Sing On, 76!, the band’s folk-fueled, drug-addled debut, is the only Smile Syndicate album to feature both founding members: Bonovan Hatch and Cal Wriglus. After a New Summer of Love (to have been brought about by this album) failed to materialize, Cal Wriglus re-thought the direction of the band. His decision to move the group in the direction of disco for their next album caused the group to catastrophically fracture, the aftershocks of which we feel to this day.

SIDE ONE
1. Sing On, ’76! (Hatch) 2:59
2. The World Will Love You Back (Hatch/Wicks) 2:04
3. I’ll Get By On Love (Wriglus/Wicks) 3:14
4. Stuck In The Middle Of A Love Dream (Hatch) 5:54
5. Brothers And Sisters (Let’s Get It Together) (Hatch/Wicks) 3:59
6. The Garden Beckons (Hatch/Wicks/Wriglus) 3:32

SIDE TWO
1. Lay With Me ‘Neath The Spruce (Wriglus/Wicks) 2:29
2. Magic Mile (Hatch) 3:34
3. Your Smile Says It All (Hatch/Wicks/Wriglus) 4:01
4. Make Time To Love (Bigelow/Wicks) 3:40
5. Will You Share My Dream? (Hatch/Wicks) 2:22
6. Crying At The Mountaintop (Hatch/Wicks) 3:19

 

Bonovan Hatch: vocals, guitar, seer
William Wicks: guitar, vibe maker
Calvin Wriglus: keyboards, love healer
Blue Bigelow: bass, deep space voyageur
Mason Miles: drums, transcendental provocateur

Produced by Terence Pemmican
Engineered by Elmer Raguse
Assistant Engineer: Thaddeus Mesmer
Mixed by Terence Pemmican and Calvin Wriglus

Tracks 1-2 recorded at Birdmen Studios, Memphis, January, 1975.
Tracks 3-12 recorded at Happy Sounds, Los Angeles, January-March, 1976.

Thanks to Ward Birdmen, Sid Vetz, and the people of Liertzmark.

Time shall surely fly as waves will gently roll
Forfeit to a smile, abandon all control
Anger rashly cleaves as love flows in to fix
Hear the voices rise, so Sing On, ’76! 

– Bonovan Hatch, “Love’s Philosophies, No. 23”

Released June 1, 1976.

Sing On, ’76! FAST FACTS

  • After the “Near Budokan” reunion show in 2008, a re-issue of Sing On, ’76! topped the charts in Japan over 30 years after the album’s  initial release.
  • A muzak version of “Magic Mile” can be heard in the background during an episode of The Love Boat (“Love Ahoy!/Honeymoon Hijinx”).
  • After the band’s infamous Eurovision hoax, Sweden passed a law making it illegal to sell copies of Sing On, ’76! The law remains enforced to this day.
  • “Crying At The Mountaintop” is the song that finally drove fallen Panamanian strongman Manuel Noriega from his sanctuary and into custody of US forces in 1989.
  • Elton John’s favorite Smile Syndicate album

REVIEWS – “Truth and love and true love are still alive…”

STARS OF ROCK – July, 1976
Fresh off their infamous Eurovision Song Contest appearance, Canada’s The Smile Syndicate have released their first LP. Fans of the song “Sing On, ’76!” will also likely be pleased with the rest of the album since it largely consists of the same kind of undemanding acoustic folk that made the band unlikely international stars. More discerning listeners are likely to be unimpressed, although the album closer “Crying At The Mountaintop” is such a colossal misfire that it really needs to be heard to be believed.

MELODY MERCHANTS MONTHLY – July, 1976

No band had as much press before their debut release as did The Smile Syndicate. Their Eurovision hoax made international headlines and anticipation for the band’s first album was through the roof. Sad to say, the band simply hasn’t capitalized on its momentum.

Inevitably, the album leads off with their Eurovision song “Sing On, ’76!” and compared to the version performed in Stockholm, this studio rendition is pretty weak cheese indeed and a disappointing opener. The album never quite recovers. Like a drunken acrobat, we lurch from lazily-strummed ditties like “Stuck In The Middle Of A Love Dream” to happily energetic songs sadly saddled with bizarre preoccupations – the party described in “Brothers And Sisters (Let’s Get It Together)” is not one I’d attend and naked hitchhiking has never sounded more unappealing than in “Magic Mile”. And no amount of drugs could make the album closer, “Crying At The Mountaintop”, listenable.

An album of good folk music could have been a welcome change to the disco and slickly-produced rock music dominating radio these days. Fans will have to look elsewhere for it.

MUSIC! THE MAGAZINE – August 1976
No band had as much press before their debut release as did The Smile Syndicate. Their Eurovision hoax made international headlines and anticipation for the band’s first album was through the roof. Sad to say, the band simply hasn’t capitalized on its momentum.

Inevitably, the album leads off with their Eurovision song “Sing On, ’76!” and compared to the version performed in Stockholm, this studio rendition is pretty weak cheese indeed and a disappointing opener. The album never quite recovers. Like a drunken acrobat, we lurch from lazily-strummed ditties like “Stuck In The Middle Of A Love Dream” to happily energetic songs sadly saddled with bizarre preoccupations – the party described in “Brothers And Sisters (Let’s Get It Together)” is not one I’d attend and naked hitchhiking has never sounded more unappealing than in “Magic Mile”. And no amount of drugs could make the album closer, “Crying At The Mountaintop”, listenable.

An album of good folk music could have been a welcome change to the disco and slickly-produced rock music dominating radio these days. Fans will have to look elsewhere for it.

MUSICEARTHMOTHERMUSIC – August, 1976
This month, our word for word column features Bonovan Hatch, from the folk group The Smile Syndicate and Dr. Michael Feem, professor of Folk Music at the San Francisco Free Music Free Mind Free University.

Feem: Cloud
Hatch: Proud
Feem: Groove
Hatch: Prove
Feem: Mother
Hatch: Brother
Feem: Spirit
Hatch: … I’m sorry. I can’t think of one.
Feem: They don’t have to rhyme.
Hatch: They don’t?
Feem: No.
Hatch: Oh! Ha ha ha! My apologies. I thought my responses had to rhyme. Shall we begin again?
Feem: No.
Hatch: Negativity.
Feem: Just stop. We’re finished.

DISCO IMMENSO – August, 1976
And this month’s Sorriest Unfunkiest award goes to The Smile Syndicate. They just released their first album and someone better let these guys know that the Boogie People demand more from their music.  You gotta tune those guitars, plug ’em in, and play ’em funky! The hippie stuff is over! The Boogie People left that stuff behind years ago. So get a haircut, grow a moustache and slither into some bell bottoms! Get some life in that booty and drop the hippie jive. You all know what I’m talkin’ about, dontcha, Boogie People?

musique éternel – August, 1976
What a delight to be able to wholeheartedly recommend the debut album from a new band! The Smile Syndicate has taken a brave stand and have firmly committed to keeping the Spirit Of Woodstock alive when all around them has given in to disco and funk. Dancing has its place, but music like this keeps its eye on the prize – it ain’t all about the booty. Truth and love and true love are still alive and have found a voice here.

You’ve probably already heard their hit “Sing On, ’76!” which Americans applied liberally as a healing balm after the wounds of Vietnam. But there are many other gems, pearls and baubles to be found here. “The World Will Love You Back”, originally the overlooked b-side to “Sing On” single, is imbued with hope and is catchy as hell to boot. “The Garden Beckons” is an erotically charged bacchacarnalia and its dewy companion “Lay With Me ‘Neath The Spruce” luxuriates in the afterglow.

But it’s not only Dionysus who reigns here. “Make Time To Love” is as true and practical a message song as was ever penned. And what more could be said of a song, nay, anthem, such as “Will You Share My Dream?” I haven’t read the credits, but I’m sure Dr. King himself must have had a hand in the writing of the lyrics.

But the jewel in the crown is “Crying At The Mountaintop”. It is not only a universal hymn for the human race but a bold new type of popular music. A thousand volunteers gathered with homemade instruments and a demo recording of the song was played to them once. They then attempted to replicate what they heard and what was once a specific, concrete piece of discreet music becomes an amorphous, seething, chaotic thing of LIFE. Once is utterly spent after listening to this album and the mind boggles at what new directions The Smile Syndicate will take in their already-announced followup, due to arrive next year!