Blood, Sweat & Tears

Blood, Sweat & Tears (BS&T), American big-band jazz rock group that topped the charts in the late 1960s with its innovative blend of pop, jazz, and rhythm and blues infused with horns. The band’s original members were Al Kooper (b. February 5, 1944, Brooklyn, New York), Steve Katz (b. May 9, 1945, Brooklyn), Bobby Colomby (b. December 20, 1944, New York City), Jim Fielder (b. October 4, 1947, Denton, Texas), Jerry Weiss (b. May 1, 1946, New York City), Fred Lipsius (b. November 19, 1943, Bronx, New York), Dick Halligan (b. August 29, 1943, Troy, New York), and Randy Brecker (b. November 27, 1945, Philadelphia).

Al Kooper

The original driving force of the group was Al Kooper, whose considerable footprint in popular music history includes a stint the Royal Teens in the late 1950s, authorship of the Gary Lewis and the Playboys hit “This Diamond Ring,” and membership in the seminal blues rock group the Blues Project in the mid-1960s. Kooper also provided distinctive organ work on Bob Dylan’s Highway 61 Revisited (1965), was in the backing band when Dylan “went electric” at the Newport Folk Festival in 1965, and made significant contributions to Dylan’s Blonde on Blonde (1966) and New Morning (1970) albums. Later Kooper produced three albums by Southern rock stalwart Lynyrd Skynyrd and the debut album of the theatrical rock group the Tubes. After leaving the Blues Project in 1967, he set his sights on forming a band that would expand the scope of rock to include elements of jazz, blues, classical, and folk music. In putting together the group, he made clear to its prospective members that he would be the leader and would shape the group’s repertoire, arrangements, and musical policies.

The original Blood, Sweat & Tears

In addition to Kooper on keyboards and lead vocals, the core of the original group included Blues Project guitarist Steve Katz, drummer Bobby Colomby, who had backed folksingers Eric Andersen and Odetta, and bassist Jim Fielder, who had played with Buffalo Springfield and the Mothers of Invention (see Frank Zappa). To this foundation was added a collection of horn players from New York jazz and studio bands: Fred Lipsius on alto saxophone (and piano); Randy Brecker and Jerry Weiss, who both played trumpet and fluegelhorn; and Dick Halligan on trombone, flute, and, later, keyboards. The group’s name was inspired by an all-night jam session that Kooper had participated in with B.B. King and Jimi Hendrix. At the end of it, there was blood on the keyboards from a cut on Kooper’s hand that had gone unnoticed because he had been so blissfully immersed in music-making. “What a great album cover, I thought,” Kooper wrote of the moment in his memoir, Backstage Passes & Backstabbing Bastards (1998), adding, “No. What a great name for a band. Blood, Sweat & Tears.”

Released in 1968, Blood, Sweat & Tears’ debut album, Child Is Father to the Man, was moderately successful commercially. In addition to various Kooper compositions, it included songs written by Randy Newman, Carole King, and others. Following the album’s release, Brecker left the group to join jazz great Horace Silver’s band. Kooper also departed after other members of the band made known their dissatisfaction with the quality of his vocals and what they viewed as his dictatorial rule.

David Clayton-Thomas, BS&T’s chart-topping success, and beyond

The band regrouped with David Clayton-Thomas (b. September 13, 1941, in Surrey, England), formerly of the Canadian blues band the Bossmen, as the lead vocalist and soon vaulted to popularity. The 1969 Grammy-winning album Blood, Sweat & Tears spent more than two years on the Billboard 200 album chart in the United States, including seven weeks at number one. Three hit singles—“Spinning Wheel,” “And When I Die,” and “You’ve Made Me So Very Happy”—all of which reached number two on the Billboard Hot 100 chart, helped the group achieve worldwide recognition, and the U.S. State Department asked the band to do a goodwill tour abroad.

In the early 1970s Blood, Sweat & Tears had hits with “Hi-De-Ho,” “Lucretia MacEvil,” and “Go Down Gamblin’.” A series of singers replaced Clayton-Thomas when he left to pursue a solo career, but he rejoined the group in 1974. With the emergence of other rock bands with a similar emphasis on brass (most notably Chicago), the group had trouble duplicating its previous recording success but became popular on the nightclub circuit. Through the years, more than 175 musicians have filled the positions of the eight-to-ten-member band.