THE BEST OF ATTITUDES to be Released as Digital Reissue August 10

Attitudes, one of the most feel-good rock bands growing out of Los Angeles in the 1970s, will make waves yet again, this time in the world of streaming with a Best ofalbum to be released as a digital reissue out on August 10 from Dark Horse Records. The band's single "Sweet Summer Music" is available today as the first instant-grat track from the record. Stream now at http://found.ee/darkhorse-attitudesbestof-r.

Attitudes, composed of keyboardist David Foster, drummer Jim Keltner, bass guitarist Paul Stallworth, and guitarist/lead singer Danny Kortchmar, met as session musicians while jamming at the hip Studio B at the famed Record Plant in Los Angeles.

Keltner, who was then a 15-year veteran of countless hit records, including those by George Harrison, Carly Simon, John Lennon and Barbara Streisand, had been asked to start a jam session at the studio by Record Plant co-owner Gary Kellgren. Soon began The Jim Keltner Fan Club Hour - a club of fans and friends that would include the likes of Lennon, Paul McCartney, Mick Jagger, Joe Cocker, Jack Bruce, Stevie Wonder and plenty more, including guitarist Danny "Kootch" Kortchmar, then known for his session work with James Taylor, Carole King and many others.

Both Kortchmar and Keltner had played on sessions for a short-lived Canadian group called Skylark, featuring a young keyboardist named David Foster -who would go on to produce GRAMMY® Award-winning albums for artists like Chicago, Andrea Bocelli, Michael Bublé and countless others. Following the disbandment of Skylark, Foster began session work around Los Angeles. Impressed with his playing, Keltner invited him to join what became known as the Fan Club jams. "David was a bad mother, man," says Keltner. "He could play anything. And he was funky - there was nobody funkier than David Foster." Recalls Foster, "I was just a musician who wanted to play. And you never knew who was going to show up there."

Multi-instrumentalist Paul Stallworth came to Hollywood in 1973, after his group, 6IX ("Six") had broken up, following several years of opening for Sly & The Family Stone. Stallworth was introduced to the Fan Club through a fellow musician and fell right in. "Paul was just bigger than life," says Keltner. "Such a great bass player, and he sang like a son of a gun."

By July 1974, attendance had dwindled down - to just Keltner, Kortchmar, Foster and Stallworth. Recordings would continue into the following year, whenever all four artists were free - and that wasn't an easy feat for the busy session musicians. Kootch offered self-penned songs like "Street Scene," "Honey Don't Leave L.A." (which would, itself, be later recorded by his pal, James Taylor), and "Chump Change Romeo." Foster had begun collaborating with songwriters Brenda and Brian Russell, and brought in "Ain't Love Enough" - which would become the group's first single. Stallworth contributed "Lend a Hand" and a song from his 6IX days, "In the Flow of Love," co-written with former bandmates Chuck Higgins, Jr. and Gil Bottiglier.

During the summer of '75, Keltner recommended Foster and Stallworth to George Harrison for his Extra Texture sessions. Knowing Harrison was scouting for his new label, Dark Horse, Keltner played him Attitudes' tracks one night at Record Plant. Harrison signed them on the spot. By the end of the summer, Attitudes' first album was complete. "Ain't Love Enough" dropped as the band's first single in December, while the Attitudes LP hit store shelves in February 1976. "Honey Don't Leave L.A." backed with "Lend a Hand" followed as the second single in May.

After a busy winter of individual projects, Attitudes regrouped in April of 1976 to begin working on their second album, Good News, with engineer Jay Lewis, whom Foster had gotten to know the previous year, working on Gary Wright's Dream Weaver. The album's first single, "Sweet Summer Music," released in July, offered the perfect joyous summer anthem.

Though the band never released a third album - the players were all busy with their burgeoning careers, each member looks back fondly at Attitudes. "I didn't realize how great an experience it would end up being for me, how much I would draw on that for my whole life, being with those guys," recalls David Foster. "All you had to do was look around the room, when all of us were there." Adds Paul Stallworth, "We were just four completely different people. As it says in 'Turning in Space,' 'Attitudes of the points of view from different points.' We all had four very different attitudes. And, amazingly, they worked together very well."

Jim Keltner continues to be busy with sessions to this day, and Danny Kortchmar was not only still playing guitar with everyone from Jackson Browne to Linda Ronstadt and Taylor, but became a hugely-successful producer in his own right, co-creating Don Henley's hit albums, I Can't Stand Stilland Building the Perfect Beast in the mid-80s. Paul Stallworth went on to play with such greats as Harry Nilsson, Al Jarreau and Nils Lofgren. And David Foster, of course, has been producing mammoth-selling albums for the last four decades.

To post a comment, you must register and login.