Since we're living on "Soul Patrol" this week, I'm going to do one of my ABSOLUTE favorites. Let's see if anybody out there remembers THIS one!!!
Five Flights Up scored a #29 Pop Hit back in 1970 with "Do What You Wanna Do", a song that just might remind you of some of the music that The Stylistics would be recording a few years later. (Once again, this one did MUCH better here in Chicago, where it went all the way to #6 on The WLS Chart.)
There's not a whole lot of information available about these guys. We know that the track was arranged by Ernie Freeman, whose music career dated back to the early '50's. (Freeman played piano on The Platters' #1 Hit "The Great Pretender" and had a Top 20 Hit with his version of "Raunchy" back in 1957. He was also the pianist on "Bumble Boogie", a rockin' rendition of Rimsky-Korsakov's "Flight Of The Bumble Bee" released as B. Bumble and the Stingers. (This record also featured Tommy Tedesco on guitar, father of Denny Tedesco who's been marketing that EXCELLENT film documentary profiling The Wrecking Crew!) Freeman went on to work in some capacity (as an arranger, producer or session musician) for The Rat Pack, handling sessions for Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin and Sammy Davis, Jr. for Reprise Records.
Five Flights Up were a vocal quintet that featured J.B. Bingham on lead vocals, who also wrote their biggest hit. If ANYONE out there can fill any more of the blanks, we'd LOVE to hear from you. This is a GREAT song that'll hopefully spark a memory for some of you ... it should have been a much bigger hit than it was ... and, as such, probably hasn't been featured on the radio since!
