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Hamilton, Joe Frank & Reynolds was a 1970s AM soft rock trio from Los Angeles. The original members were Dan Hamilton (guitar/lead vocal), Joe Frank Carollo (bass/vocal), and Tommy Reynolds (multi-instrumentalist/vocal), all of whom had previously played in The T-Bones, a 1960s band noted for the instrumental hit "No Matter What Shape (Your Stomach's In)".
The group first hit the charts in 1971 with "Don't Pull Your Love." Reynolds left the group in late 1972, and was replaced by keyboardist Alan Dennison; however, the band still kept the name 'Hamilton, Joe Frank & Reynolds'. This revised line-up scored the group's biggest hit, 1975's "Fallin' in Love".
Hamilton, Joe Frank & Reynolds came together as a result of Hamilton's brother, musician/actor Judd Hamilton, being asked by Liberty Records producer, Joe Sareceno to form a "live" version of the studio group, The T-Bones. In November 1965, Judd Hamilton agreed, and asked brother Dan Hamilton to join him on lead guitar. Both had worked for, and been mentored by, The Ventures, who Saraceno also produced at the time. Once the Hamilton brothers officially became The T-Bones, they rounded out their initial road group with three other Los Angeles musicians, George Dee (aka Arnold Rosenthal) on bass, Richard Torres on keyboards/sax, and drummer Gene Pello.
They hit the road in January, 1966 to promote their first single "No Matter What Shape (Your Stomach's In)", an instrumental piece based upon a then-popular Alka-Seltzer TV commercial. Dee and Torres quickly decided to leave the band, and were replaced by Tommy Reynolds and Joe Frank Carollo. "No Matter What Shape (Your Stomach's In)" reached #3 in the US Billboard Hot 100 in March 1966. This revised version of The T-Bones toured the US and Japan. Their third and final album was not commercially successful and they disbanded near the end of 1967.
In 1970, Dunhill Records offered a recording contract to 'Hamilton, Joe Frank and Reynolds'. The following year "Don't Pull Your Love Out" peaked at #4 on Billboard chart, sold over one million copies, and was awarded a gold disc by the R.I.A.A. in August 1971. A couple more singles, "Annabella" and "Daisy Mae", were Top 40 hits, but two Hamilton, Joe Frank & Reynolds albums and several other singles failed to register any significant chart action.
Tommy Reynolds left the group in the latter days of 1972 to form a band called Shango, while Hamilton and Carollo continued recording and touring with various session musicians such as Larry Knechtel on keyboards and Joe Correro on drums, but their contract with Dunhill was cancelled. With the addition of Alan Dennison and Rick Shull, Hamilton, Joe Frank & Reynolds continued to perform locally.
Name change
In the latter part of 1974 they secured another recording deal with Playboy Records on the proviso that they retain the name Hamilton, Joe Frank, and Reynolds, even though Reynolds had left the group. Within another few months they released "Fallin' in Love", which reached #1 on the Billboard Hot 100. It also became their second gold disc, and their first and only song to appear in the UK Singles Chart.
They followed this success with "Winners & Losers" which reached #21 in 1976, but the next releases, "Don't Fight The Hands (That Need You)", "One Good Woman", and "Everyday Without You" all failed to reach the Top 40. For their second Playboy Records album the band changed their name to the more-accurate moniker of "Hamilton, Joe Frank & Dennison", but in 1980 they once again disbanded, this time permanently. Hamilton continued to write and publish songs, and also wrote and recorded a couple of film themes.
In the winter of 1993 Dan Hamilton became seriously and mysteriously ill, and was eventually diagnosed as suffering from Cushing's syndrome. He died in Los Angeles on December 23, 1994, at the age of 48.
Pop culture
In an episode of Mystery Science Theater 3000, the characters jokingly discussed how difficult it is for the average person to determine exactly how many people were in the group. Without seeing the name written down, one could assume it was a quartet ("Hamilton, Joe, Frank, and Reynolds"), a duo ("Hamilton Joe Frank" and Reynolds), a trio (consisting instead of "Hamilton Joe, Frank, and Reynolds"), or even a quintet ("Hamilton, Joe, Frank, Ann, Reynolds").
"Don't Pull Your Love Out" was featured at the beginning of The West Wing episode "In the Shadow of 2 Gunmen Part II". The song was also heard in When Harry Met Sally. "Fallin' in Love" appeared in The Hitcher.
A running joke from the radio personality Dan Ingram involved introducing the group as "Hamilton, Joe, Frank Reynolds and the entire Eyewitness News team," a reference to the band and a nod to ABC news anchor Frank Reynolds during his tenure as co-anchor of World News Tonight.
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