Hamilton, Joe Frank & Reynolds were a 1970s soft rocktrio from Los Angeles. The original members were Dan Hamilton, Joe Frank Carollo, and Tommy Reynolds, all of whom had previously played in The T-Bones, a 1960s band noted for the instrumentalhit "No Matter What Shape." 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, but the band kept the name 'Hamilton, Joe Frank & Reynolds' until 1976. This revised line-up performed the group's biggest hit, 1975's "Fallin' in Love."
Early group
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 had been mentored by, The Ventures, whom Saraceno also produced at the time. Once the Hamilton brothers officially became The T-Bones, they rounded out their initial road group with three Los Angeles musicians, George Dee on bass, Richard Torres on keyboards/sax, and drummer Gene Pello.
New line-up
They hit the road in January 1966 to promote their first single "No Matter What Shape," 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 " reached #3 on the USBillboard 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.
Big hit
In 1970, Dunhill Records offered a recording contract to the newly formed 'Hamilton, Joe Frank and Reynolds.' The following year "Don't Pull Your Love," arranged by Ben Benay, hit #1 on the Cash Box Top 100, peaked at #4 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart, sold over one million US copies, and was awarded a gold record by the R.I.A.A. in August 1971. A couple more singles charted, but two Hamilton, Joe Frank & Reynolds albums and several other singles failed to register any significant chart action. Tommy Reynolds left the group in late 1972, 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 and later years
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 only song to appear in the UK Singles Chart, where it was licensed to Pye Records and reached #33 in the autumn of 1975. They followed this success with "Winners & Losers," which reached #21 in 1976, but the next releases, "Don't Fight the Hands " and "Everyday Without You" both failed to reach the Top 40. For their second Playboy Records album in 1976, the band changed their name to the more-accurate "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, 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.
Material loss
On June 25, 2019, The New York Times Magazine listed Hamilton, Joe Frank & Reynolds among hundreds of artists whose material was reportedly destroyed in the 2008 Universal fire.
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, a duo, a trio, or even a quintet. "Don't Pull Your Love" was featured at the beginning of The West Wing episode "In the Shadow of 2 Gunmen Part II." The song was also heard in the movie When Harry Met Sally.... It was also featured in the 2017 DC animated feature Batman and Harley Quinn. "Fallin' in Love" appeared in the 2007 film The Hitcher. A running joke from radio personality Dan Ingram, while a deejay at WABC AM, 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.
