Frijid Pink formed when local Detroit-area cover band the Detroit Vibrations, which featured Richard Stevers and Tom Harris, were joined by guitarist Gary Ray Thompson and singer Tom Beaudry, who later took the stage name Kelly Green. The group spent their first two years touring throughout the Southeast Michigan/Detroit area and eventually signed with Parrot Records, although their first two 1969 singles, 'Tell Me Why' and 'Drivin' Blues', both failed to attract much attention, but their third 1969 effort, a distorted guitar-driven rendition of 'House Of The Rising Sun', reached the Top Ten on the US Billboard Hot 100 in the spring of 1970. This disc sold over one million copies, and peaked at No. 4 in the UK Singles Chart, although the band later admitted that the song was just using up time at the end of a recording session. Their self-titled debut record followed in 1970, as did their second release 'Defrosted', with virtually all of the album's writing being provided by the duo of Beaudry and Thompson. Subsequent singles included 'Sing A Song For Freedom' and a cover of 'Heartbreak Hotel', but they failed to match earlier successes, and when Beaudry and Thompson couldn't reform the group after a brief break-up, a new line-up was created featuring David Alexander (later Jon Wearing) on vocals, Craig Webb on guitar, and Larry Zelanka on keyboards. This version of the group recorded 1972's 'Earth Omen', but these new members would also be replaced by the time that the group re-entered the studio to record 1975's 'All Pink Inside' with Jo Baker now on vocals and Larry Popolizio playing the bass.
In 1981 Stevers and Harris joined forces with Arlen Viecelli, lead singer/guitarist of Salem Witchcraft, and Ray Gunn, guitarist of Virgin Dawn, to record an album at Sound Suite studio in Detroit. The music was written by Viecelli and Gunn and was set to be released in the summer of 1982. However, after failed negotiation attempts with various record companies by the group's manager, the group disbanded and the material was never released. Another line-up of the band formed in 2001, but it included no previous members of the group, and they recorded one album, 'Inner Heat', which was set for release in 2002, but after a single show the album was pulled by the record label, Dynasty Records. In 2005 yet another lineup formed featuring most of the original members, with drummer Stevers succeeding in getting bassist Tom Harris and vocalist Tom Beaudry together, along with guitarist Steve Dansby (from a late 1970's line-up of Cactus) and unknown keyboardist Larin Michaels. In late 2006, after another failed attempt to reunite the original members, Stevers put together yet another line-up, and over the course of the next five years they played a dozen or so gigs, and then recorded a self-titled album of re-recorded renditions of songs from the group's previous records, alongside some new original music. One final album was released in 2018, with 'On The Edge' including a re-recorded version of 'House Of The Rising Sun', but for this post we're going back to that unreleased 2002 record, so here is 'Inner Heat', from a version of Frijid Pink made up of Randy Mac on lead guitars, Fate Dotson on lead vocals, Terry Stafford on bass, Tim Adkins on keyboards, and Bill Gordon on drums, none of whom had ever played in the band before.
Track listing
01 God Gave Me You
02 Dangerous Words
03 Brother
04 For You
05 Fade Away
06 Can You See Me
07 Cold City
08 Inside Out
09 Lonely Amy
10 Change
11 It's Up to You
12 Layne
13 My Sanity
14 When I'm Needed
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