Song of the Day 2/11: Alive and Kicking, “Tighter, Tighter”

I have no idea why this song popped into my head the other day, because I don’t think I’ve heard it in years.

Obscure even for a one-hit wonder, Alive and Kicking, later stylized to Alive N Kickin’, was a Brooklyn six-piece band signed to Roulette Records, the mob front label that was also home to Tommy James. James heard the band and liked their sound, so he wanted to give them a song — one that later became “Crystal Blue Persuasion.” But when label honcho Morris Levy heard the tune, he told James no dice — that was a hit, and he, um, persuaded James to record it himself. So James wrote this one to fulfill his promise to the band and personally produced it, backing vocalists Sandy Toder and Pepe Cardona with a subdued horn and fuzzed-out guitar. It reached No. 7 on the Billboard Hot 100 in 1970. When two follow-up singles failed to chart, the band broke up in 1971. They reunited in 1976 and played into the ’80s but never released another record.

James recorded the song himself in 1976 and released it as a single, but by then tastes had changed, and James turned it into a power ballad. It failed to chart.