If I Could Only Take One

Today I’m launching a new feature titled If I Could Only Take One…The idea is pretty simple: If I had to move to a desert island and could only take one song by artist or band x, which tune would I pick? This weekly series replaces The Hump Day Picker-Upper feature I retired last week.

For now, I’ve decided to identify the artists and bands by going through my streaming music library in alphabetic order, picking one of each, a to z. This would already translate into 26 posts. If I have more endurance, the same process could be repeated with different picks for each letter.

To minimize redundant content, I also envisage focusing on artists and bands I haven’t covered or only covered a few times. This would exclude bands like AC/DC, The Beatles and The Rolling Stones and artists, such as Bob Dylan, Carole King or Neil Young, to name a few of the regulars on the blog.

My pick for the inaugural installment is Spooky by Atlanta Rhythm Section. In this case, the decision of which song to pick was fairly simple since I only know a handful of tunes by the Southern rock band that has been around since 1970. Their take of the groovy tune was included on their eighth studio album Underdog from June 1979. I’ve always dug it!

Spooky, one of ALR’s best-known songs, was also released separately as a single in August 1979. In the U.S., it reached no. 17 on the Billboard Hot 100. It also charted in Canada and Australia.

Originally, Spooky was written as an instrumental by saxophonist Mike Shapiro and Harry Middlebrooks Jr. Performed by Shapiro and released under the name Mike Sharpe, the track first appeared in 1967 and climbed to no. 57 on the U.S. pop charts. That was all complete news to me!

The next iteration of Spooky occurred in 1968 when a band called Classics IV recorded it as the title track of their debut album – again something I had not heard before. The group’s guitarist and songwriter James Cobb and producer Buddy Buie added lyrics, for which they earned credits. Mike Shapiro played the saxophone solo. And this is how it sounded – pretty similar to ALR.

Two years later, Classics IV keyboarder Dean Daughtry became a co-founding member of Atlanta Rhythm Section, along with Rodney Justo (vocals), Barry Bailey (guitar), Paul Goddard (bass) and Robert Nix (drums). James Cobb joined in 1972.

Spooky has also been recorded by numerous other artists, including Dusty Springfield, Percy Sledge, Martha Reeves, R.E.M. and David Sanborn.

Here’s a playlist of different renditions of Spooky. Unfortunately, I couldn’t find the original instrumental on Spotify.

Sources: Wikipedia; YouTube; Spotify