Dwight Twilley Band - Sincerely

My introduction to Dwight Twilley came back in '84 when I first heard the single "Girls" on the radio. It was one of those albums that I remember fondly. There was no internet and finding anything out about people was hit and miss depending on what you could suss from Rolling Stone, and later on Spin Magazine was cool. Really the only way to figure shit out for the average Luddite like me was to just go to the record store and look. At the time I had no idea what the difference was between Dwight Twilley the band, and Dwight Twilley the solo artist. I just figured it was a phase. I did manage to pick up Scuba Divers, and honestly sitting here I can't remember anything about it.

Over the last year I'd picked up the two Phil Seymour albums, and I'd actually spent a fair bit of time listening to those, and I'd written up a slightly longer than usual bloggerity thing only to have a connection issue at some point where I saved a blank page, and like my early horrific experiences with database programs, there was no undo. I'll revisit those again. In fact I was (use your Get Smart voice) this close to doing just that ... instead I found a copy of the Dwight Twilley Band's debut album Sincerely.

Why not go back to the source of it all?

So I did.

Now, I understand the difference between the band era, and the Twilley solo era. There was never supposed to be a Dwight Twilley Band. There was a duo called Oister, that was centred on the talents of Dwight Twilley who wrote the songs, played guitar and keyboards and sang. His partner was Phil Seymour who provided the rhythm section by playing drums and bass and he sang too. It may not have been a true partnership of equals, especially when one guy writes the songs, but by all accounts they were.

The guys ended up getting signed to Shelter Records, where Denny Cordell who was one of the label's bigwigs decided to change the name of the band to emphasize Dwight and by default demote Phil. It didn't matter that on the back of the jacket the photo was of the two of them, and that Dwight and Phil's names were in larger print than Bill Pitcock and Johnny Johnson. This is how the seeds of discontent are sown. Of course, I'm extrapolating a lot from little tidbits that are out there, but it makes sense. However, it is interesting to see that it is Oister that is credited for production. At least on the copy I have. Apparently this would be corrected later, but it's a nice little wink and a nod to what should have been.

I have to remind myself this was released in '76 as this sounds so good still. That sweet jingle-jangle power pop is so good. The album opens with "I'm on Fire" a song that was recorded and released as a single a year or so before the album came out. Apparently it cracked the top 20 for one week in August of 1975. It's too bad that first blush of success didn't translate over to the release of Sincerely. Such is life, but it must have sucked.

I know I've commented on the power pop elements, in songs like "I'm on Fire" and the deliciously awesome "You Were So Warm" but the guys were also big fans of rockabilly, and it would bleed into a number of songs from the uptempo "TV" to the almost Doo-wop structure of "Release Me."

The songs hold up remarkably well, and it's a little bittersweet listening to this knowing that neither Dwight nor Phil would ever really catch a break. It's not like they didn't deliver the goods.

It seemed like whatever label they were on would fold, or not know what to do with them. Phil Seymour would release a pair of albums in the early '80s and then more or less fade out of the limelight before succumbing to lymphoma in 1993 at the age of 41. Dwight himself, despite having a bit of a career resurgence with Jungle, his second release for EMI, one of the big labels with deep pockets. Dwight would leave and sign with a smaller indie and then more or less fade out of view as well. He'd pass away at the age of 72 in October of 2023. 

To the vast majority of people the Dwight Twilley Band won't ring any bells, but thankfully there are pockets of people out there who remember both Dwight and Phil. While I may be more than a bit late to the party, I'm glad I got here.

Sincerely.