Ignored           Obscured            Restored

The first time I ever heard “Green Eyed Lady”, by Sugarloaf, was on AM radio in the summer of 1970.  The song reached #3 on Billboard Hot 100, taking me, and the country by storm with its jazzy, prog rock.

There were three different single versions.  The first had almost no edits but an early fade out to keep it below 6 minutes.  That was deemed too long for ‘70s AM radio airplay.  The next version cut out all the solos, and also cut out the track’s soul.  The final single version is the one most of us know.  It runs about 3.5 minutes and contains an abridged solo section.  It attempted to get a slice of the extended solo section from the nearly 7 minute album version into a length that would be deemed “suitable” for radio.

But if you really want to enjoy this hit, you should immerse in the album cut with the Jimmy Smith inspired, Hammond B3 organ solo by Jimmy Corbetta.

How can you ignore the funky groove that the band establishes from the very first notes?  And the keyboard and guitar solos kill it!

Many people put Sugarloaf’s “Green Eyed Lady” into the “one-hit wonder” category.  But that’s not really the case.  Sugarloaf had another Top 10 hit with “Don’t Call Us, We’ll Call You” in late ‘74/early ’75 – a track that was covered by Van Halen in concert, but never officially released.

“Green Eyed Lady” is a popular chestnut, and still brings enjoyment to me every time I hear it.

Enjoy… until next week.