Today’s classic song of the day is the almost totally forgotten “Love (Can Make You Happy)” by a group called Mercy. Released as a single on March of 1969, it was a fairly big hit, going all the way to #2 on the Billboard Hot 100, Cash Box Top 100, and Billboard Adult Contemporary charts. It also hit #2 on Canada’s Top RPM Singles chart.
“Love (Can Make You Happy)” was a pleasant little white bread tune with lots of pleasant vocal harmonies that stood out from all the harder-edged psychedelic rock on the radio that year. It was written by Jack Sigler, Jr., the head honcho of the group.
Mercy, which hailed from the Tampa, Florida, area, was founded in 1968 by Mr. Sigler and an assortment of female singers and a male rhythm section. The group played dances and parties across the state of Florida, from Tampa to Miami, until they were tapped to provide a song for a major motion picture being filmed in Tampa.
That movie was a Z-grade mobster-and-stock car actioner called Fireball Jungle and the song was “Love (Can Make You Happy).” The band was even featured in the movie, in a somewhat bizarre diversion into a local nightspot frequented by the movie’s protagonists. (The movie starred a bunch of no-names but was notable for being one of the last films to feature legendary actor Lon Chaney, Jr., in a bit part as a junkyard owner mixed up with the mob.)
Interestingly, after “Love (Can Make You Happy)” was recorded but before it started rising up the charts, Jack Sigler joined the Navy and broke up the band. When the single started getting airplay, the record label’s owner, a guy named Gil Cabot, decided to capitalize on that by recruiting a bunch of ringers to record an album of covers, along with the original group’s recording of “Love (Can Make You Happy).” He called that group The Mercy, thinking no one would notice the difference.
Jack Sigler did notice, however, when he came home on leave from the Navy, and sued Mr. Cabot. Sigler also reformed the original Mercy but with several replacement members. Sigler’s newly reconfigured Mercy quickly recorded and released its own album, on the Warner Bros. label, to cash in on the success of the single; that album, however, included a re-recording of “Love (Can Make You Happy),” as Cabot’s Sundi Records still owned the rights to the original recording. So if you want to hear the original recording of the song, you have to listen to the original single on the Sundi Records label.
Right after recording that album for Warner Bros., Jack Sigler had to return from leave to the Navy. By the time he ended his military service, Mercy’s 15 minutes of fame was over and the group had been dropped by the label. The group name and the single lay dormant for several decades until Sigler put together a new group called Jack Sigler & Mercy in 2005. They’re still playing local gigs in Florida today.
And here’s your daily bonus video of the day, if you dare—the complete, uncut movie, Fireball Jungle. Mercy appears at 14:57 to sing “Love (Can Make You Happy)” and the rest of the movie is, IMHO, totally unwatchable. (If I did the link right, the video below should start right at Mercy’s lip synched performance.)
