THE GREATEST SONGS OF THE 1960s THAT NO ONE HAS EVER HEARD
2,118) Simon Dupree and the Big Sound — “Who Cares”
This primo pop-rock/pop-soul breakup song is by the UK’s Simon Dupree and the Big Sound (see #51, 96, 1,728), the best band of three brothers since, well, you know.
Andrew Darlington muses:
There was a Spencer Davis in the Spencer Davis Group, a Manfred Mann in Manfred Mann, and even a Dave Dee in Dave Dee, Dozy, Beaky, Mick & Tich. But the first thing to realise about Simon Dupree & the Big Sound is that there was no Simon Dupree. The second is that the Big Sound were never even particularly Big. In fact – like the Bee Gees, they were essentially three brothers, Derek, Phil and Ray Shulman. Which is a lot of brothers, but not as many brothers as there were in the Jackson Five or the Osmonds . . . .
https://andrewdarlington.blogspot.com/2017/06/classic-albums-simon-dupree-and-big.html?m=1
Man, makes the band sound like the Holy Roman Empire!
Matt_K chimes in:
TBS were an old school American pop-soul band despite being formed around a trio of Scottish brothers. Despite their roots they weren’t the average white band, vocalist Derek Shulman, guitarist Ray Shulman and horn player Phil Shulman leading the band through . . . sunny soul with aplomb. They clearly want to be The Spencer Davis Group . . . but their sound is endearing and pleasing enough that they get away with it. . . . 60s psych-soul aficionados will enjoy digging up this gem.
https://rateyourmusic.com/release/album/simon-dupree-and-the-big-sound/without-reservations-3/
And Bruce Eder gushes (totally appropriately) that:
The group’s early soul-oriented sides are killers, exciting, totally convincing pieces of British-made R&B that . . . should have placed them head-to-head with the likes of Steve Winwood and the Spencer Davis Group. Even when they move into a slightly trippier sound . . . the group still utilizes a basic soul backing . . . . [Then there came the] trippy psychedelic ballads with Mellotron accompaniment, often with punchy acoustic rhythm guitars. It’s all very pretty and inventive in a pop context, and rivals or surpasses the psychedelic sides of . . . most other EMI artists of the era this side of the Beatles and maybe the Move.
“Simon Dupree” was vocalist Derek Shulman, one of a trio of brothers (Ray and Phil being the other two) from Portsmouth, England, who started out in music as R&B fanatics and first formed a group in 1964. . . . [T]heir repertoire was focused . . . on the songs of [soul artists like] Wilson Pickett [see #1,397, 1,903], Don Covay, and Otis Redding [see #1,333, 1,385] . . . . Simon Dupree & the Big Sound came about in the course of their search for a flashy name. . . . [which] worked locally, because the group prospered on the club scene, its earnings reaching £300 a night . . . . [T]hey were signed to EMI’s Parlophone label . . . and cut a pair of powerful R&B-style songs in 1966, “I See the Light” [see #96] and “It Is Finished.” Success on the club scene didn’t necessarily result in serious record sales, however, and the group’s debut, as well as its follow-up records, “Reservations” . . . and “Day Time, Night Time” [see #51] . . . didn’t make much of an impression. Their debut album, Without Reservations, containing the first fragmentary examples of the group’s original songwriting, was released in August of 1967, just in time to be overlooked as cheerfully irrelevant . . . . Then, in October of 1967, the group’s management and record label decided to try moving Simon Dupree & the Big Sound in the direction of psychedelia. . . . The result was “Kites,” a song recorded in the early fall of 1967 . . . . The bandmembers were unhappy with the new song and the sound they were being asked to create, but they tried to make the best of it . . . . The melody was Asian-sounding, and the presence of actress Jackie Chan reciting some poetry over the music didn’t detract from the single’s “Eastern” sound. “Kites” wasn’t R&B, but it was the right song at the right time, and it made the British Top Ten, a major commercial breakthrough for the group. Unfortunately, the band was never able to follow it up, and after several abortive attempts at another psychedelic-style single . . . called it quits in 1969. . . . In 1970, the Shulman’s were back at the core of a new group, having made the leap past psychedelia and far from R&B in the progressive rock group Gentle Giant.
https://www.allmusic.com/album/part-of-my-past-mw0000465383, https://www.allmusic.com/artist/simon-dupree-the-big-sound-mn0000036893#biography
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