The Cowsills In Books





Billboard's Hottest Hot 100 Hits, Updated and Expanded
Fred Bronson
Watson-Guptill Publications December 2002

Book

Page 302:

... and the Cowsills came in at No. 19 with the title song, "Hair." Bill Cowsill, oldest brother of the Rhode Island family, says it was pure serendipity that the group recorded "Hair." They were signed as guest stars for a Carl Reiner television special. "Carl had this bent idea that it would be really cool to take the squeaky clean Cowsills with no make-up, let the zits show, chains, leather, hair and do the title track from the Broadway play," Bill explains. The four brothers went to a studio in Hollywood to record a track they would lip-synch to in the show. "Then we listened (to it). I looked at Bob - Bob looked at me - two thumbs up!" The Cowsills went to MGM and said they wanted to release "Hair" as a single. "They said, 'You're out of your mind, we're not releasing that! You'll blow your image!" Bill recalls. While on tour in the Midwest, the Cowsills' father, Bub, convinced an MGM promo rep to take an acetate of the song to radio station WLS in Chicago. The program director agreed to play the song if he could guess who was singing. He lost and the song was added to the playlist, and MGM was forced to release the single.




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