Sugarloaf

Green-Eyed Lady – Sugarloaf

July 25, 2010

in Daily Music Picks

Sugarloaf was a Denver, Colorado based rock and roll band in the 1970s featuring Jerry Corbetta.

Best known for their 1970 AM pop classic “Green-Eyed Lady,” Sugarloaf was formed in 1969 in Denver out of the ashes of the Moonrakers, which had released an album in 1968. Singer/keyboardist Jerry Corbetta and guitarist Bob Webber founded the group, adding Moonraker mates Bob MacVittie on drums and Veeder Van Dorn on rhythm guitar, plus bassist Bob Raymond. Originally dubbed Chocolate Hair, the band lost Van Dorn after just a few months when he joined Mescalero Space Kit. On the strength of their demos, the band was signed to Liberty, and changed their name to Sugarloaf, after a Colorado mountain popular with skiers (the record company was concerned about the possible racial overtones of Chocolate Hair). Sugarloaf recorded their self-titled debut album in 1970, and the single “Green-Eyed Lady” — co-written by Corbetta and based on a piece of a scale exercise in a practice book — slowly became a nationwide hit, catching on in more and more markets until it finally peaked at number three on the pop charts. For the follow-up album, 1971′s Spaceship Earth, Sugarloaf added guitarist/songwriter Bob Yeazel, who had previously played on two albums as part of a Denver band called the Beast. Spaceship Earth didn’t produce any hits, and disagreements over the band’s choice of producers followed. Yeazel wound up leaving prior to the release of 1973′s I Got a Song, which appeared on the smaller Brut label and featured former Beast drummer Larry Ferris. Resurfacing on Claridge in 1975, Sugarloaf finally scored that elusive follow-up hit with “Don’t Call Us, We’ll Call You” from their fourth and final album, Don’t Call Us. However, they subsequently disbanded. Corbetta went on to release a solo album on Warner Bros., and later worked with Frankie Valli & the Four Seasons as a writer, producer, and backing musician

Green-Eyed Lady

http://djallyn.org/media/green_eyed_lady-Sugarloaf.flv

Greeen Eyed Lady, lovely lady
Strolling slowly towards the sun

Green eyed lady ocean lady
Soothing every wave that comes

Green eyed lady, passion’s lady
dressed in love she lives for life to be

Green eyed lady feels like I never see
Setting suns and lonely lovers free

(Organ solo)
(long instrumental break)

Green eyed lady, windswept lady
moves the night the waves the sand

Green eyed lady ocean lady
child of nature, friend of man

Green eyed lady passions lady
dressed in love she lives for life to be

Green eyed lady feels like I never see
Setting sons and lonely lovers free

  • Audio from the 1970 single, Green-Eyed Lady:

Tagged as: Sugarloaf

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Don’t Call Us, We’ll Call You ~ Sugarloaf

July 7, 2008

in Daily Music Picks

Sugarloaf was a Denver, Colorado based rock and roll band in the 1970s featuring Jerry Corbetta.

The band was originally known as Chocolate Hair. They changed their name to Sugarloaf, named after a mountain outside of Boulder, when they received their first recording contract.

They are best known for two songs: “Green-Eyed Lady” in the autumn of 1970, and “Don’t Call Us, We’ll Call You” in 1975. Other songs were “Mother Nature’s Wine” (1971), “Tongue in Cheek” (1971), and “Stars In Our Eyes” (1976). In addition, “West of Tomorrow” and “Myra Myra” were not hit singles, but received modest airplay at the time of their release on album rock radio stations.

Don’t Call Us, We’ll Call You

The song “Don’t Call Us, We’ll Call You” is notable because it contained a practical joke at the expense of CBS Records, which had just turned them down for a recording contract. The song includes the sound of a touch-tone telephone number being dialed near the beginning and ending of the song. Those numbers were an unlisted phone number at CBS Records and a public number at the White House respectively. In addition, the recording includes snippets of the guitar riff of The Beatles’ “I Feel Fine,” Stevie Wonder’s “Superstition,” and a line of dialogue from Wolfman Jack stating the call sign of a radio station.

http://djallyn.org/media/sugarloaf-dont_call_us_well_call_you.flv

Long distance direct’ry assistance area code 212
Say hey A & R this is mister rhythm and blues
He said hello and put me on hold
To say the least the cat was cold
He said don’t call us child we’ll call you.

I said you got my number
He said yeah I got it when you walked in the door
Don’t call us, we’ll call you
Don’t call us, we’ll call you.

I got your name from a friend of a friend
who said he used to work with you
Remember the all night creature from stereo ninety two
Yeah I said could you relate to our quarter track tape
You know the band performs in the nude
He said uh huh don’t call us child we’ll call you.

Listen kid you paid for the call
You ain’t bad but we’ve heard it all before
Yeah it sounds like John, Paul and George

Any way we cut a hit and we toured a bit
with a song he said he couldn’t use.
And now he calls and begs and crawls
It’s telephone deja vu
We got percentage points and lousy joints
and all the glitter we can use
Mama so uh huh don’t call us, now we’ll call you.

Listen kid you paid for the call
You ain’t bad but I’ve heard it all before
Don’t call us, we’ll call you.

Tagged as: Sugarloaf

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