Great Lakes Spotlight: The Choir - It's Cold Outside/I'm Going Home

More Great Lakes region Battle of the Garage Bands.

Day 7 has us back in Ohio just outside of Cleveland where four mods from Mentor High School kicked out two great original songs in October of 1966. The original release was on the Canadian-American Records label. A few months later the record was picked up for national release by Roulette Records in the Spring of 1967.

The Choir (named The Mods until the recording session) was fronted by Dan Klawon and featured Jim Bonfanti, Dave Burke and Wally Bryson. The members swapped instruments and singing duties. Shortly after recording the double sided pop-gem Dan Klawon would leave the band. Ultimately the remaining members would join forces with another local kid, Eric Carmen, and morph into The Raspberries. But that's a story for another blog.

It's Cold Outside got the A-Side treatment. And why not? It's a wonderful pop number that shows a great sense of craftsmanship with Dan Klawon singing his own composition about unrequited love and other meteorological depressions. It's Cold Outside is a gentle, approachable song with a real sense of ability to be a hit. Much more so than are most of the songs that get play here. Simple guitar, light harmonies, a key change and a soaring chorus make this song a real hum-along number.

The Klawon composed I'm Going Home gets the highly coveted Flip-Side and hints at a rougher side of the band. The number was covered by The Chesterfield Kings for their debut album (see more about that here). Still no guitar lead, but the harmonica gives it a real nice edge. I'm not sure if that is Klawon singing lead on this one. Sounds more nasally to me. I'm thinking not. Let us know if you know.

As with most things Ohio, we first turned to www.buckeyebeat.com to get info on the band. While they didn't have much info, they did have this groovy picture. Thanks Buckeye Beat.

Until next time, we'll see you On The Flip-Side!