Your sappy early ’70s love song of the day is “Precious and Few” by Climax. Released in December of 1971, it rose to #3 on the Billboard Hot 100 (and #1 on the Cashbox Hot 100) in March the following year. The song was written by Walter Nims, the band’s lead guitarist.
“Precious and Few” is a powerful song with a powerful vocal performance by lead singer Sonny Geraci. The chord progression in the verse starts out I – I sus – II, which is a little unusual but not too much. What gives the song its punch are its two half-step modulations; as Barry Manilow can tell you, nothing lifts a ballad like taking it up a step or two near the end. The first modulation comes after an interesting little instrumental interlude that moves from the starting A major key into the chords Bb – Am – Gm – D# – F before landing in the new key of A# for a half-chorus or so, then up another half-step to the final key of B out till the end. It just keeps lifting you higher and higher, which is what you want a good ballad to do.
“Precious and Few” has particular memories for me. It was set to be the theme song for our high school’s Valentine’s Day dance my senior year. Our jazz band was playing the dance but we didn’t have a chart for the song. I kept waiting for the band director, who was not one of my biggest fans (nor was I one of his) to ask me to do an arrangement, but he disliked me so much he waited until about a week before the dance to break down and ask. I pulled together an arrangement in record time, we got to rehearse it once or twice, and that was that. (If I recall, I started the arrangement with an alto sax duet and then built it from there.) I had to borrow the single from an old girlfriend to transcribe the song; I remembered she had the 45 from when we dated several years earlier.
Back to Climax, a band that was a true one-hit wonder. “Precious and Few” was the band’s only hit and they only released one album, the one that contained their one hit song. The band, formed in Los Angeles in 1970, disbanded in 1976. Interestingly, the band’s lead singer (Sonny Geraci), guitarist (Walter Nims), and keyboardist (Nick D’Amico) were all members of another LA-based band, The Outsiders. You might remember their big hit, “Time Won’t Let Me,” which went to #5 in early 1966. The three left The Outsiders in 1970 and promptly formed a new band they eventually named Climax.
Geraci did a little more performing and recording on his own but ended up leaving the music business in 1980, going into his family’s home improvement business before joining the oldies tour as Sonny Geraci and the Outsiders. He died in 2017 after suffering a brain aneurysm. Nims passed away in 2000 after suffering a stroke, and Guttman died in a car accident in 2003.
