Champagne Jam Spooky Atlanta Rhythm Section

Champagne Jam Album: Champagne Jam (1978)
Spooky Album: Underdog (1979)
by Atlanta Rhythm Section

Track 4 "Champagne Jam" (Buie, Cobb, Nix)
The last of the first generation of Dixie boogie bands, the Atlanta Rhythm Section continues on its predictable but still enjoyable path, bringing with Champagne Jam a few fresh insights into the state of the blues-rock-boogie fusion."

Underdog is an album by the Atlanta Rhythm Section, released in 1979 by Polydor Records. It is their last album with drummer Robert Nix who left the band near the end of 1979.

The album contained two songs which reached the top 20 of the Billboard Hot 100 singles chart, "Do It or Die" and "Spooky". The latter was a re-recording of the 1968 number three hit for Classics IV, a pop rock group whose line up included members who later joined Atlanta Rhythm Section.

In the spring of 1970, three former members of the Candymen (Rodney Justo, Dean Daughtry and Robert Nix) and the Classics IV (Daughtry and James B. Cobb Jr.) became the session band for the newly opened Studio One recording studio in Doraville, Georgia, near Atlanta.

After playing on other artists' recordings, the Atlanta Rhythm Section was christened in May 1970, with Justo (singer), Barry Bailey (guitar), Paul Goddard (bass), Daughtry (keyboards), Nix (drums) and Cobb (guitar). Bailey and Goddard had played together in several groups and, like the Candymen, had also backed up Roy Orbison. The group's name was thought up by Studio One's owner Buddy Buie and his two partners in the venture, Cobb and Bill Lowery.

Signed by Decca Records, the band released their first album, Atlanta Rhythm Section, in January 1972. Due to the record's limited commercial success, Justo quit the band, relocating to New York City as a session singer. He was replaced by Ronnie Hammond, assistant to Studio One's engineer, Rodney Mills. Mills also later worked as the band's road manager and sound man and Buie, also the band's manager and producer as well as co-owner of Studio One, is listed first on almost all of their songwriting credits. With Hammond on board, the band's second release, Back Up Against the Wall (February 1973), also failed to sell and Decca dumped ARS from their roster.

Buie's manager, Jeff Franklin, who was based in New York and had gotten the group the deal with Decca, was then able to get ARS signed to Polydor for their third release, Third Annual Pipe Dream, in August 1974. As a special thank-you to Bailey, Daughtry, and Goddard for appearing on his pioneering 1970 Christian Rock album Mylon, We Believe, Mylon LeFevre performed on one of the Pipe Dream tracks, "Jesus Hearted People" (Buie, Bailey, Goddard, Daughtry and Rodney Mills had all been regular players at Master Sound and LeFevre's studio, LeFevre Sound, before they built Studio One). Pipe Dream yielded the band's first hit single, "Doraville", which peaked at #35 and pulled the album up to #74 on Billboard's Top 200 by November 1974.

The band's next two releases, Dog Days (August 1975) and Red Tape (April 1976), sold in even lesser quantities, but ARS toured extensively in 1975–1976, with numerous shows in the South, Northeast and Midwest. On July 18, 1975, the band appeared with the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra during an outdoor show in Atlanta in Chastain Park; in August, they opened for The Who at the Gator Bowl in Jacksonville, Florida and for The Rolling Stones at the Municipal Auditorium in West Palm Beach, Florida.

The increased exposure paid off as the group's next album, A Rock and Roll Alternative (December 1976), rose to #13 on the Billboard chart and was certified gold in the spring of 1977. The debut single from the record, "So in to You", peaked at #7 on April 30.

On September 3, 1977, ARS played their biggest show yet, the Dog Day Rockfest at Atlanta's Grant Field on the campus of Georgia Tech. Heart and Foreigner were the opening acts and Bob Seger and the Silver Bullet Band co-headlined with ARS.

In January 1978 ARS released what would turn out to be its most successful album, Champagne Jam, which led off with the song "Large Time", a tribute to Lynyrd Skynyrd, some of whom had lost their lives in a plane crash the previous October. Champagne Jam became their biggest-selling album, selling over a million and certified platinum. The album provided two more hits for the band, "Imaginary Lover" (#7) and "I'm Not Gonna Let It Bother Me Tonight" (#14).

On June 24, 1978, the band appeared at the Knebworth Festival in Knebworth, England before a crowd of 60,000 on a bill that included Genesis, Jefferson Starship, Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers, Brand X, Devo and Roy Harper.

On July 1, 1978, the band played before more than 80,000 at Texxas Jam at the Cotton Bowl in Dallas, Texas, with various other artists including Walter Egan, Van Halen, Eddie Money, Head East, Journey, Heart, Ted Nugent and Aerosmith. On August 26, 1978, it was Canada Jam at Mosport Park in Bowmanville, Ontario, Canada, before their largest audience yet (over 110,000) with the Doobie Brothers and the Commodores, among others. The following week, ARS had a rock festival of their own, Champagne Jam, at Grant Field at Georgia Tech on September 3, 1978, which also included Santana, the Doobie Brothers, Eddie Money, Mose Jones and Mother's Finest.

Three weeks later, they appeared on the White House lawn at President Jimmy Carter's invitation for his son Chip's 28th birthday party. The band had previously met Carter while he was still governor of Georgia during a press junket for their third album and had campaigned for him in 1976 during his run for the presidency.

The eighth Atlanta Rhythm Section album, Underdog, was released in June 1979 and produced Top 20 hits "Do It or Die" (#19) and "Spooky" (#17), a remake of Cobb's and Buie's 1968 Classics IV hit.

Early in 1979, drummer Robert Nix, the group's primary lyricist, had a falling out with manager/producer Buie over the group's musical direction. Nix wished to move the band in a more rocking direction while Buie was content with their current approach, which incorporated the mellower ballads. The rest of the band's dissatisfaction with Nix's excessive "lifestyle choices" sealed his fate and he was replaced by Roy Yeager, who had previously played for Lobo.

Champagne Jam II, on July 7, 1979, at Georgia Tech featured ARS, Aerosmith, the Cars, Dixie Dregs, Mother's Finest and Whiteface. That October, an ARS live performance from Studio One was released as the double live set Are You Ready.

Ronnie Hammond – vocals, background vocals
J.R. Cobb – guitar, electric guitar, vocals
Barry Bailey – electric guitar
Dean Daughtry – keyboards
Paul Goddard – bass guitar
Robert Nix – drums, background vocals
Buddy Buie – vocals
Paul Davis – vocals