Silver was an American 1970s

country rock Country rock is a music genre that fuses rock and country. It was developed by rock musicians who began to record country-flavored records in the late 1960s and early 1970s. These musicians recorded rock records using country themes, vocal sty ...

band, best known for their 1976 pop hit " Wham Bam Shang-A-Lang," written by country songwriter Rick Giles. The song peaked in charts in USA, Canada and Australia.

Members

Members of the group included John Batdorf (formerly of Batdorf & Rodney), lead vocals and guitar;

Brent Mydland Brent Mydland (October 21, 1952 – July 26, 1990) was an American keyboardist, songwriter and singer. He was a member of the rock band The Grateful Dead from 1979 until his death in 1990, a longer tenure than any other keyboardist in the ...

(later of the

Grateful Dead The Grateful Dead was an American rock music, rock band formed in Palo Alto, California, in 1965. Known for their eclectic style that fused elements of rock, blues, jazz, Folk music, folk, country music, country, bluegrass music, bluegrass, roc ...

), keyboards and vocals;

Tom Leadon Tom Leadon ( ; September 16, 1952 – March 22, 2023) was an American musician. He was one of the founding members of Tom Petty's original band, Mudcrutch, and remained its guitarist following its revival in 2007. He was the brother of Berni ...

(brother of the

Eagles Eagle is the common name for the golden eagle, bald eagle, and other birds of prey in the family of the Accipitridae. Eagles belong to several groups of Genus, genera, some of which are closely related. True eagles comprise the genus ''Aquila ( ...

Bernie Leadon Bernard Matthew Leadon III ( ; born July 19, 1947) is an American singer, musician, songwriter, and founding member of the Eagles, for which he was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1998. Prior to the Eagles, he was a member of thr ...

and a former member of

Tom Petty Thomas Earl Petty (October 20, 1950October 2, 2017) was an American singer, songwriter, and musician. He was the leader and frontman of the Rock music, rock bands Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers and Mudcrutch and a member of the late 1980s sup ...

's early group Mudcrutch), bass guitar and vocals; Greg Collier, guitar and vocals; and Harry Stinson, drums and percussion.

Phil Hartman Philip Edward Hartman (; September 24, 1948 – May 28, 1998) was a Canadian-American comedian, actor, screenwriter and graphic designer. Hartman was born in Brantford, Ontario, and his family moved to the United States when he w ...

designed the

cover art Cover art is a type of artwork presented as an illustration or photograph on the outside of a published product, such as a book (often on a dust jacket), magazine, newspaper ( tabloid), comic book, video game ( box art), music album ( album ar ...

for ''Silver'', the quintet's only album. The

band Band or BAND may refer to: Places *Bánd, a village in Hungary * Band, Iran, a village in Urmia County, West Azerbaijan Province, Iran * Band, Mureș, a commune in Romania * Band-e Majid Khan, a village in Bukan County, West Azerbaijan Province, ...

recordings A record, recording or records may refer to: An item or collection of data Computing * Record (computer science), a data structure ** Record, or row (database), a set of fields in a database related to one entity ** Boot sector or boot record, re ...

were released on the Arista

record label "Big Three" music labels A record label or record company is a brand or trademark of Sound recording and reproduction, music recordings and music videos, or the company that owns it. Sometimes, a record label is also a Music publisher, ...

Career

The single's title, " Wham Bam," was shown as "Wham Bam Shang-A-Lang" and peaked at #16 on the ''Billboard'' Hot 100 the week of October 2, 1976. It is ranked as the 70th biggest hit of 1976. Arista executives gave the band the song to record after concluding that none of the other tracks on the album they produced had single potential. Arista head

Clive Davis Clive Jay Davis (born April 4, 1932) is an American record producer, A&R executive, record executive, and lawyer. He has won five Grammy Awards and was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, as a non-performer, in 2000. From 1967 to 1 ...

himself co-produced the single with Tom Sellers; the rest of the album was produced by Sellers and Silver. Chicago radio superstation WLS, which gave "Wham Bam" much airplay, ranked the song as the 80th biggest hit of 1976. It peaked at number eight on their surveys of October 23 and 30, 1976. Arista released two further singles by the band, "Musician (It's Not an Easy Life)" and "Memory" which featured the non-album track "So Much for the Past", written by Brent Mydland, on the B-side.

Aftermath

Silver broke up in 1978. Mydland joined the

in 1979, and was the band's longest-tenured keyboardist, remaining with the group until his death in 1990 at the age of 37. Mydland was inducted into the

Rock and Roll Hall of Fame The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame (RRHOF), also simply referred to as the Rock Hall, is a museum and hall of fame located in downtown Cleveland, Ohio, United States, on the shore of Lake Erie. The museum documents the history of rock music and the ...

as a member of the Dead in 1994. Leadon rejoined Mudcrutch when that band reunited in 2007. Stinson became a country session musician, and was a member of

Steve Earle Stephen Fain Earle (; born January 17, 1955) is an American country, rock, and folk singer-songwriter. He began his career as a songwriter in Nashville and released his first EP in 1982. Earle's breakthrough album was his 1986 debut album '' ...

's backing band The Dukes in the mid 1980s. The band can be heard in the 2017

Marvel Studios Marvel Studios, LLC, formerly known as Marvel Films, is an American film and television production company. Marvel Studios is the creator of the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU), a media franchise and shared universe of films and television ser ...

sequel film, ''

Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 ''Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2'' is a 2017 American superhero film based on the Marvel Comics superhero team Guardians of the Galaxy (2008 team), Guardians of the Galaxy, produced by Marvel Studios and distributed by Walt Disney Studios M ...

'', as "Wham Bam Shang-A-Lang" is included on the movie's soundtrack.

Discography

Studio albums

Singles

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Silver (band) Rock music groups from California Musical groups from Los Angeles American country rock groups