Sweathog was a San Francisco-based quartet whose sound was fairly far removed from the music normally associated with that city. They were a powerful ensemble instrumentally, keyboardist/singer Lenny Lee (aka
Lenny Lee Goldsmith), guitarist/singer Bob Jones, bassist/singer Dave Johnson, and drummer Frosty (aka
Barry Smith, aka Bartholomew Smith) all top players in their field -- Frosty had played with
Lee Michaels on his third and fourth albums, while Jones had played on
Harvey Mandel's Cristo Redentor and
Righteous in the late '60s, and
Goldsmith was an ex-member of
the Five Americans. They were not bad as singers, either, with
Goldsmith handling the leads. Their music was a mix of Southern-style soul, early-'70s funk, and blues, all wrapped around a virtuoso rock sound. The group was signed to Columbia Records at the time of that label's fixation on West Coast acts, under
Clive Davis's regime -- they were always looking for another
Big Brother & the Holding Company, or something to take the place of that act on their roster. The group's self-titled debut album passed mostly without a musical trace, without an AM radio hit to drive sales, though its cover image of bare buttocks was censored in various countries. In 1972, they seemed to hit paydirt with their single "Hallelujah," a driving piece of explosive Southern-fried rock & roll with a soul edge that was a killer showcase for all four players (especially Frosty). It got to number 33 on the national charts, but that relatively modest performance doesn't indicate how popular it was on the radio, where it got airplay closer to that of a Top 20 hit. The song got the album (also titled
Hallelujah) into stores, at least, but it never sold in huge numbers, despite a respectable promotion effort and a lot of exposure for the band, touring behind
Black Sabbath, among other top acts of the period. They broke up in 1973, and
Goldsmith later played on
Martha Reeves' first post-Motown solo album before joining
Stoneground. ~ Bruce Eder