The “Golden Hits Of The 70s”
Main MenuConcept Refinement The Author..Wayne JancikGolden Age Of The 50sGolden Age Of The 60s1970s and There After
PETE WINGFIELD
“EIGHTEEN WITH A BULLET”
(PETE WINGFIELD)
Island 026
No. 15 November 29, 1975
.
.
.
Pete was born in England, May 7, 1948. Early on, he was mesmerized by American black music.
Wingfield was educated at Sussex University, where he wrote R & B articles and published his own fanzine
called Soul Beat. “Graduated, I did,” said Pete in an exclusive interview. “Get that in there; whole band
[Jellybread) did….” Pete played keyboards in college bands like the Cossacks, Pete’s Disciples, and then
Jellybread. The latter group (named after a cherished Booker T & The MGs instrumental)–consisting of
Wingfield, bassist John Best, drummer Chris Waters, and guitarist Paul Butler. When Jellybread
crumbled, Pete joined the Keef Hartley Band for the 1972 session that produced the Seventy Second
Brave album.
.
Pete formed the studio-only Olympic Runners in 1974 with producer and Blue Horizon Records chief Mike
Vernon on harmonica and percussion, DeLisle Harper on bass, Joe Jammer (ne Joseph Wright) on guitar,
and Glen LeFleur on drums. For the remainder of the decade, Wingfield and company churned out a pile
of pumped-up 45s and five LPs. The band never cracked the stateside pop listings but did have a string of
R & B chart-makers from 1974 to 1976 with insistent titles like “Do It Over” (#72, 1974) b/w “Put Your
Money Where Your Mouth Is” (#72, 1974), “Grab It” (#73, 1975), “Drag It Over Here” (#92, 1975), and
“Party Time Is Here to Stay” (#97, 1976).
.
“There’s talk of reviving the name, reissuing the first two, three albums on CD,” said Wingfield, “but not
the band itself.
.
In 1975, Pete got an offer from Island Records to do a solo platter. “I got naked and did this album [billed,
Breakfast Special, in the U.S.]; understand, it’s not that I did this hit and they let me do an album. I
played grand piano, Hammond organ, clarinet, melodica, mellotron, synthesizer, stylophone, and made
the tea. All the voices are mine, though I don’t have the greatest voice. On ‘Eighteen With a Bullet,’ I
pitched the bass voice in the wrong key, and we had to speed up the tape, slightly.
.
“‘Eighteen,’ I wrote years before–about ’72–with the Dells in mind. Our paths didn’t cross, and they never
got to know of it; though I understand Pookie Hudson & The Spaniels do the song, currently.” “Eighteen”
was a nostalgic number with double-entendre lyrics. Stranger than fiction–on November 11, this first
Wingfield single hit number 18 on the Hot 100 chart–with a bullet.
.
“The next single didn’t do anything, I know that. ‘Bubbling Under’ it was called…. Then, there was
another one–my personal favorite…. That flopped. Boom, it went. Ah, ‘Scratchy 45s; about the glories of
New Orleans rhythm & blues. I made a second album–Love, Bombs and Dizzy Spells–but they wouldn’t
let me release it, here, there, or anywhere….”
.
Waxing no further waves, Wingfield returned to the shadows. Pete has toured as a back-up pianist and
singer for Maggie Bell, the Zombies’ Colin Bluestone, Van Morrison, and as music director for the Everly
Brothers. Pete has recorded with Bloodstone, the Chimes, the Hollies, B.B. King, FREDDY KING,
Lightnin’ Slim, Memphis Slim, IAN MATTHEWS, NAZARETH, AI Stewart, Jimmy Witherspoon …
Beginning in the early ’80s, his attention turned to producing: the BELLE STARS, DEXY’S MIDNIGHT
RUNNERS, Hot Chocolate, the KANE GANG, Alison Moyet, the SUGARHILL GANG, and Mel Brooks.
.
In the mid-‘SOs, , Pete found time to create the pseudo-group Band of Gold, responsible for the “Love
Songs Are Back-Medley” (#64, 1984), containing tasty tid-bits from “Have You Seen Her;’ “Betcha by
Golly Wow;’ “You Make Me Feel Brand New.”
.