The Flashback of the 60s, 70s, 80s Greatest Music Hits

Oct 1, 2015

Boz Scaggs - Lowdown (1976)

Boz Scaggs - Lowdown (1976) On WLCY Radio
'70s #1 Hits on WLCY Radio




"Lowdown" is a hit song originally recorded in 1976 by Boz Scaggs for his mainstream-breakthrough album, Silk Degrees. The song was co-written by Scaggs and David Paich. Paich, along with fellow "Lowdown" session musicians David Hungate and Jeff Porcaro, would later help form the band Toto.

Initially, Silk Degrees received a lukewarm commercial response and, similarly, the first single released from the album, "It's Over" just barely cracked the top 40 on the Billboard Pop Singles chart, peaking at #38. One day, however, a Cleveland R&B radio DJ began playing "Lowdown" straight off the album. This was during a time period when DJs had much more say in what got played. Public response was very positive and soon Scaggs' record label, Columbia, sent the song to other R&B-oriented radio stations for airplay. It began receiving airplay on Top 40 Pop stations as well, and when it was officially released as a single in June 1976, it went on to become Scaggs' first major hit, eventually peaking at number three on the Billboard Pop Singles chart. It was also successful on the R&B and Disco Singles charts, peaking at number five on both and was also a minor hit in the UK, reaching #28. Scaggs is quoted as saying that the success of "Lowdown" was 'an accident' and that, even though it was their favorite from Silk Degrees, he and the others involved in the making of the song thought there 'wasn't a chance in hell' that the song would have been released as a single. The single was certified gold by the RIAA for sales of one million copies and would go on to win the Grammy Award for Best R&B song of 1976.

2 comments:

  1. On June 28th 1976, "Lowdown" by Boz Scaggs entered Billboard's Hot Top 100 chart at position #82; and October 3rd, 1976 it peaked at #3 (for 2 weeks) and spent 22 weeks on the Top 100...
    Was track one of side two on his seventh studio album, 'Silk Degrees', and the album peaked at #2 on Billboard's Top 200 Albums chart and spent 115 weeks on the chart...
    Three other tracks from the album also made the Top 100 chart; "It's Over" (#38), "What Can I Say" (#42), and "Lido Shuffle" (#11)...
    Boz, born William Royce Scaggs, celebrated his 70th birthday twenty days ago on June 8th, 2014.

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  2. I have loved the sound of this song since the day the album was promoted on TV ("Boz!") I'm just now learning the (to me) surprising and memorable lyrics. Now it all makes sense. I love this song.

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