Your mostly forgotten horn-rock song of the day is “Pretty Lady,” by the also seemingly forgotten band, Lighthouse. Lighthouse was a Canadian band, kind of like Chicago or BS&T but with strings (two cellos and two violas) added on top of the horns (two trumpets, alto sax, and trombone, just like BS&T). This song was off their 1973 Can You Feel It? album, produced by Jimmy Ienner. “Pretty Lady” only reached #53 on the American Billboard Hot 100, but it placed a lot higher on the Canadian charts—#9 on the CHUM Top Singles List, #5 on Billboard’s Top Canadian Singles, and #2 on Cash Box’s Top Canadian Singles. It’s a wonderful tune and production, with a memorable melody and fun interlocking horns-and-strings arrangement, along with a nice little arpeggiated piano part in the last verse.
Lighthouse was led by drummer and lead vocalist Skip Prokop, who also wrote most of their songs, including this one. Mr. Prokop had previously played drums with Al Kooper, who went on to form the original version of Blood, Sweat & Tears. Prokop also played on sessions for Janis Joplin, Carlos Santana, and Peter, Paul & Mary before forming Lighthouse in 1969.
You might not remember “Pretty Lady,” as it didn’t get much radio play at the time, but you’ve probably heard the group’s bigger hit, 1971’s “One Fine Morning,” which reached #24 on the Billboard Hot 100. I was a big fan of horn rock bands back then, and I really liked Lighthouse for their sunny pop melodies and intricate arrangements. (Those strings added a really interesting layer to things.) They never made it as big as Chicago or BS&T, at least here in the States, but they should have.
The band broke up in 1975, the whole horn rock thing having run its course (and Chicago having evolved into an adult contemporary ballad-making machine). There were a couple of brief reunions in the 1980s and 1990s, and Lighthouse got some attention on their 40th anniversary in 2009, but their glory days were short-lived and long gone.
Skip Prokop went on to a relatively normal career in radio and advertising sales, and passed away in 2017, aged 73. The band’s original saxophonist, Howard Shore, went on to front the original house band for Saturday Night Live and later had a long and successful career as a film composer; he wrote the soundtracks for Big, The Silence of the Lambs, Mrs. Doubtfire, Ed Wood, The Departed, and all three of the Lord of the Rings films.
