Sugarloaf – "Green-Eyed Lady" (1970)

Green-eyed lady feels life I never see

Setting suns and lonely lovers free

(Say what?)

In a recent 2 or 3 lines, I noted that there are a lot of songs about blue eyes but only a few about green eyes – which are the kind that yours truly has.

An old friend of mine promptly took me to task for overlooking what is without a doubt the greatest of all green-eyed songs – to wit, Sugarloaf’s 1970 hit single, “Green-Eyed Lady.”

I can’t imagine how I could have forgotten “Green-Eyed Lady” – it was released the same month I started college, and I vividly remember hearing it many times on the radio that fall.

The other two songs I associate with the first days of college are Free’s “All Right now,” and Grand Funk Railroad’s “I’m Your Captain (Closer to Home),” both of which have been featured on 2 or 3 lines.

Now it’s Sugarloaf’s turn to have its day in the 2 or 3 lines sun.

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In 1968, keyboardist Jerry Corbetta and guitarist Bob Webber formed a band called Chocolate Hair.  Just before the release of their first album, the suits at their record label asked them to choose a new name – they were afraid that Chocolate Hair might be interpreted as racist.

I don’t know if the name Chocolate Hair was racist, but I do know that it is BY FAR the worst name for a band I’ve ever heard.

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“Green-Eyed Lady” made it all the way to #3 on the Billboard “Hot 100,” while the group’s eponymous debut album eventually climbed to the #24 spot on the album charts:

Sugarloaf was (briefly) kind of a big deal.  The group opened for the Who, Deep Purple, and Eric Burdon & War (among others) in 1970-71.  In March 1971, they performed at the Grammy Awards “after” party along with Aretha Franklin and Three Dog Night.

But the band’s second album failed to make the crack the top 100, and the two singles from that album flopped.  

Eventually everyone except Jerry Corbetta left the band by the end of 1972.

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The following summer, Corbetta cobbled together a bunch of hirelings and went on tour as Sugarloaf.  He opened for Rare Earth on July 2, 1973, in my hometown – Joplin, Missouri.  (The truly awful Dr. Hook & the Medicine Show – best known for  “Sylvia’s Mother” and “The Cover of the Rolling Stone” – was also on the bill.)

Rare Earth – which was the first successful all-white band that Motown Records signed – had three top ten hits between 1969 and 1971, but was on its way down by the time the band played in Joplin . . . which explains why it played in Joplin in 1973.

The concert was held outdoors at Joplin’s 1934-vintage Junge Stadium, which seated about 3500 people.  (I saw many high school football games there.)

Junge Stadium

But rather than shelling out the $4.50 ticket price, my friends and I stood outside and listened to the concert from behind the chain-link fence that circled the stadium.

Sure, we were a long way from the stage, so we couldn’t see a lot.  Also, we were positioned at a 90-degree angle to the direction the speakers were pointing, so we couldn’t hear much either.  But $4.50 would pay for a whole week’s worth of 3.2% beer at the bars in Galena, Kansas, where it was legal for 18-year-olds to drink.  (Beer went for 25 or 35 cents a quart in Galena in 1973.)

I don’t remember much about the Junge Stadium show.  But I’m pretty sure we hung around long enough to hear “Green-Eyed Lady” before heading to Galena that night.  

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Click here to listen to the album version of “Green-Eyed Lady” – I love it to death, despite the incoherent lyrics.

Click on the link below to buy the song from Amazon: