Bellamy Brothers Biography
Country duo comprising Homer Howard Bellamy (2 February 1946, Darby, Florida, USA) and David Milton Bellamy (b. 16 September 1950, Darby, Florida, USA). The Bellamy Brothers became one of the top country acts of the 80s and 90s after beginning their career in pop and soul. The brothers' father played bluegrass music but David Bellamy's first professional job was as keyboard player with the soul band the Accidents in the mid-60s, backing artists including Percy Sledge. The brothers formed the band Jericho in 1968, but disbanded three years later. They then began writing songs for other artists, and David's "Spiders And Snakes" was a Top 3 pop hit for Jim Stafford in 1973-74. The Bellamy Brothers signed to Warner Brothers Records the following year and in 1976 reached the top of the US charts and the UK Top 10 with "Let Your Love Flow".
Although they continued to release albums and singles for the next few years, the duo's days as a pop act on the American charts were over. In 1979, the ambiguously and suggestively titled "If I Said You Had A Beautiful Body (Would You Hold It Against Me)?" became their biggest hit in the UK where it reached the Top 3. It also topped the US country chart and marked the beginning of a 10-year spell when the brothers were rarely out of the upper regions of this chart. This run included the number 1 singles "Sugar Daddy", "Dancin' Cowboys", "Do You Love As Good As You Look", "For All The Wrong Reasons", "Redneck Girl", "When I'm Away From You", "I Need More Of You", "Too Much Is Not Enough" (with the Forester Sisters), and "Kids Of The Baby Boom". By the 90s, having transferred to Curb Records, the brothers were still charting country singles on a regular basis. They were also one of the first country acts to launch an artist-owned label, inaugurating Bellamy Brothers Records in 1992, although they later returned to Curb for a series of successful albums. To date in their long and successful career they remain an enigma; often their material is lightweight and their stage act is strangely static. "Kids Of The Baby Boom" trivializes Kennedy's assassination, while "Jesus Is Coming" features the line: "Jesus is coming and boy is he pissed." In 1995 the duo updated one of their best known tracks "Old Hippie" with "Old Hippie (The Sequel)": it is to be hoped that they are not planning to update all their novelty hits. The duo did revisit their back catalogue on the 30th anniversary album, Angels & Outlaws Volume 1. Released in 2005, the album featured collaborations with a host of country stars, including Montgomery Gentry, Alan Jackson, George Jones, Willie Nelson and Dolly Parton.
Source: The Encyclopedia of Popular Music by Colin Larkin. Licensed from Muze.
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