The Tams

Listen/Download The Tams – What Kind of Fool (Do You Think I Am)

Greetings all

Welcome to the middle of another week as we all watch the summer dissipate slowly.

This is cool (at least cooler) on our part of the map where summer often last a month or more past Labor Day.

Now’s the time of the year where the local gentry (including yours truly) get to settle in, enjoy a little bit of tourist-free elbow room and wait for the leaves to start falling.

This all puts me in a mellow mood, so I thought that today’s selection ought to do the same.

The Tams are one of those groups that I knew of for years before I actually heard any of their music.

Then, somewhere along the line I stumbled on one of their 45s and was compelled to dig a little deeper.

The tune I bring you today is that very 45, which struck a note with me because it was the original version of song I was already familiar with by Bill Deal and the Rhondels (who had their hit with it in 1969).

The Tams’ version of ‘What Kind of Fool Do You Think I Am’ was their second hit, a Top 10 R&B selection in the fall of 1963.

Hailing from Atlanta, GA the Tams were a another product of the intersection of black and white musicians that created so much amazing music in the face of segregation.

“What Kind of Fool (Do You Think I Am)’ was – like many of the Tams biggest records – written by a songwriter named Ray Whitley.

Whitley – like the late Joe South, who also worked with the Tams and went on to much success as a performer – was a protégé of producer Bill Lowery. He wrote or co-wrote several of the Tams biggest hits (Hey Girl Don’t Bother Me, I’ve Been Hurt, Be Young Be Foolish Be Happy) as well as working with pop singers like Tommy Roe and Brian Hyland.

‘What Kind of Fool (Do You Think I Am)’ is a classic of low-key soul, with a fantastic, raspy vocal by lead singer Joe Pope, classic backing harmonies and some thick, syrupy guitar (apparently none other than the late Joe South, a tip of the hat to the mighty Red Kelly for his informative memorial post to South) to remind you that the transmission was emanating from below the Mason-Dixon line.

The Tams went on to score a number of hits through the end of the 60s, eventually placing a few songs into the Northern Soul canon, as well as becoming a huge part of the Beach Music movement in the Carolinas. If you’re not hip to their sound, get out and start digging because their catalog is full of quality stuff.

I hope you dig the tune, and I’ll see you all on Friday.

Keep the faith

Larry

 

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2 Responses to “The Tams – What Kind of Fool (Do You Think I Am)”

1. popwell says:

   September 7, 2012 at 9:20 am

   Great group. For an even more mellow tune, I really like “Ramshackle Shack,” the first song on their second LP.

2. Holly @hkbabel says:

   September 9, 2012 at 8:55 pm

   One of favorite songs of all time!