury-associated label Philips Records. Like the JoDa single, those records flew under the radar, though once the Cowsills exploded onto the national scene, the Philips sides would be compiled on a cash-in LP from Mercury, The Cowsills Plus the Lincoln Park Zoo<\/i>.<\/p>\n

Undaunted, the Cowsills continued to sharpen their musical presentation; in addition to their wide-ranging repertoire of covers, the quartet of Bill, Bob, Barry and John continued to write quality original material. Securing a management deal with music industry veteran Leonard Stogel, The Cowsills set their sights on a major-label recording contract.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Working with hit songwriter and producer Artie Kornfeld (who would gain greater fame in 1969 as the promoter of the Woodstock festival), the Cowsills recorded one of his tunes, \u201cThe Rain, The Park and Other Things.\u201d But before cutting the song, Stogel and Kornfeld decided the group needed a change. \u201cWe\u2019d been dropped from two labels,\u201d Bob explains. \u201cSo they thought, \u2018How can we make [The Cowsills] different?\u2019\u201d Over the strenuous objections of the band, a reluctant Barbara Cowsill was added to the group as a vocalist. The Cowsills were now a quintet.<\/p>\n

The producer and group knew they had something special with the sparkling exemplar of sunshine pop. Executives at MGM Records agreed, and signed the Cowsills to a contract. \u201cTo us, MGM was the movie company, so we were excited,\u201d Bob says. \u201cThe Wizard of Oz<\/i>!\u201d adds Susan, who still wasn\u2019t in the band. \u201cI was completely tickled!\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"The group\u2019s self-titled debut album was released in 1967. Unusually for a debut LP \u2013 especially one featuring teenagers \u2013 seven of the record\u2019s 12 songs feature a Cowsill songwriting co-credit. The group played their own instruments on the sessions, and the orchestrations by arranger Jimmy Wisner added a pop sheen to the quartet\u2019s rock-oriented foundation. And for all her protestations, Mom could in fact sing.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen Mom came in, our image shifted immediately to a family band,\u201d Bob says. He recalls realizing, \u201cWe\u2019re not [like] The Beatles and every other foursome.\u201d But there was a definite upside. \u201cWith all hands on deck, the vocal stack got bigger and wider,\u201d he says. \u201cAnd a lot happened then.\u201d<\/p>\n

Save for Barbara, the Cowsills may have still been kids, but as Bob says, \u201cthe studio was our playground.\u201d He notes that the band came to MGM during an era when recording sessions were full of studio musicians. \u201cBut we sat with arrangers and went through things with them,\u201d he says. \u201cAnd when it came to the studio and the stage, that was where Dad had to go away.\u201d Paul concurs: \u201cMom and Dad were pretty out-to-lunch about all that. We had our way in the studio pretty much all the time.\u201d<\/p>\n

But outside of those settings, Bud Cowsill still imposed his will on the group. So in short order, siblings Paul (age 16) and Susan (age eight) also became members of the family band. Luckily for the group, the two new additions to the lineup were endowed with preternatural musical talent on par with their siblings.<\/p>\n

\u201cI had been watching and waiting, just because it seemed like a natural thing to do,\u201d Susan says. \u201cThey were my brothers, and I wanted to hang out.\u201d With her mom already in the group, Susan\u2019s addition to the lineup seemed to make a kind of sense. But brother Bill wasn\u2019t interested in a hanger-on; professionalism was a requirement. \u201cBill made me audition and be actually able to sing before he’d even consider it,\u201d Susan says. She wouldn\u2019t join in time for the debut single, but by the time The Cowsills<\/i> hit the shelves, Susan was in the band. \u201cWhen you see us live on Ed Sullivan<\/i> [October 29, 1967] singing \u2018The Rain, the Park, and Other Things,\u2019 I’m in that band,\u201d she points out. \u201cI had just joined.\u201d<\/p>\n

Musically barren Bud Cowsill and Bob\u2019s twin brother Richard would be the only family members who were not also members of the pop group. (For a time, Richard would work as part of The Cowsills\u2019 road management.)<\/p>\n

Paul was quickly integrated into the group as well, and proved that he could hold his own. \u201cI would come out in the second half [of live concerts] wearing a white suit,\u201d he recalls. \u201cThey would call me \u2018the Soul Man.’ It was fun,\u201d Paul emphasizes. \u201cWe\u2019ve always had a ton of fun doing this, from when we were little kids until now.\u201d Susan recalls some of Paul\u2019s spotlight numbers: \u201cMicky\u2019s Monkey,\u201d \u201cReach Out (I\u2019ll Be There),\u201d \u201cKnock on Wood.\u201d \u201cSoul brother Paul,\u201d she teases.<\/p>\n

\"\"On the heels of the group\u2019s first hit single, a rapid-fire succession of MGM albums and singles would follow. With Susan and Paul on board, 1968\u2019s We Can Fly<\/i> was built around the hit single of the same name (Billboard #21, U.S.). This time, nine of the LP\u2019s 11 songs were Cowsill originals. Moreover, brothers Bill and Bob earned producers\u2019 credit for the album. MGM afforded unprecedented creative autonomy to the group, and the Cowsills proved themselves worthy of that latitude. \u201cWe were young, we were new, and we were writing frenetically,\u201d says Bob. \u201cSo anything [we wrote] that was good was going to get on the albums.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cTo give Dad a little attaboy,\u2019 he believed more in his kids than he believed in all of these other people,\u201d Paul says. \u201cOr himself.\u2019\u201d Bob agrees. \u201cHe backed us; he fought for us.\u201d Susan recalls Bud telling the group to play by the rules: \u201cLook, do this, and then you guys will get where you can do exactly what you want to do.\u201d<\/p>\n

But in a preview of things to come, Bud had pushed Kornfeld out of the picture. \u201cDad fired Artie while we had the #1 record and were the #1 band,\u201d Bob says. \u201cHe fired him, because Artie told Bill about pot. And our dad, a military guy, said, \u2018Nobody does that. You’re fired!\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

Click here to continue<\/a>\u2026<\/i><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Continued from Part One\u2026 Mercury Records producer Shelby Singleton was always on the lookout for talent, and when he happened upon the Cowsills, he signed them to a deal. With […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":24124,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[41,49,51,62],"tags":[4986],"class_list":["post-24106","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-interview","category-new-release","category-pop","category-rawk","tag-the-cowsills","cat-41-id","cat-49-id","cat-51-id","cat-62-id","has_thumb"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24106","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=24106"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24106\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":24711,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24106\/revisions\/24711"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/24124"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=24106"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=24106"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=24106"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}