PRECIOUS AND FEW
The Outsiders broke up at the end of the decade but almost immediately reformed – actually, there were two bands called the Outsiders for a time: one in Los Angeles headed by Sonny Geraci, and the other back in Cleveland led by Tom King. King won the lawsuit over the use of the name, so Geraci changed his band’s name to Climax. This new band had an even bigger hit in 1972 than “Time Won’t Let Me”: the Number One song “Precious and Few”. With the addition of this song to his Outsiders output, Sonny Geraci is clearly one of the best white soul singers of the 1960’s.
(February 2010)
* * *
Name changes are sometimes not up to you. As I wrote many years ago, when the Starfires came up with their signature song “Time Won’t Let Me”, Capitol Records told them to pick a new name, so they came up with the Outsiders. Later, Sonny Geraci and Tom King were each heading up a band called the Outsiders; when King legally won the rights to the name, Geraci’s band – which included Outsiders guitarist Walter Nims – changed their name to Climax and had an even bigger hit with a Nims song, “Precious and Few”.
(June 2014)
