Arguably, the
Blood, Sweat & Tears that made this self-titled second album, consisting of five of the eight original members and four newcomers, including singer
David Clayton-Thomas, was really a different group from the one that made the debut album,
Child Is Father to the Man, largely under the direction of singer/songwriter/keyboard player/arranger
Al Kooper. They had certain similarities to the original: the musical mixture of classical, jazz, and rock elements was still apparent, and the interplay between the horns and the keyboards was still occurring, even if those instruments were being played by different people.
Kooper was even still present as an arranger on two tracks, notably the initial hit "You've Made Me So Very Happy." But the second
BS&T, under the aegis of producer
James William Guercio, was a less adventurous unit, and, as fronted by
Clayton-Thomas, a far more commercial one. Not only did the album contain three songs that neared the top of the charts as singles -- "Happy," "Spinning Wheel," and "And When I Die" -- but the whole album, including an arrangement of "God Bless the Child" and the radical rewrite of
Traffic's "Smiling Phases," was wonderfully accessible. It was a repertoire to build a career on, and they did exactly that, although they never came close to equaling this album. [An SACD version was released in 2014.] ~ William Ruhlmann