Song of the Day Feb 10

February 10, 2024

This month I’m focusing on Love Songs from the 70s.

Today our song is:  Let Your Love Flow

Wikipedia tells us this about the song:

The song's composer, Larry E. Williams, had been a roadie for Neil Diamond's live shows, and "Let Your Love Flow" had been published by Bicycle Music, which had been founded by the singer and owned Diamond's own catalog. On Diamond's apparent disinterest in recording the song himself, Howard Bellamy of the Bellamy Brothers has commented "it really wasn't in his [ie. Diamond's] vein." According to Howard, Johnny Rivers had also passed on "Let Your Love Flow". The song as recorded by Gene Cotton was a single release in the autumn of 1975, making Cotton's version - featured on his 1976 album release For All the Young Writers - the earliest released version of "Let Your Love Flow," although it is unclear if Cotton's recording was made prior to that by the Bellamy Brothers.

The Bellamy Brothers - siblings David and Howard Bellamy from Pasco County - had been working as session musicians at the Studio 70 recording studio in Tampa when a demo of a song written by David, "Spiders and Snakes", was optioned for Jim Stafford, whose 1973 recording became a million-selling hit single. On the recommendation of Stafford's producer Phil Gernhard, the Bellamy Brothers relocated to Los Angeles to pursue a recording career. The duo initially stayed with Stafford in the Hollywood house whose purchase Stafford's success with "Spiders and Snakes" had made possible, and for a time Howard acted as Stafford's road manager while Gernhard arranged for David to record as a solo act for the Warner Bros. Records affiliate Curb Records with a resultant regional hit, "Nothin' Heavy", #77 on the Billboard Hot 100 in the autumn of 1975.

David Bellamy's recording sessions featured members of Neil Diamond's band, including drummer Dennis St John, and it was St John who recommended "Let Your Love Flow" to the Bellamys. Howard Bellamy recalls that Dennis St John "one day...came over to our house and brought the demo of 'Let Your Love Flow' and said: 'Hey, this sounds like something you guys would do.'" David Bellamy recalls St John mentioning the song as appropriate for the Bellamys to record, but that St John sent the demo of the song to Phil Gernhard: David Bellamy (quote) - "the next day I went to Phil's office and listened to it. I [then] called Howard and said :'I’ve got to play you this song!'" David further states: "We went back in with Neil's band" - to the Wally Heider Recording Studio in Hollywood - "and cut the song. We got the right key, the band hooked it right away and we probably didn’t do more than two or three takes on the whole session. It was the perfect song for us and became the key to our career."

"Let Your Love Flow" reached #1 on the Billboard Hot 100 dated 1 May 1976, also crossing-over to the Billboard chart rankings for Hot Adult Contemporary Tracks with a peak of #2, and also for Hot Country Singles with a peak of #21. According to David Bellamy (quote): "There were a couple of guys from Holland [i.e. the Netherlands] who were in town when the single was released, and our record company gave it to them to take home and they also sent it to Germany", and "Let Your Love Flow" would in fact debut at #22 on the Dutch Top 30 chart dated 6 March 1976, the same date as the track's Billboard Top 40 debut at #38: the track would eventually peak at #6 on both the Dutch chart and Belgium's Flemish chart. In June and July 1976 "Let Your Love Flow" spent five weeks at #1 in Germany and also in Switzerland, while the track would be ranked at #1 on the monthly Austrian hit parades dated the 15th of August, September and October. "Let Your Love Flow" was afforded further European success with a seven-week tenure at #2 in both Norway and Sweden, while in the British Isles the track achieved chart peaks of #7 in the UK and #3 in Ireland. "Let Your Love Flow" also reached #1 on the hit parade for South Africa, #2 in New Zealand and #6 in Australia.

Enjoy!