Mercy was Jack Sigler, Brenda McNish, Debbie Lewis, Ronnie Caudill, Ann Sigler, John Hudson, Roy Schultz, and Lou Vasenda - mostly former students of Brandon High in Brandon, near Tampa, Florida.
Mercy is ready for their close-up
Singer Jack Sigler's father managed to hook up the group with a movie producer in town to film crash-and-burn flick Fireball Jungle. Scene from "Fireball Jungle"
Mercy performed two songs for the film, which are the two songs on this 45 - "Love (Can Make You Happy)" and "Fireball". "Love" ended up being a hit, but unfortunatly, by the time this song was a hit Jack Sigler had joined the military and the band was falling apart. So there was scrambling to put together a touring group and other assorted nonsense.
Sundi Records was owned by Gil Cabot (Gilbert A. Cabot, who was also responsible for the Paris Tower label), and was based in Tampa, Florida, until about 1971, when Cabot moved the company to Hollywood, California.
Mr. Cabot himself
The label seems to have been active between 1967 and 1972. For a super detailed look at the history of Sundi Records, check out the BSNPubs site here. It turns out "Love" was the only hit the label ever had, and it was responsible for a distribution deal with Jamie/Guyden, a copy-cat group from Warner Brothers, and plenty of legal troubles not resolved until the 90s. All of the juicy details are available on the aforementioned site."Love (Can Make You Happy)" is pretty easy to find on "One Hit Wonder" kinda comps, but the flip side seems to have been forgotten for some reason, which is a damn shame. Listen to this clip and decide for yourself:
Movie looks terrible, would have been better off doing a complete music video of Mercy. Love Mercy!! Too bad they didn't go places. How cool was it to have Love Can Make You Happy rocket to the top.
ReplyDeleteWould love to hear on Sigler thought after going into the military when it took off.