Song of the Day 12/7: Denny Laine’s Electric String Band, “Why Did You Come”

Denny Laine, who died Tuesday at 79, might have been who Andy Warhol had in mind when he said everyone would get 15 minutes of fame. For about that long in 1964 it looked like the guy born Brian Hines would be a big rock ‘n’ roll star. The band he fronted, the Moody Blues, scored a No. 1 hit in both the U.S. and UK with “Go Now” as part of the first wave of the British Invasion. In terms of fame, for Laine it was mostly downhill from there.

Laine never lacked for work, but he misjudged the market when he quit the Moody Blues in 1966 to form a group incorporating a string section. Maybe he was just too far ahead of his time. Denny Laine’s Electric String Band flopped despite a push from influential DJ John Peel, but four years later his former bandmate Roy Wood took the same idea and launched the Electric Light Orchestra. It didn’t help that the Moodies replaced him with Justin Hayward and John Lodge and became bigger than ever.

This tune was supposed to be the String Band’s third single.

Laine then spent a year in Ginger Baker’s Air Force, the drummer’s rock-jazz fusion band, sometimes stepping out front for a vocal showcase, as on “Man of Constant Sorrow.” It was the only single the band released; it made it to No. 85 on the Hot 100.

Laine finally found his calling as Paul McCartney’s sideman in Wings. From 1971 to 1980 he was the only constant member besides Paul and Linda. His high point came with “Mull of Kintyre,” which he co-wrote with McCartney. It barely touched the bottom of the Easy Listening chart in the U.S. but was a huge hit in Britain – it was the Christmas No. 1 in 1977 and became the first single to sell 2 million copies there.

Typical of Laine’s career, despite the co-writing credit he didn’t share in the royalties – McCartney gave him a flat fee. Laine quit the band in 1980, partly over McCartney’s marijuana arrest in Japan, which scotched a lucrative tour of the country. He released nine solo LPs over the years and played in various old-timers bands, but never added to his initial 15 minutes of fame.