- Included among the Record Descriptions of Favorite Albums (Part 1).
- The Mindbenders is a British Invasion band from Manchester that deserved a better fate. “A Groovy Kind of Love” was a major hit for the Mindbenders.
The Mindbenders – A Groovy Kind of Love (1966): The Mindbenders is a British Invasion band from Manchester that deserved a better fate. The title track “A Groovy Kind of Love” was a major hit for the Mindbenders, topping the Cashbox charts in the U.S. and reaching #2 in the U.K. The song was co-written by Toni Wine and Carole Bayer Sager while the latter was still in high school. Despite having the dated Sixties slang word “groovy” in the chorus, the version of “A Groovy Kind of Love” by Phil Collins topped the Billboard Hot 100 charts in 1988. A Groovy Kind of Love is the album that the Mindbenders recorded after their lead singer Wayne Fontana left the band to start a solo career; Wayne Fontana and the Mindbenders had scored a major hit with “The Game of Love” the previous year.
Unfortunately, the Fontana-less Mindbenders were never able to find another big hit single, though it was not for lack of trying. One bit of luck was that the Mindbenders made an appearance in the 1967 Sidney Poitier film To Sir with Love. A Groovy Kind of Love remains as the testament of a fine though snake-bit rock band. Happily, my copy is the second edition of A Groovy Kind of Love that includes the #14 U.K. single “Ashes to Ashes”; this song was also written by Toni Wine and Carole Bayer Sager, as was the even better “Can’t Live with You, Can’t Live without You” that made the Top 30 in England. The songs that immediately follow “A Groovy Kind of Love” – “One Fine Day”, “The Way You Do the Things You Do”, and “Seventh Son” – makes one expect the typical one-hit-wonder album that has the hit padded with the same old songs. But more adventurous material is presented later in the record, such as “Just a Little Bit”, “Trickie Dickie”, “All Night Worker”, “You Don’t Know About Love”, and “Little Nightingale”. Replacement bandleader Eric Stewart and a late addition to the Mindbenders, Graham Gouldman were later in the band 10cc.