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June 28, 2019
Welcome to Music Friday when we bring you great throwback songs with jewelry, gemstones or precious metals in the title or lyrics. In 1971, frontman Dan Hamilton of the soft-rock group Hamilton, Joe Frank & Reynolds threatened to “cry for a hundred years” in the chart-topping hit, “Don’t Pull Your Love.”
In his plea to keep his girlfriend from taking off on “that big white bird,” the jilted Hamilton makes a last-ditch effort to win her back by referencing a very special and sentimental piece of jewelry.
He sings, “Haven’t I been good to you? / What about that brand new ring? / Doesn’t that mean love to you? / Doesn’t that mean anything?”
By the end of the song, Hamilton is a desperate man: “Don’t pull your love out on me honey / Take my heart, my soul, my money / But don’t leave me drownin’ in my tears.”
Written by Brian Potter and Dennis Lambert, “Don’t Pull Your Love” was an international hit for the trio and reached #1 on the U.S. Cash Box Top 100.
Recorded nearly five decades ago, this song has stood the test of time. Glen Campbell recorded it as a medley in 1976, and it got new life when Sean MacGuire covered it in 1996. But neither of those outpaced the original, which is still heard regularly on soft rock and easy listening stations. Many critics consider it a rock classic.
Hamilton, Joe Frank & Reynolds was formed in Los Angeles in 1970. The original members were Dan Hamilton (guitar/lead vocal), Joe Frank Carollo (bass/vocal), and Tommy Reynolds (multi-instrumentalist/vocal), all of whom had previously played in The T-Bones, a 1960s band noted for the instrumental hit “No Matter What Shape (Your Stomach’s In).” The song was inspired by a then-popular Alka-Seltzer commercial.
Only a year after the group first hit the charts with “Don’t Pull Your Love,” Reynolds was replaced by keyboardist Alan Dennison. This revised line-up performed the group’s biggest hit, 1975’s “Fallin’ in Love.” The group permanently disbanded in 1980.
Please check out the throwback video of Hamilton, Joe Frank & Reynolds performing “Don’t Pull Your Love.” The lyrics are below if you’d like to sing along…
“Don’t Pull Your Love” Written by Brian Potter and Dennis Lambert. Performed by Hamilton, Joe Frank & Reynolds.
Don’t pull your love out on me baby If you do then I think that maybe I’ll just lay me down and cry for a hundred years Don’t pull your love out on me honey Take my heart, my soul, my money But don’t leave me drownin’ in my tears
You say you’re gonna leave Gonna take that big white bird Gonna fly right out of here Without a single word Don’t you know you’ll break my heart When I watch you close that door ‘Cause I know I won’t see you anymore
Haven’t I been good to you? What about that brand new ring? Doesn’t that mean love to you? Doesn’t that mean anything? If I threw away my pride And I got down on my knees Would I have to beg you, “Pretty please?”
There’s so much I wanna do I’ve got love enough for two But I’ll never use it girl if I don’t have you
Credit: Image by ABC / Dunhill Records [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons.
