When the Allman Brothers Band broke into the Billboard Sizzling 100 of August 12, 1972, they launched us to an previous good friend. Her identify was “Melissa,” a tune that was already discovering an enormous viewers as a part of their Eat A Peach album of that 12 months. Typically referred to incorrectly as “Sweet Melissa,” it was a brand new model of an vital composition from the pre-ABB days of Duane and Gregg Allman.
Gregg’s attractively melodic piece was first recorded in 1968 when the brothers had been a part of the Jackson, Florida band the 31st Of February. That rendition, which additionally featured future Allmans drummer Butch Vehicles, wasn’t launched till it appeared on the album Duane & Gregg Allman in 1972. It’s the primary recording to characteristic Duane’s massively evocative slide guitar taking part in.
If you examine that studying of “Melissa” to the one on Eat A Peach, produced by the good Tom Dowd, you possibly can hear that the tune underwent some delicate retooling, together with a slight key change and the addition of acoustic guitar. Nevertheless it was, in fact, poignant for tragic causes.
Following Duane’s dying in 1971, Gregg performed “Melissa” at his funeral. Then, after supervisor Phil Walden purchased again the rights to a tune that Gregg had bought after writing it, the ABB recorded it for the brand new album in Duane’s honor, with Dickey Betts taking the mellifluous lead.
“Melissa” was the third Allman Brothers Band single to enter the US chart, after “Revival (Love Is Everywhere)” and “Ain’t Wastin’ Time No More.” Like these releases, which peaked at Nos.92 and 77 respectively, it wasn’t a significant chart merchandise. After debuting at No.90, it spent just one extra week on the survey, at No.86.
Nevertheless it’s a tune that’s liked by devotees of the Allmans for its class, its half within the evolution of the band’s sound and its private significance to Duane and Gregg. The observe’s latter-day inclusion in a cellphone industrial and within the 2005 film Brokeback Mountain have helped to maintain “Melissa“ in our minds.
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