Spinning the Power-Pop Hits

You don't get a headline like that too often on these pages. Felt like putting together a little mix of classic '70s (and very early '80s) power pop today, but I ended up coming back to songs associated with Phil Seymour again and again. Let's start with his time in Dwight Twilley Band. Dwight and Phil had been friends since their school days in Tulsa, Oklahoma. In 1974, the band went out to Los Angeles and were signed to Shelter Records within two weeks. Shelter, incidentelly, was co-run by fellow Tulsan Leon Russell. The fellas were told to go into the Leon's Church Studio with an engineer to get acqainted with the equipment. As soon as they got in there, Phil said to Dwight, "Let's record a hit single right now." Right out of the shoot, "I'm on Fire" was the result. It peaked at No. 16 on the Billboard Hot 100 in August 1975, and they got to be on American Bandstand to boot. Phil is credited as the drummer, bassist and, of course, he shared those great vocals with Dwight.

I'm on Fire

Seymour remained in Dwight Twilley Band for two albums, charting modestly at No. 138 and No. 70, respectively, before going solo. You can't help but wonder whether the need to go it alone stemmed from the outfit being called Dwight Twilley Band when Seymour had so much do with the outfit. Like Dwight Twilly Band, Seymour had his greatest success with the very first single. The ballad "Precious to Me," from the self-titled debut album, made it to No. 22 on the Billboard Hot 100 in early 1981. Through the years, power-pop fans have become more enamored with the rougher and rowdier B-side "Baby It's You." The song often pops up on compilations celebrating the genre.

Precious to Me
Baby It's You

Seymour's first album did fairly well, peaking at No. 64, but wealth and fame did not follow. The follow-up album wasn't as good, frankly, and his label folded soon after due to the death of its founder. He bounced around after that, joining the Textones on drums for a while. In '85, he got sick. Seymour returned to Tulsa and played in local bands until his death in '93 at the age of 41. I can't possibly end the post this way. It's meant to be a celebration of Seymour's work. I'll add that he and Twilley were good friends with Tom Petty, and you can hear Seymour's beautiful voice backing Petty on hits like "American Girl" and "Breakdown."

Perhaps my favorite of Seymour's contributions to the power-pop scene, outside of his first solo album, was his work with 20/20. They were another band from Tulsa. When they saw what Twilley and Seymour were doing in L.A. the fellas headed west as well. They signed to the legendary indie label Bomp! and released this 7" in 1978. Seymour provided some gorgeous harmonies. I'm not saying this is my favorite single in my collection, but it would be in the conversation.

Giving It All
Under the Freeway

Seymour continued to help 20/20 after they signed to CBS offshoot Portrait and released a classic long player in 1979. Although this one was a deep track that was also a B-side to the single "Cheri," with the passage of time, "Yellow Pills" has probably become the band's most well-known song. There is also a popular power-pop fanzine called Yellow Pills, and that has certainly helped with the song's status.

Yellow Pills