Honoring the late Bobby Caldwell, your forgotten ’70s soft rock/yacht rock/soft soul/smooth jazz song of the day is “What You Won’t Do for Love.” This was the lead-off single from Mr. Caldwell’s self-titled debut album, released in September of 1978. It rose all the way to #9 on the Billboard Hot 100, #6 on the Hot Selling Soul Singles chart, and #3 on the Adult Contemporary chart, making it a true genre-crossing hit. It was written by Caldwell and Alfons Kettner and recorded by a bunch of studio musicians.
What I like best about this track is the horn arrangement, by Miami-based arranger Mike Lewis. It’s just very cool and understated, totally fitting with the song’s smooth groove. If I didn’t know better I might think it was from an Earth, Wind & Fire track, it’s that good.
Of the song’s soulful yet somewhat indefinable groove, British music magazine Smash Hits said: “Mellow sophisticated soul with a subtle Latin beat from a white American who obviously admires Stevie Wonder. Sounds as if it should be in a Campari commercial or the like.” A little snarky but hard to disagree with.
Interestingly, Caldwell’s record label released a heard-shaped pressing of the single for Valentine’s Day of 1979, which happened to mark the song’s debut in the top forty. (It was #38 that week and on the rise.) That single was said to be the most expensive single up to that point in time, priced at $7.98 when most singles were just a buck or two. Apparently the original heart-shaped 45 was for promotional use only, but public demand led the label to press 50,000 copies for general release.
Prior to the release of “What You Won’t Do for Love,” Bobby Caldwell was a well-known Miami musician with a blue-eyed soul style. He signed with TK Records, then primarily a label for Black artists. When this song hit, the label did everything they could to conceal the fact that Mr. Caldwell was a white dude, which is why you don’t see his mug anywhere on the album cover. You certainly can’t tell from the recording whether he’s white or black or something in-between. He had that kind of voice.
Sadly, Bobby Caldwell didn’t have any other hits of his own. He ended up composing songs for other artists, however, including Roy Ayers, Chicago, Natalie Cole, Neil Diamond, Roberta Flack, Al Jarreau, and Boz Scaggs. His biggest success as a songwriter was “The Next Time I Fall,” which he co-wrote with Paul Gordon and was a #1 hit for the duo of Peter Cetera and Amy Grant in 1986. Caldwell later switched to performing standards from the Great American Songbook, which he did pretty much up until the end.
Bobby Caldwell passed away this week after a long illness. He was 71 years old.
