Today’s classic song of the day is that Carolina Beach Music classic, “What Kind of Fool (Do You Think I Am)” by the Tams. Released as a single in December of 1963, it hit #9 on the Billboard Hot 100 and #1 on Billboard’s R&B chart early in 1964.
“What Kind of Fool (Do You Think I Am)” was written by Ray Whitley, who wrote a ton of Beach Music tunes, including “Hey Girl, Don’t Bother Me” and “Be Young, Be Foolish, Be Happy” for the Tams and “I’ve Been Hurt” for Bill Deal and the Rhondels. The single was recorded at FAME Studios in Muscle Shoals, Alabama, with studio cats David Briggs on piano, Terry Thompson and Earl “Peanut” Montgomery on guitar, Norbert Putnam on bass, and Jerry Carrigan on drums.
The Tams were a vocal group from Atlanta that had a series of Beach Music hits in the late ’60s. Original members Joseph Pope, Charles Pope, and Horace Key have all passed (in 1996, 2013, and 1995, respectively), but fellow founding Tam Robert Lee Smith is still with us.
And here’s today’s daily bonus video of the day, the Tams lip-synching “What Kind of Fool (Do You Think I Am)” on some local television program back in 1967. Cool.
