It’s still horn rock week and we’re past the big names, BS&T and Chicago and the like. Looking now at more obscure bands, today’s classic horn rock song of the day is “Vehicle” by the little remembered group, the Ides of March. The song was actually released in March of 1970 and went all the way to #2 on the Billboard Hot 100.
I think it’s funny that so many people hear “Vehicle” and think it’s by Blood, Sweat & Tears. They never think it’s by Chicago. I suppose Jim Peterik’s gravelly-voiced vocals sound a little bit like BS&T’s David Clayton-Thomas, but the tune and the arrangement, to my ears, anyway, sound nothing like BS&T’s more sophisticated horn charts. I suppose to the general public, one horn band is as good as the next. Philistines.
Interestingly, there was a major goof during the song’s recording. Fourteen seconds of the track were accidentally erased, starting at the end of the second chorus. Engineers were able to splice in that same bit from an earlier take, however, salvaging the recording. Jim Peterik recalls what happened:
“I remember that kind of feeling of experimentation. I also remember 14 seconds of the master of ‘Vehicle’ being erased! We were doing background vocals and suddenly 14 seconds were gone from the master. No way to retrieve it. The second engineer had hit the wrong button. We spent two hours thinking our career is over, because at this time we knew we had something. Luckily, there was a Take One. They inserted 14 seconds of Take One and I redid the vocals. And now I hear it every time. From the second ‘Great God in heaven'”‘ all the way up to the guitar solo—-when you hear how abrupt that first note of the solo sounds, that’s an edit.”
The Ides of March were pretty much a one-hit wonder, although they did have a second (minor) hit later in 1970 with “Superman” (#64 on the Hot 100). Like Chicago and the Buckinghams, the Ides hailed from the greater Chicagoland area. They formed as a typical garage band way back in 1964 called the Shon-Dels, changed their name in 1966, and added horns a few years later. They signed with Warner Brothers in 1970 and recorded and released “Vehicle” shortly after. Nothing much followed, and the band broke up in 1973.
That wasn’t the end of things for lead singer Jim Peterik, however. Mr. Peterik stayed in the business and went on to join the band Survivor, which had a number-one hit in 1982 with “Eye of the Tiger.” In 1990, Peterik and several of the Ides’ original members reformed the band, and that lineup continues to perform today. Great God in heaven!
