Silver (band)

Silver was an American 1970s country rock band, best known for their 1976 pop hit "Wham Bam," written by country songwriter Rick Giles. The song peaked in charts in USA, Canada and Australia.

Silver
L to R: Tom Leadon, Harry Stinson, Greg Collier, Brent Mydland, John Batdorf
L to R: Tom Leadon, Harry Stinson, Greg Collier, Brent Mydland, John Batdorf
Background information
OriginLos Angeles, California, United States
GenresRock, country rock, pop rock, soft rock
Years active1971–1978
LabelsArista Records
Past membersJohn Batdorf
Tom Leadon
Brent Mydland
Greg Collier
Harry Stinson

Members

Members of the group included John Batdorf (formerly of Batdorf & Rodney), lead vocals and guitar; Brent Mydland (later of the Grateful Dead), keyboards and vocals; Tom Leadon (brother of the Eagles' Bernie Leadon and a former member of Tom Petty's early group Mudcrutch), bass guitar and vocals; Greg Collier, guitar and vocals; and Harry Stinson, drums and percussion. Phil Hartman designed the cover art for Silver, the quintet's only album. The band's recordings were released on the Arista record label.

Career

The single's title, "Wham Bam," was shown as "Wham Bam Shang-A-Lang" and peaked at #16 on the Billboard Hot 100 the week of October 2, 1976.[1] It is ranked as the 70th biggest hit of 1976.[2] Arista executives gave the band the song to record after concluding that none of the other tracks on the album they produced had single potential. Arista head Clive Davis himself co-produced the single with Tom Sellers; the rest of the album was produced by Sellers and Silver.

Chicago radio superstation WLS, which gave "Wham Bam" much airplay, ranked the song as the 80th biggest hit of 1976. It peaked at number eight on their surveys of October 23 and 30, 1976.[3]

Arista released two further singles by the band, "Musician (It's Not an Easy Life)" and "Memory" which featured the non-album track "So Much for the Past", written by Brent Mydland, on the B-side.

Aftermath

Silver broke up in 1978. Mydland joined the Grateful Dead in 1979, and was the band's longest-tenured keyboardist, remaining with the group until his death in 1990 at the age of 37.[4] Mydland was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as a member of the Dead in 1994. Leadon rejoined Mudcrutch when that band reunited in 2007. Stinson became a country session musician, and was a member of Steve Earle's backing band The Dukes in the mid 1980s.[5][6]

The band can be heard in the 2017 Marvel Studios sequel film, Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2, as "Wham Bam Shang-A-Lang" is included on the movie's soundtrack.

Discography

See also

References
  1. "Billboard Hot 100, Week of October 2, 1976". Billboard.
  2. "Top 100 Hits of 1976/Top 100 Songs of 1976". Music Outfitters.
  3. "WLS Forty-fives: October 23, 1976, Vol. 17, No. 3". Oldiesloon. Archived from the original on February 15, 2004.
  4. Talevski, Nick (2010). Rock Obituaries – Knocking on Heaven's Door. Omnibus Press. p. 454. ISBN 978-0-85712-117-2.
  5. Jeff Niesel (October 27, 2016). "Singer-Guitarist Steve Earle to Play His Debut Album, 'Guitar Town,' In Its Entirety". Cleveland Scene. Archived from the original on October 28, 2016.
  6. Rich Kienzle (May 1, 2017). "Guitar Town 30th Anniversary: Hillbilly Highway". Vintage Guitar.
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