Your totally forgotten ’70s song of the day is “Games” by a group called Redeye. It was released in late 1970 and peaked at #27 on the Billboard Hot 100.
I’m guessing that if you’re of a certain age you’ll remember this song if you hear it. It played the other day on a rerun of Casey Kasem’s American Top 40 radio show on SiriusXM satellite radio, and it might have been the first time in 50 years I’ve heard it. This is not a tune you regularly hear on oldies radio, for whatever reason. It sounds a little like Canned Heat to me, in a bluesy jam band kind of way. I particularly like the stacked vocals in the verses and the repeated “Yeah, you know” in the choruses, which apparently reminded some critics of Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young. I can kind of hear that.
Redeye was four guys (including vocalist Douglas “Red” Mark, where they got the group’s name) who hailed from Los Angeles. Mark had previously been in an another LA-based band called the Sunshine Factory, which got a little airplay back in 1967 with the sunshine pop tunes “Happy” and “Back On the Street Again.”
Redeye ended up releasing just two albums, 1970’s Redeye and 1972’s One Man’s Poison, both on the small Pentagram label. After touring with acts such as the Byrds and Cactus, Redeye broke up in 1972.
I wish I could tell you more about Redeye and its members, but I can’t. The group is essentially a one-hit wonder, as they released just one other single, 1971’s “Redeye Blues”, that only got to #78 on the charts. They came, they charted, they went away. That was the story of many such bands in the ’70s, Redeye most definitely among them. Yeah, you know.
