Blood, Sweat & Tears and WAR

It’s been five decades since drummer/producer Bobby Colomby and friends assembled Blood, Sweat & Tears, the first group to successfully blend rock and jazz into a genre-crossing sound and style. So successfully in fact, that the band’s second album, Blood, Sweat & Tears, topped the Billboard charts for many weeks and beat out the Beatles’ Abbey Road for the prestigious Album of the Year GRAMMY award. That album produced three major hit singles: “You Made me so Very Happy,” “Spinning Wheel,” and “And When I Die.” BS&T has won 3 GRAMMY’s and was nominated over 10 times. www.bloodsweatandtears.com

The year was 1969, and these 'kids' had the nerve to carry the name WAR at a time when peace was the slogan in an anti-Vietnam America. Their mission was to spread a message of brotherhood and harmony. WAR, the original street band, was brought together by veteran record producer Jerry Goldstein and rock legend Eric Burdon (ex-lead singer of The Animals). Burdon and WAR remained together through the early 70’s, and ended the relationship with the beginning of WAR’s solo, self-titled album in 1971. WAR’s many hits include “Spill The Wine,” “Me And Baby Brother,” “Low Rider,” “Why Can’t We Be Friends?,” “Summer,” "Cisco Kid," and more. www.war.com