Audio Fidelity, 1969.
vinyl condition: VG
Listen to DIANE
Billy Carlucci and Reid Whitelaw were a pair of New York-based songwriters who, after kicking around the business for several years, hit paydirt in 1968 when they wrote the tune GOODY GOODY GUMDROPS for the 1910 Fruitgum Company.
It was the first of a string of pop songs the team would write for the Kasenetz-Katz bubblegum empire, and they formed a bubblegum act of their own, Marshmallow Way, who cut an album for United Artists.
But by 1969, Carlucci and Whitelaw had ambitions to make music that was classier and more mature, and they signed a deal with Audio Fidelity Records for their new project. The Golden Gate combined polished pop tunes and a production that matched the well-crafted pop/rock of acts like the Buckinghams with horn-based arrangements in the manner of Chicago and Blood, Sweat & Tears.
The Golden Gate's one and only album, YEAR ONE, is a notably more ambitious and less gimmicky work than Carlucci and Whitelaw had delivered in the past; with a handful of top studio musicians backing them up and the vocal group the Tradewinds adding background harmonies. YEAR ONE's craft is impeccable, and the production and arrangements are a canny reflection of both the style of the day and the studio-centered pop background of the composers/bandleaders.