The Smithereens and Grand Funk Railroad

The band formed in 1969 as a trio consisting of guitarist/vocalist Mark Farner, drummer Don Brewer, and bassist Mel Schacher. The band was strongly influenced by the hard rock trio Cream, and based much of their style on them. Grand Funk Railroad started to gain mainstream attention when they played the Atlanta Pop Festival in 1969. Due to the success of their performance at the festival they were asked to return in 1970. The band released their debut album “On Time” in 1969. The album contained the single “Time Machine” and went on to reach gold status.

In 1970 the band released their second studio album “Grand Funk” – aka “The Red Album”. Although the album experienced a lack of airplay and critical acclaim, the album sold quite well. Singles from the album include a cover of The Animals’ “Inside Looking Out”, “Got This Thing On the Move”, and “In Need”. The year 1970 also showed the band releasing their third album “Closer to Home”, which had the single “I’m Your Captain (Closer to Home)”. The song is the band’s longest recorded song to date and contains elements of progressive rock. In 1971 the band broke the Beatles’ record of selling out Shea Stadium in 72 hours. That same year they also released two albums: “Survival” and “E Pluribus Funk”.

Grand Funk Railroad expanded their sound by adding keyboardist Craig Frost to their lineup in 1972, which allowed the band to adopt a more R&B and pop style as opposed to their traditional hard rock sound. The band’s 1972 album “Phoenix” was the first studio album with Craig Frost and it contained the single “Rock & Roll Soul”, which reached the No. 29 position on the charts. In order to refine their sound, the band hired Todd Rundgren to produce their next two albums “We’re An American Band” and “Shinin’ On”. “We’re An American Band” was one of the band’s most successful albums to date reaching the No. 2 position on the US Billboard 200 chart. The album also contained the singles “We’re an American Band” and “Walk Like a Man”, which also did well on the charts.

After the band released their 1975 album “All the Girls in the World Beware!!!”, which contained the singles “Some Kind of Wonderful” and “Bad Time”, the members in the band were starting to experience internal problems within the band and were ready to call it quits. However the band stayed together for one more year and created two more albums: “Born to Die” and “Good Singin’, Good Playin’”. Frank Zappa produced “Good Singin’, Good Playin’” and appeared on the tracks “Out To Get You” and “Rubberneck”.

After the band broke up in 1976 Mark Farner embarked on a solo career and Brewer, Schacher, and Frost formed another band called Flint. In 1981 Farner and Brewer returned as the only original members in Grand Funk Railroad and released the album “Grand Funk Lives”. In 1983 they released another album called “What’s Funk”. In the ‘90s Grand Funk Railroad reunited for several reunion shows, but later on Mark Farner would depart from the band and Don Brewer and Mel Schacher would remain the only original members in the band. The band has played numerous sold out shows across world and continue to tour consistently, playing around 40 shows per year.