Blood, Sweat & Tears

Blood, Sweat & Tears was an Canadian-American rock and roll group formed in New York City in 1967. Al Kooper, Jim Fielder, Fred Lipsius,

Blood, Sweat & Tears was an Canadian-American rock and roll group formed in New York City in 1967. Al Kooper, Jim Fielder, Fred Lipsius, Randy Brecker, Jerry Weiss, Dick Halligan, Steve Katz,Bill Tillman and Bobby Colomby formed the original incarnation of the band, which was named after a 1963 album by Johnny Cash. Kooper was bandleader, having insisted on that position based on his experiences with Blues Project, his previous band, which had been organized as an egalitarian collective and fallen apart.

The group debuted at Cafe Au Go Go in New York City in 1967, opening for Moby Grape; the band was a hit with the audience, who liked the innovative fusion of jazz with psychedelic rock and roll. After signing to Columbia Records, the group released one of the most critically acclaimed albums of the 1960s, Child is Father to the Man. Without any pop-oriented hit singles, though, the album's sales were sluggish. While sales slowly picked up, personality conflicts started tearing apart the band. Colomby and Katz wanted to move Kooper to the organ exclusively and hire a vocalist for the group. With the debut album slowly achieving critical mass, Kooper left the group to become a record producer for Columbia. Randy Brecker and Jerry Weiss also quit, joining Horace Silver's band and Ambergris, respectively.