Bloodstone

Bloodstone's pop music blended soul vocal harmonies with funk and Hendrix-inspired guitar flash. The five original members were high school classmates in Kansas City, where they formed an a cappella group, the Sinceres, in 1962. In 1968 they spent a year as a nightclub act in Las Vegas, then moved on to L.A. There they decided to learn to play instruments themselves. They reappeared as Bloodstone in 1971, with a succession of drummers (including Edward Summers, Darryl Clifton, and Melvin Webb) as associate members. On the advice of their manager, they moved to England, where in 1972 they teamed up with English producer Mike Vernon (John Mayall, Ten Years After, Savoy Brown) for their first five albums. Bloodstone’s first single, “Natural High,” went gold, reaching #4 on the R&B chart and #10 pop in 1973. The group followed it with a series of soul hits, including “Never Let You Go” (#7 R&B, 1973), “Outside Woman” (#34 pop, #2 R&B, 1974), “That’s Not How It Goes” (#22 R&B, 1974), “My Little Lady” (#4 R&B, 1975), “Give Me Your Heart” (#18 R&B, 1975), and “Do You Wanna Do a Thing” (#19 R&B, 1976).

In 1975 Bloodstone produced and appeared in a feature movie entitled Train Ride to Hollywood, for which it also wrote the soundtrack. Among the songs covered in this musical comedy were “Toot Toot Tootsie” and “As Time Goes By,” and like all of the band’s albums since Unreal, the soundtrack also contained versions of oldies like “Sh-Boom” and “Yakety Yak.”

from The Rolling Stone Encyclopedia of Rock & Roll (Simon & Schuster, 2001)