BLOOD SWEAT AND TEARS at Yoshi's Oakland

No one can argue that Blood, Sweat & Tears invented a new style of music. While Blood, Sweat & Tears wasn’t the first band to use a horn section, they were the first to fuse it with rock, jazz, and a touch of blues for good measure. From their first ensemble in the late sixties, practicing in a loft on Bleecker Street in New York’s Greenwich Village, with crowds clapping on the street below between songs, founding member and drummer Bobby Colomby knew they were on the right track. Since then, the band has never stopped touring for over 50 years. The first Blood, Sweat & Tears album, Child is Father to the Man, was released to little fanfare. After lineup changes and replacing the lead singer, the second, self-titled album Blood, Sweat & Tears became a success, rising to the top of the charts for 7 weeks and producing three top 5 singles. The album won the Grammy Award for “Album of the Year” in 1970, beating out The Beatles’ Abbey Road. It went on to achieve quadruple Platinum status, with sales exceeding 4 million units.