Think was an American

studio A studio is a space set aside for creative work of any kind, including art, dance, music and theater. The word ''studio'' is derived from the , from , from ''studere'', meaning to study or zeal. Types Art The studio of any artist, esp ...

group A group is a number of persons or things that are located, gathered, or classed together. Groups of people * Cultural group, a group whose members share the same cultural identity * Ethnic group, a group whose members share the same ethnic iden ...

put together by producers and

songwriter A songwriter is a person who creates musical compositions or writes lyrics for songs, or both. The writer of the music for a song can be called a composer, although this term tends to be used mainly in the classical music genre and film scoring. ...

s Lou Stallman and Bobby Susser in 1971.

"Once You Understand"

The group released a single, "Once You Understand", on

Laurie Records Laurie Records was an American record label established in New York City in 1958, by brothers Robert and Gene Schwartz, and Allan I. Sussel. Among the recording artists on Laurie's roster were Dion and the Belmonts (both together and as separa ...

which consists mostly of a dialogue between teenagers and their parents over the growing

culture change Culture change is a term used in public policy making and in workplaces that emphasizes the influence of cultural capital on individual and community behavior. It has been sometimes called repositioning of culture, which means the reconstruction of ...

; the teenagers have liberal viewpoints, while their parents are more conservative. Throughout the record, the words "things get a little easier/ once you understand" are repeated. The song ends abruptly as a policeman calls the father with the news that his 17-year-old son is dead from an

overdose A drug overdose (overdose or OD) is the ingestion or application of a drug or other substance in quantities much greater than are recommended. Retrieved on September 20, 2014.

. "Once You Understand" started getting airplay in late 1971, hitting number one at stations KQV in

Pittsburgh Pittsburgh ( ) is a city in Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, United States, and its county seat. It is the List of municipalities in Pennsylvania#Municipalities, second-most populous city in Pennsylvania (after Philadelphia) and the List of Un ...

and

WIXY WIXY (100.3 FM) is a commercial radio station broadcasting a country music radio format. Licensed to Champaign, Illinois, United States, the station serves the Champaign-Urbana area. The station is owned by Saga Communications under licen ...

Cleveland Cleveland is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Cuyahoga County. Located along the southern shore of Lake Erie, it is situated across the Canada–U.S. maritime border and approximately west of the Ohio-Pennsylvania st ...

; nationally, it made it to No. 23 on the ''Billboard'' Hot 100

chart A chart (sometimes known as a graph) is a graphics, graphical representation for data visualization, in which "the data is represented by symbols, such as bars in a bar chart, lines in a line chart, or slices in a pie chart". A chart can repres ...

in early 1972, even though some stations banned the song for its reference to drugs. The flip side of the single, "Gather" is a poem sung about life being short. (In later decades, "Once You Understand" was often

sampled Sample or samples may refer to: * Sample (graphics), an intersection of a color channel and a pixel * Sample (material), a specimen or small quantity of something * Sample (signal), a digital discrete sample of a continuous analog signal * Sample ...

hip hop Hip-hop or hip hop (originally disco rap) is a popular music genre that emerged in the early 1970s from the African-American community of New York City. The style is characterized by its synthesis of a wide range of musical techniques. Hip- ...

house A house is a single-unit residential building. It may range in complexity from a rudimentary hut to a complex structure of wood, masonry, concrete or other material, outfitted with plumbing, electrical, and heating, ventilation, and air c ...

, and

jungle jungle is land covered with dense forest and tangled vegetation, usually in tropical climates. Application of the term has varied greatly during the past century. Etymology The word ''jungle'' originates from the Sanskrit word ''jaṅgala'' ...

artists An artist is a person engaged in an activity related to creating art, practicing the arts, or demonstrating the work of art. The most common usage (in both everyday speech and academic discourse) refers to a practitioner in the visual arts o ...

.) The song also peaked at number 76 in Australia. The record was re-released in early 1974, when the partial broadcast ban was lifted and peaked at No. 53 on the ''Billboard'' Hot 100.

Later releases

Laurie released another single from Think, "It's Not the World, It's the People" b/w "Who Are You to Tell Me What to Do", as well as an album, ''Encounter "Once You Understand"'', but neither was a hit. Stallman later produced a series of educational albums (such as ''Pre-Drivers' Education Through Music'') in the 1970s, while Susser, who had previously helmed recordings by such artists as

Trini Lopez Trinidad López III (May 15, 1937 – August 11, 2020), known as Trini Lopez, was an American singer and guitarist. His first album included a cover version of Pete Seeger's " If I Had a Hammer", which earned a gold disc for him. His other ...

and Robert John, has had a fruitful career recording children's songs. This group is not to be confused with a West Coast-based band of the same name, that recorded two singles for

Columbia Records Columbia Records is an American reco ...

in 1968 and 1969.

References

American pop music groups Laurie Records artists {{US-band-stub