THE 1000 BEST SONGS IN THE WORLD EVER.

985-Average White Band-Pick Up the Pieces.

1975-Number 6 single.

Best Bit-At 2.13. When is an instrumental not an instrumental? Because this song has a few chants of ‘Pick Up the Pieces,’ does that mean it’s not actually an instrumental?

If you thought that after listening to ‘Pick Up the Pieces’ that the Average White Band were a black American ‘Funk’ band, you probably wouldn’t be on your own, but nothing could be further from the truth, because they are white, and hail from Dundee, in Scotland. The Average White Band were formed in London, England, in 1972, by Alan Gorrie, (lead vocals) and Malcolm ‘Molly’ Duncan, (saxophone) (1945-2019) they were soon joined by Hamish Stuart, (lead guitar, and vocals) Roger Ball, (keyboards, and saxophone) Onnie McIntyre, (guitar) and Robbie McIntosh, (1950-1974) (drums) who all played on this song. The Average White Band were active until 1983, but reformed in 1989, and at the time of writing they remain active. In total there have been 23 different members come and go, with Gorrie, and McIntyre still part of the current line up. The band took their name after a friend had heard them jamming and remarked,’This is too much for the average white man,’ which they then adapted as the bands name.

The discography of the Average White Band includes 13 studio Albums released between 1973-2018, and 33 singles issued between 1973-1988, of which four have reached the UK top 40. In America on the Billboard Hot 100 singles chart, they have charted within the top 40 on five occasions, with ‘Pick Up the Pieces’ making Number 1. The Average White Band have also released nine official compilation Albums, and seven live Albums, on which ‘Pick Up the Pieces’ appears on many times in extended form, including on the live ‘Person To Person’ Album from 1976, where the song stretches out for 18 minutes and six seconds.

‘Pick Up the Pieces’ was co-written by all six band members at that time, and was released a month before the Average White Band issued their second studio Album ‘AWB.’ in August 1974. The Album was produced by the legendary music producer and arranger Arif Mardin, who would go on to also produce the bands next four studio Albums as well. Arif Mardin (see also best songs 882-881-554-541-228 and 85) was born in Istanbul, Turkey, on March 15th, 1932, he died on June 25th, 2006, following a lengthy battle with pancreatic cancer, at the age of 74. Over the course of his career he worked with hundreds of artists in several different genres including ‘Jazz,’ ‘Soul,’ ‘Rock,’ and ‘Country’ music. He worked at ‘Atlantic Records’ for over 30 years, eventually working his way up to vice president, before moving on to ‘EMI’ records, where he worked in a similar role.

Just prior to the Average White Band making their big breakthrough with ‘Pick Up the Pieces,’ tragedy struck when band member Robbie McIntosh (1950-1974) died of an accidental heroin overdose at a party at the ‘Troubadour’ nightclub in Los Angeles in September 1974. McIntosh and his fellow band member Alan Gorrie took what they thought was cocaine, but in fact it was heroin. It is said that Gorrie was saved by the intervention of fellow party-goer, the American singer Cher, (see also best songs 672) who kept him conscious long enough to recover.

It was at the insistence of ‘Atlantic Records’ that ‘Pick Up the Pieces’ was released as a single, as according to Malcolm ‘Molly’ Duncan, he freely admits that he disagreed with releasing the song, ‘Because the song is a funk instrumental played by Scotsmen with no lyrics other than a shout.’ Duncan has also explained about the meaning of the song with it’s shouts of ‘Pick Up the Pieces,”It’s about picking yourself up when things aren’t going well. We’d spent a lot of time making no money whatsoever, so it felt very relevant.’

‘Pick up the pieces, uh, huh. Pick up the pieces, alright. Pick up the pieces, uh, huh. Pick up the pieces, whoo.’