Everyone knows they’re white — it’s right there in the band name — but I ran into a millennial the other day who didn’t know they were Scottish. This video, from the Atlantic Records 40th anniversary party in 1988, is as much visual proof as I could offer: Hamish Stuart rocking out in a kilt. Members who had quit the band by then returned for this gig, the last time the original members (minus drummer Robbie McIntyre, who OD’d in 1974) played together as a unit. (McIntyre’s replacement, Steve Ferrone, was the one black buy in AWB).
The song’s success even generated an answer song by the J.B.’s, James Brown’s backing band, billed as the Above Average Black Band. “Pick Up the Pieces One by One” is a fine tune but — I know this sounds blasphemous — isn’t as funky as its inspiration, though it is more sophisticated.
Average White Band’s heyday came just before the disco era — “Pick Up the Pieces,” along with the album it came from, reached No. 1 in 1975 — but they’re still on the road today, albeit with just two of the original members still in the band.