"No Matter What Shape (Your Stomach's In)" is an

instrumental An instrumental or instrumental song is music without any vocals, although it might include some inarticulate vocals, such as shouted backup vocals in a big band setting. Through Semantic change, semantic widening, a broader sense of the word s ...

composition Composition or Compositions may refer to: Arts and literature *Composition (dance), practice and teaching of choreography * Composition (language), in literature and rhetoric, producing a work in spoken tradition and written discourse, to include ...

recorded in 1965 by The T-Bones and released as a single the same year.

Composer

The record itself lists Granville Sascha Burland as the composer, but

ASCAP The American Society of Composers, Authors, and Publishers (ASCAP) () is an American not-for-profit performance-rights organization (PRO) that collectively licenses the public performance rights of its members' musical works to venues, broadc ...

says the composer is Lou Bideu aka Lew Bedell.

History

In 1965,

Dave Pell David Pell (February 26, 1925 – May 7, 2017) was an American jazz saxophonist, bandleader and record producer. He was best known for leading a cool jazz octet in the 1950s. Biography Pell played in his teens with the big bands of Tony Pastor, ...

wanted to record songs based on music from recent television commercials and release them on 45 RPM singles to see if he could get radio airplay and maybe a hit record. Previously,

Liberty Records Liberty Records was a record label founded in the United States by chairman Simon Waronker in 1955 with Alvin Bennett as president and Theodore Keep as chief engineer. It was reactivated in 2001 in the United Kingdom and had two previous rev ...

had used "The T-Bones" as a group name for instrumentals recorded by Los Angeles session musicians The Wrecking Crew, and Liberty told Pell to use it again for his project. In 1965, Pell went into the studio with members of The Wrecking Crew and recorded "No Matter What Shape (Your Stomach's In)," a song based on music used in an

Alka-Seltzer Alka-Seltzer is an effervescent antacid and pain reliever owned by Bayer since 1978. First marketed by the Dr. Miles Medicine Company of Elkhart, Indiana, United States, Alka-Seltzer contains three active ingredients: aspirin (acetylsalicylic ac ...

television commercial. When the single became a hit, Liberty Records needed the T-Bones to go on the road to promote it, but the original session musicians were not willing to go. They were making a considerable amount of money doing sessions in Los Angeles. So Liberty created a different "public" T-Bones group to appear on record covers, television, and in concert. The "public" T-Bones were

Judd Hamilton Judd Douglas Hamilton is an American musician, former band leader, writer, film producer, and actor. He recorded for the Dolton, Liberty, American International, United Artists and RCA Victor labels. He contributed to the music of California, an ...

, Dan Hamilton, Joe Frank Carollo, Tommy Reynolds, and Gene Pello. None of them played on the hit record but later they would achieve fame as the soft rock trio,

Hamilton, Joe Frank & Reynolds Hamilton, Joe Frank & Reynolds were a 1970s soft rock trio from Los Angeles. The original members were Dan Hamilton (guitar/lead vocal), Joe Frank Carollo (bass/vocal), and Tommy Reynolds (multi-instrumentalist/vocal), all of whom had previous ...

Chart performance

The single spent 13 weeks on the ''Billboard'' Hot 100, reaching No. 3, while reaching No. 1 on

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its Provinces and territories of Canada, ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, making it the world's List of coun ...

's ''

RPM Revolutions per minute (abbreviated rpm, RPM, rev/min, r/min, or r⋅min−1) is a unit of rotational speed (or rotational frequency) for rotating machines. One revolution per minute is equivalent to hertz. Standards ISO 80000-3:2019 def ...

'' Play Sheet. The album spent seven weeks on ''Billboard''s chart of Top LPs, reaching No. 75.Billboard Top LP's
, ''

Billboard A billboard (also called a hoarding in the UK and many other parts of the world) is a large outdoor advertising structure (a billing board), typically found in high-traffic areas such as alongside busy roads. Billboards present large advertis ...

'', March 26, 1966. Accessed July 28, 2016.

Personnel

, leader *

Perry Botkin, Jr. Perry Botkin Jr. (April 16, 1933 – January 18, 2021) was an American composer, Record producer, producer, arranger, and musician. Life and career He was born in 1933 in New York City, the son of Perry Botkin Sr., who also was a successful ...

, OM, arranger *

Tommy Tedesco Thomas Joseph Tedesco (July 3, 1930 – November 10, 1997) was an American guitarist and studio musician in Los Angeles and Hollywood. He was part of the loose collective of the area's leading session musicians later popularly known as The Wre ...

, guitar *Victor Fledman 'sic'' presumably

Victor Feldman Victor Stanley Feldman (7 April 1934 – 12 May 1987) was an English jazz musician who played mainly piano, vibraphone, and percussion. He began performing professionally during childhood, eventually earning acclaim in the UK jazz scene as ...

Hal Blaine Hal Blaine (born Harold Simon Belsky; February 5, 1929 – March 11, 2019) was an American drummer and session musician, thought to be among the most recorded studio drummers in the music industry, claiming over 35,000 sessions and 6,000 singles. ...

, drums *

Julius Wechter Julius Wechter (May 10, 1935 – February 1, 1999) was an American musician and composer who played the marimba and vibraphone. He also played various percussion instruments. He composed the song " Spanish Flea" for Herb Alpert and was leader of t ...

, percussion * Ervan Coleman, *

Buddy Clark Buddy Clark (born Samuel Goldberg, July 26, 1912 – October 1, 1949) was an American popular singer of the Big Band era. He had some success in the 1930s, but his career truly blossomed in the late 1940s, after his return from service in Worl ...

Carol Kaye Carol Kaye (née Smith; born March 24, 1935) is an American musician. She is one of the most prolific recorded bass guitarists in rock and pop music, playing on an estimated 10,000 recordings in a career spanning over 65 years. Kaye began play ...

, electric bass guitar *

Lyle Ritz Lyle Joseph Ritz (January 10, 1930 – March 3, 2017) was an American musician, known for his work on ukulele and bass (both double bass and bass guitar). His early career in jazz as a ukulele player made him a key part of the Hawaii music scene ...

, upright bass * Harold "Lanky" Lindstrot, engineer *

Evelyn Roberts Evelyn Roberts (28 August 1886 – 30 November 1962) was an English stage and film actor. He made his stage debut in 1918 after serving in WW I; and his theatre work included the original Broadway production of R.C. Sherriff's '' Journey's E ...

* Martin Berman *Roger Harris, copy *Robert Ross, copy * Joe Saraceno, producer

References

{{reflist 1966 singles Songs based on jingles Pop instrumentals 1960s instrumentals