Silver | |
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Background information | |
Origin | Los Angeles, California, United States |
Genres | Rock, country rock, pop rock, soft rock |
Years active | 1971–1978 |
Labels | Arista Records |
Silver was an American 1970s country rock band, best known for their 1976 pop hit "Wham Bam," written by country songwriter Rick Giles.
Members of the group included John Batdorf (formerly of Batdorf & Rodney), lead vocals and guitar; Brent Mydland (later of the Grateful Dead), keyboards and vocals; Tom Leadon (brother of the Eagles' Bernie Leadon), bass guitar and vocals; Greg Collier, guitar and vocals; and Harry Stinson, drums and percussion. Phil Hartman designed the cover art for Silver, the quintet's only album. The band's recordings were released on the Arista record label.
The single's title, "Wham Bam", was shown as "Wham Bam Shang-A-Lang", and made #16 on the Billboard Hot 100 in the summer of 1976. It is ranked as the 70th biggest hit of 1976.Arista executives gave the band the song to record, after concluding that none of the other tracks on the album they produced had single potential. Arista head Clive Davis himself co-produced the single with Tom Sellers; the rest of the album was produced by Sellers and Silver.
Chicago radio superstation WLS, which gave "Wham Bam" much airplay, ranked the song as the 80th biggest hit of 1976. It peaked at number eight on their surveys of October 23 and 30, 1976.
Other songs on that album included "Musician (It's Not an Easy Life)", "Memory" and "Climbing".
The band can be heard in the 2017 Marvel Studios sequel film, Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2, as "Wham Bam" is included on the movie's soundtrack.