Yesterday’s classic song of the day, Noel Paul Stookey’s “Wedding Song (There is Love),” was written for a friend’s wedding, and that’s also the case with today’s classic song of the day. This one is a song you might remember, even though you probably haven’t heard it for awhile. The song is “Rings,” a one-hit wonder for a band called Cymarron. It was released as a single in June of 1971 and peaked at #17 on the Billboard Hot 100 and #6 on Billboard’s Easy Listening chart.
“Rings” was written by two guys who worked for United Artists Music, Eddie Reeves and Alex Harvey. They decided to write a song for the wedding of their friend, Bob Hamilton. The lyrics reflect milestones on Bob’s relationship with his soon-to-be wife, Chris, and even reference their wedding on the Venice Beach beachfront (“hand in hand, upon the sand with the preacher man”). They mention “James Taylor on the stereo” because Mr. Taylor’s “Fire and Rain” was the couple’s favorite song; likewise, “Tony and Mario” were the owners of one the couple’s favorite restaurants.
Ring, ring, doorbell ring
Baby, come on in, we got James Taylor on the stereo
I’m glad you’ve come around
I’ve been feeling down just talking to Tony and Mario
You know they make good conversation
Still it ain’t no consolation ’cause I got love
Baby, I’ll give you some
And if somebody comes, we’ll let the doorbell ring
Eddie and Alex performed “Rings” at the Bob and Chris’ wedding reception and everybody loved the tune. The guys even went into the studio and made a recording of the song, which they gave to the newlyweds as a wedding gift. Bob and Chris really appreciated it all and wrote the guys a nice thank you note:
That demo recording actually got passed around the industry a bit. One person who heard it was singer-songwriter Mike Settle, who subsequently recorded the tune (with Alex Harvey singing lead) as Running Bear and Goldstein. At about the same time, Eddie Reeves pitched “Rings” to singer Lonnie Mack, who recorded it for his 1971 album, The Hills of Indiana.
Meanwhile, newlywed Bob Hamilton got the “Rings” demo to Chips Moman, legendary producer and founder of the American Sound recording studio in Memphis. Chips recorded the song with a group of Memphis studio musicians he’d put together as a group called Cymarron. As the group’s lead singer, Richard Mainegra, recalled, they didn’t initially take to the tune:
“We weren’t exactly thrilled with it. The demo was really country-soundin’ and slow and we were writin’ our own stuff and soundin’ a lot more Eagles-ish. But [Chips] told us to go upstairs and work it up the way we’d be happy with it. So we changed a chord or two and livened it up a bit.”
Entrance Records rush released the “Rings” single and the tune quickly picked up a lot of airplay. This was at least partly due to the fact that a lot of music programmers around the country had attended and previously heard the song at Bob Hamilton’s wedding. As Eddie Reeves remembers:
“The Cymarron record was rush released and received strong immediate airplay, some of which came from major markets radio stations programmed by some of the attendees of Bob Hamilton’s wedding. [Also] Bob was in the business of consulting many radio stations and he was not shy about touting the attributes of his… wedding song.”
So that’s how a modest little ditty composed for a friend’s wedding and recorded by a pickup band of studio musicians became a top twenty hit. Interestingly, “Rings” has been covered a handful of other artists, some of whom had some modicum of chart success with the tune. That includes versions by country singers Tompall & the Glaser Brothers (#7 on Billboard’s country chart in 1971), Lobo (#43 on the Billboard Hot 100 in 1974), Twiggy (#35 in the UK in 1977), and Dr. Hook (a hit in Europe in 1982). It’s not a bad song, all things said and done.
