David Bellamy - lead vocals, guitar; Howard Bellamy - lead vocals, guitar; Wally Dentz - bass, harmonica; Billy Crain - lead guitar; Danny Jones - pedal steel guitar; Juan Perez - drums; Jon LaFrandre - keyboards
The Bellamy Brothers had been staples on the country music charts for some time when they recorded this show, the first of two captured for the Silver Eagle Cross Country Radio Series in 1982. The brothers had relocated to Los Angeles, even though the majority of their country contemporaries were living in Nashville, and they themselves came from the Southeast US.
This show, recorded at LA's Palomino Club, was a homecoming of sorts for the brothers, who had been touring almost nonstop since their first recorded hit in 1976. The brothers had been influenced heavily by '60s rock and R&B acts such as The Beatles, the Stones, and The Temptations, but had grown up and learned to play in a home steeped heavily in country music. The result was a radio friendly blend of country-pop, which is how they made their name in country music.
Howard and David Bellamy grew up in Florida, where their parents had a successful orange grove plantation. Their father was a country swing musician on the side, and the boys grew up in a musical family listening to their father's country music, while also hearing the rock 'n' roll that their older sister introduced to them, and calypso music that the migrant works on their parent's farm would sing while in the fields.
After attending college at the University of Florida, Howard landed a job playing organ for Percy Sledge and later, Little Anthony & The Imperials. When David got out of school, the two brothers formed a soul band called Jericho, relocating in Atlanta. Eventually, they moved back to Florida, and one of David's songs, "Spiders & Snakes" ended up in the hands of popular country artist, Jim Stafford. Stafford liked the song enough to record it, and the two brothers soon saw success when the song soared to the top of the country charts, and eventually #5 on the pop charts. The success of "Spiders & Snakes" earned them a spot on The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour, and brought them to the attention of the Nashville A&R brass.
The group signed with Curb Records in 1976, and the initial singles were released to little fanfare or success. Then when a roadie for Neil Young named Larry Williams (who had been a friend of Howard's), gave them one of his songs, "Let Your Love Flow," the brothers immediately cut it. Curb, knowing a hit when it heard one, released it, and within a few months the Bellamy Brothers had a #1 song on both the country and pop charts.
They would continue recording and touring but didn't see another major hit until 1979, when they wrote and recorded the massive country hit, "If I Said You Had A Beautiful Body (Would You Hold It Against Me)." The title of the song, the brothers would later reveal, came from one of Groucho's lines from a Marx Brothers film.