The Spellbinders

Listen/Download – The Spellbinders – Chain Reaction MP3

Greetings all.

The Spellbinders – New Jersey’s own – have been featured in this space before with their epic 1967 floorfiller ‘Help Me (Get Myself Back Together Again)’.

The group made a string of outstanding singles for Columbia and Date between 1965 and 1967, all with the involvement of soul genius Van McCoy.

‘Chain Reaction’ from 1966 is a stellar midtempo number with echoes of the Miracles. As the song builds the group harmonies come in to fatten up the sound, which is – like many McCoy records – filled with hooks.

Interestingly, ‘Chain Reaction’ got released twice in the UK with a pair of b-sides, first on UK CBS with ‘For You’ on the flip and then again on Reaction with ‘Help Me’ on the flip, both in 1966.

Sadly, for a group with such a great sound and the assistance of Van McCoy, they onky had limited success, with ‘For You’ grazing the R&B Top 20 in 1965 and ‘Chain Reaction’, ‘We’re Acting Like Lovers’ and ‘Help Me’ scoring regional pop radio success.

The group broke up in 1967, with female lead Eloise Pennington moving on to join the Ad Libs.

I hope you dig the sounds, and I’ll see you all next week.

Also, make sure to follow Funky16Corners on Instagram, Twitter and Facebook.

Keep the faith

Larry

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