Readers following the thread spawned by Wednesday’s Song of the Day know that El Somnambulo has no love for the second Blood, Sweat and Tears LP, which spent seven weeks at No. 1 on the Billboard album chart and spawned three No. 2 singles, including this tune, written by a 17-year-old Laura Nyro.
Nyro wasn’t the first to record her song, because she sold it for $5,000 to Peter, Paul and Mary, who included it on their sixth LP.
It became a huge hit for BS&T, but I understand El Som’s distaste for it. I don’t care for the cowboy-song atmosphere of the arrangement, though David Clayton-Thomas’ vocal is more restrained that I remembered it, at least until the coda.
Nyro’s compositions drew on so many strains of American popular music that artists across various genres recorded her tunes. Jazz pianist Billy Childs recruited Alison Krauss and dobro virtuoso Jerry Douglas for his version on his 2014 Nyro tribute album “Map to the Treasure.” Childs’ arrangement, unlike Nyro’s upbeat original, gives the song a more haunting feel.
Childs isn’t the first jazzman to tackle the tune. Chet Baker released an upbeat version based on the BS&T arrangement on his “Blood, Chet and Tears” LP in 1970.
