Timothy (1971) - The Buoys 1/13/21

Most music fans know Rupert Holmes as the man who wrote and recorded “The Pina Colada Song (Escape)” in 1979.

We're NOT highlighting that song today. :-)

We're going back further—to 1970—when Rupert was a 20-year-old fledgling musical arranger who made his living by writing high school and college pep band arrangements of songs like “Jingle Bell Rock,” Santana's “Oye Como Va” and Tennessee Ernie Ford's “Sixteen Tons” (written by Merle Travis).

Oddly enough, “Sixteen Tons” was the inspiration for today's “Great Song of 1971!”

But first, a little background: Rupert had a friend named Michael Wright, a junior engineer at Scepter Records in New York. Michael had keys to the label's studio, and when it wasn't booked, he and Rupert would go in and “tinker.” Eventually, Michael discovered a band from Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania called The Buoys...and somehow, he convinced Scepter to not only sign them to the label, but promise to release ONE single from the group.

Well, of course Michael wanted that single to be successful, but he also knew that Scepter wasn't going to promote it, so he asked Rupert to come up with a sure-fire HIT.

At the time, Rupert was working on “Sixteen Tons,” and a lyric from that song was stuck in his head:

“Some people say a man is made out of mud... A coal man's made out of muscle and blood... Muscle and blood and skin and bones... A mind that's weak and a back that's strong.”

To Rupert, it sounded like a cannibal casserole recipe from a horror movie...and decided if he wrote something with some not-so-veiled references to cannibalism, it might get banned from airwaves, and wouldn't NEED record company promotion. The resulting controversy would make it a hit. To quote P.T. Barnum, “There's no such thing as bad publicity!”

The result was “Timothy:” the story of three men trapped in a mine for several days, but when they were rescued, there were only TWO left...with the THIRD nowhere to be found. The singer can't quite remember what happened, but he suspects the worst.

When the song was released, it took quite a while to catch on. Some stations started playing it, then realized what it was really about, and dropped it. Other stations didn't play it—UNTIL they found out what it was about! Then some of the original stations jumped back on the coal wagon.

Because of this phenomenon, “Timothy” never made it higher than #17 on Billboard's Hot 100 and #6 on Canada's Top 40.

That was okay with Rupert and Michael—and The Buoys. They all figured the controversy was worth its weight in “gold records.”

And Scepter Records was happy because they had a “Great Song of 1970” on their hands without lifting a finger...or moving a muscle.

Trivia: My theatre friends will recognize Rupert Holmes as the writer of the musical, “Drood,” based on “The Mystery of Edwin Drood” by Charles Dickens.

From 1970: