To say the least the cat was cold He said, don't call us child we'll call you

Pick of the Week

“Don’t Call Us We’ll Call You”, Sugarloaf, 1975

I remember listening to this song when Dad was driving me between swimming lessons and going to my Aunt and Uncles for dinner. I always changed the radio station in the car no matter who was driving. My parents didn't seem to mind  - most of the time! I always think of the smell of chlorine unfortunately when I hear this very cool song.

So the story goes, Jerry Corbetta didn’t have a record deal for his band ‘Sugarloaf’. He called up this A&R¹ man at Columbia Records wanting to figure out how to make something work. The guy was rude and hung up. So Jerry found someone else to record “Don’t Call Us”, and when it started climbing up the charts the A&R guy was calling Jerry – so he hung up...

From Colorado, the name ‘Sugarloaf’ is named after a mountain. They had a number 3 hit in 1970 called “Green-Eyed Lady” which is still an excellent song to this day.

The 1975 Album “Don’t Call Us”, which has fantastic cover art by the way, was really a rerelease of 1973’s “I Got a Song”, with a track replaced with the hit single “Don’t Call Us”.

The interesting part of this song is that is contains the sound of a touch-tone phone at the start of it as a practical joke. This was actually an unlisted number at CBS. It also contains bits of the Beatles, “I Feel Fine” and Steve Wonder’s “Superstition”. Maybe an early example of ‘sampling”?

Jerry went on to join the ‘; The Four Seasons” in 1980, long after their hey-day. He still has a band he performs with today as well, still doing “Don’t Call Us”.  Chlorine anyone?

1.        A&R – Artist and repertoire representatives from record companies are responsible for discovering new talent. They have to understand the current musical tastes of the market and bring in new acts that are going to be commercially successful.