Nice way to kick off a career! Florida’s Bellamy Brothers hit #1 this day in 1976 on Billboard with their biggest hit, “Let Your Love Flow.” Remarkably, although the duo of David and Howard “Homer” are still going and have released 37 studio albums, they’ve never had another mainstream top 20 hit…although they’ve been staples of country music radio where they’ve notched another 10 #1’s at home with titles like “If I Said You Had A Beautiful Body, Would You Hold It Against Me?”, “Do You Love As Good As You Look?” and “Redneck Girl“.
Says Howard Bellamy, “it’s become a standard, basically. I wish another of those would come along.” The brothers each play guitar and David also is proficient on fiddle and piano. they made their money to get to L.A. (where they signed with Curb Records, then a division of MGM) from quirky singer Jim Stafford. David co-wrote his song “Spiders & Snakes” and Howard was Stafford’s manager. “Let Your Love Flow” was written by a friend of Neil Diamond’s, Larry Williams, but when Neil turned it down, as did Johnny Rivers, so it was the Bellamy’s for the taking. No coincidence then that Diamond’s backing band filled out the sound in the studio for the pair.
The song also was a hit in Canada, where it got to #3 and Britain, where it made #7 then saw it return to the charts in 2008 after being used in a credit card commercial. BMI report the song was one of the 100 most-played songs of the 20th Century. The brothers are inducted into the Florida Artists Hall of Fame, as well as the German Country Music Hall of Fame, where they join Johnny Cash as the only Americans. And no, we didn’t have a clue that Germany would have a Country Hall of Fame either!