Songoftheday 10/6/12 - Do I love you with all of my heart...

The J. Geils Band - "I Do [Live Version]" 
from the album Showtime (1982)
Billboard Hot 100 peak: #24 (three weeks)
Weeks on the top-40: 7

Today's Song of the Day is by the Boston bar-band gone big, The J. Geils Band. They formed in the late sixties, named for their guitarist John, and though their first album came out in 1970, it wasn't until their second effort, The Morning After, that scored the band their first top-40 pop hit, a cover of the Valentinos/Bobby Womack soul number "Lookin' For A Love", a year later. In 1974, their countrified blues of "Must Of Got Lost" made the top-20 here in the States.

After ten years of scattered middle-charting hits and a growing fan base due to their electric live shows, the group made it big in 1981 with their 12th album, Freeze-Frame, which spun off a #1 smash ("Centerfold"), another top-10 single with the title track, and a third top-40 hit with the mournful "Angel In Blue". To follow this album the band recorded a live set recorded in Detroit that has songs from throughout their career. The single released from the album was a cover of the 60s minor hit "I Do" originally by the R&B group the Marvelows, who took the song to #37 on the pop chart and #7 on the R&B chart in 1965...

The Geils Band's version upped the energy by including the energy of the audience in the mix, with the horns prominent in the back...

This would be the last top-40 hit for the band, and the album was the last to feature singer Peter Wolf, who left for a solo career, and vocal duties were taken over by drummer Stephen Jo Bladd and keyboardist Seth Justman. They've been still plugging along, though not without a little controversy. In 1999, and again 10 years later, Wolf and the band (sans Bladd) reunited for a tour and various shows, however just this summer the band toured without Geils himself, who sued for use of the name.

Up tomorrow: Christine's got some romance saved up....