The T-Bones – “No Matter What Shape”
In 1960’s TV advertisers were creating some really catchy music to help sell products. A very clever jazz sax player named Dave Pell thought it might be a cool idea to record some of these songs. Pell’s plan was to release them on 45 RPM singles to see if he could get some airplay and maybe even score a hit.
Liberty Records agreed to let Pell use the group name “The T-Bones” for his plan. The T-Bones was a name used in the past to make some instrumentals recorded by an LA session group called The Wrecking Crew.
In 1965, Pell took members of The Wrecking Crew into the studio and recorded “No Matter What Shape (Your Stomach’s In),” a song based on music used in an Alka-Seltzer TV commercial.
The single miraculously became a hit so Liberty Records then wanted the group to go on the road to promote it. Unfortunately, the original session musicians had great jobs and weren’t willing to go. So, to promote the record Liberty created a totally different T-Bones group.
The new T-Bones were Judd Hamilton, Dan Hamilton, Joe Frank Carollo, Tommy Reynolds, and Gene Pello. This new group appeared on record covers, TV, and in concert but none of whom had played on the original hit record.
The song ended up spending 13 weeks on the Billboard Hot 100 reaching No. 3. It reached No. 1 on Canada’s Play Sheet.
[embedyt] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EzpK0rR1XhY[/embedyt]
