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The Hit
“It wasn’t that good the first time, it just caught the imagination and everyone liked the car. I liked the car. Maybe the car could make a comeback but I don’t think Paul and I could run around like we used to.”
- David Soul, on Starsky & Hutch
That’s what David “Hutch” Soul had to say about the show that made his name to the Sunday Postsometime in 2019. He remains friends with his co-stars, Paul Michael “Starsky” Glaser and Antonio “Huggy Bear” Fargas - as demonstrated in this lightly dodgy 2017 interview on some British morning show - but his ambivalence about the series shines through every time he talks about how he can’t escape the character. Some conjugation of the word “haunt” comes up at least twice...
For all his complaints, Soul accepts that his day-job saved him (and Glaser, for that matter) from "taking part-time jobs as waiters" and bought him some time and comfort to get in the studio with Tony Macaulay where he reconnected with his first love, music. The pair used the song “Don’t Give Up on Us” (released in 1977), and it topped charts around the world - including reaching No. 1 on the U.S. charts (related, and fun stuff, we're in the music video era by this time; see the link). That sincere 'n' sappy tune comes from the singer-songwriter genre - which, as I now know, is just another name for easy-listening rock - but it does deliver a surprise with the pitch and quality of Soul’s vocals. That is not the key you expect from an undercover cop, or even a guy who just plays one on TV.
The rest of it is pretty standard 70s fare - e.g., strings and violins add a little dimension and sepia-toned production, warm tones, etc. David Soul’s career, on the other hand, throws a couple curves.
The Rest of the Story
David Richard Solberg (and how damn good is “Soul” for a stage-name?) was born to a teacher and a Lutheran minister in Chicago, Illinois in 1943. Due to his father’s involvement with Lutheran World Relief, Soul’s family moved around a lot - including seven years spent rebuilding post-Nazi Germany. As such, it’s hardly surprising that Soul wound up at someplace like Mexico City’s University of the Americas when the time came to strike out on his own. Wikipedia says he never earned a degree (see the sidebar), but, as it did for so many, college changed his life courtesy of to the fellow students who introduced him to the guitar.
Virtually everyone who can pick David Soul out of a line-up (but did you spot in as a crooked cop in 1973’s Magnum Force, or in the Star Trek episode “The Apple”?) know him only as an actor, but he intended a career as a musician. Wikipedia names the first club he played - a Minneapolis venue called The Ten O’Clock Scholar - but, once he got a crack at getting big, he made some weird damn choices. Chief among them, showing up on the Merv Griffin Show, circa 1966 1967, as the “Covered Man.” That meant performing in baggy non-descript clothes and with a ski mask on his head, but, as he said at the time, “My name is David Soul, and I want to be known for my music.”
The complication being, of course, his acting career. Though nothing household name, Soul did start with the theater company that worked out of Minneapolis’ The Firehouse Theater, and as a founding member. He traveled to New York City with the same company where members landed roles in a couple high-brow plays, so his hang-up about someone recognizing him wasn’t wildly delusional or anything. In fact that concern grew more valid as time went on, when Soul started landing TV roles like (someone in) Flipper (1967; probably not the dolphin), Joshua Bolt on Here Come the Brides (ran from 1968-70); he also landed bit roles all over, including shows like I Dream of Jeannie, McMillan & Wife, Cannon, Gunsmoke, and All in the Family. That opened up film work - see Magnum Force (for which Clint Eastwood may or may not have done the casting), and that was the role that made him look like a plausible Ken “Hutch” Hutchinson when the casting kicked off for Starsky & Hutch.
This post would be longer (for better or worse) had Soul’s musical career done anywhere near as well as his acting one did - and has, for that matter. He never had another hit in the States, but the single “Silver Lady” sent him to the top of the UK charts for a second time. Whatever anyone thinks of his music, British audiences ate it up to the tune of five Top 20 UK singles and two Top 10 UK albums. That little detail begs the question of Soul’s career, the same question he asked by performing in a ski mask: did he land his number one single because millions of Americans wanted to hear “Hutch” sing?
Soul put out four albums in what most would call the prime of his career - after his eponymous debut there was Playing to an Audience of One (1977), Band of Friends (1979), The Best Days of My Life - but, even though he continued to perform for a time (including a tour to bring country music to the people of France), his musical career always lived in the shadow of his acting career. His TV career continued, taking in everything from oddball shit like playing Rick Blaine in the short-lived TV series, Casablanca (yes, that Casablanca and, yes, that Rick Blaine) to appearing in respected independent movies like 1987’s Hanoi Hilton and, personal favorite (because it scared the piss out of me at the time), Stephen King’s Salem’s Lot (“a theatrical feature in some countries”) opposite the great, slurring James Mason. The mid-1990s saw him move to London, where he enjoyed a long second act/return to the stage in London’s West End. He later became both a dual citizen and a fan of Arsenal, and he talks fondly of falling in love with Britain, but he had two secondary motives at a minimum: 1) the UK was where he was biggest the longest (maybe some gigs?), and 2) fewer people would know him as “Hutch.”
His personal life bears some noting, because it suggests what happened with his singing career. Soul released another album - 1997’s Leave a Light On - and the first song on it, “I Drink,” opens one avenue of inquiry. Soul went through more wives than most - five in all (and as many kids) - and he put at least one of them, Pati Carnel Sherman (ex-wife of his co-star from Here Comes the Brides, Bobby Sherman), through something bad enough to get sent to therapy for alcoholism. Whenever I heard people ask Soul about his singing career in recent career, he mentions health issues and acknowledges that his voice is shot. I won’t chicken-egg his health conditions - that’s not my business - but you can hear what came off the voice you hear on his albums to understand why he wouldn’t try it again. Something in me respects that...
About the Sampler
First, I don’t intend to over-sell Soul’s voice. It is good, and he has good range and phrasing, but it’s by no means among the best or the strongest I’ve ever heard. Again, it’s just a little surprising.
Apart from the songs already linked to above, I drew most of the sampler from his debut and Playing to an Audience of One, which, for the record, are fairly different albums. For instance, his debut mixes olde-tyme throwbacks like “1927 Kansas City” and “Hooray for Hollywood” oddities with…call it a country-funk number in “Black Bean Soup” (which aired onMinnie Pearl Country Christmas) and a reasonably straight stab at funk with (the fairly unfortunate) “Landlord.” “Topanga,” meanwhile, melds the 70s fascination/appreciation with the piano (this is my origin story, btw) with what I hear as western-inspired folk. Some of that carries over into Playing to an Audience of One - e.g., songs like “Tattler” and (more so) “Rider” - but both the title track and “Silver Lady” sound more like mainstream 70s soft rock; hell, Soul slips a couple disco horns/violins into “Silver Lady.”
I’d call the rest of the sampler a grab-bag - e.g., “Troubadour” and “Beachwood Blues,” both from Band of Friends and much more generic 70s than his earlier material - and I rounded things out a couple (more) from his 1997 album, “Sailor Man” and “Tearing the Good Things Down.” Even there, you can hear what came off his voice (even if I can’t find a word for it), but he deals in the same themes. I don’t have a lot of favorites in there - see “themes” - but it’s worthy material, especially for a guy who, near as I can tell, wrote his own material and mostly as a side-hustle. I’ll be giving this another pass tomorrow, but it’s, for lack of a gentler phrase, a little goofy.
Just looked ahead at the next artist in line. I’m not sure how much I’ll have to work with, but I do know I’m interested. Till that one goes up….
“It wasn’t that good the first time, it just caught the imagination and everyone liked the car. I liked the car. Maybe the car could make a comeback but I don’t think Paul and I could run around like we used to.”
- David Soul, on Starsky & Hutch
That’s what David “Hutch” Soul had to say about the show that made his name to the Sunday Postsometime in 2019. He remains friends with his co-stars, Paul Michael “Starsky” Glaser and Antonio “Huggy Bear” Fargas - as demonstrated in this lightly dodgy 2017 interview on some British morning show - but his ambivalence about the series shines through every time he talks about how he can’t escape the character. Some conjugation of the word “haunt” comes up at least twice...
For all his complaints, Soul accepts that his day-job saved him (and Glaser, for that matter) from "taking part-time jobs as waiters" and bought him some time and comfort to get in the studio with Tony Macaulay where he reconnected with his first love, music. The pair used the song “Don’t Give Up on Us” (released in 1977), and it topped charts around the world - including reaching No. 1 on the U.S. charts (related, and fun stuff, we're in the music video era by this time; see the link). That sincere 'n' sappy tune comes from the singer-songwriter genre - which, as I now know, is just another name for easy-listening rock - but it does deliver a surprise with the pitch and quality of Soul’s vocals. That is not the key you expect from an undercover cop, or even a guy who just plays one on TV.
The rest of it is pretty standard 70s fare - e.g., strings and violins add a little dimension and sepia-toned production, warm tones, etc. David Soul’s career, on the other hand, throws a couple curves.
The Rest of the Story
David Richard Solberg (and how damn good is “Soul” for a stage-name?) was born to a teacher and a Lutheran minister in Chicago, Illinois in 1943. Due to his father’s involvement with Lutheran World Relief, Soul’s family moved around a lot - including seven years spent rebuilding post-Nazi Germany. As such, it’s hardly surprising that Soul wound up at someplace like Mexico City’s University of the Americas when the time came to strike out on his own. Wikipedia says he never earned a degree (see the sidebar), but, as it did for so many, college changed his life courtesy of to the fellow students who introduced him to the guitar.
Virtually everyone who can pick David Soul out of a line-up (but did you spot in as a crooked cop in 1973’s Magnum Force, or in the Star Trek episode “The Apple”?) know him only as an actor, but he intended a career as a musician. Wikipedia names the first club he played - a Minneapolis venue called The Ten O’Clock Scholar - but, once he got a crack at getting big, he made some weird damn choices. Chief among them, showing up on the Merv Griffin Show, circa 1966 1967, as the “Covered Man.” That meant performing in baggy non-descript clothes and with a ski mask on his head, but, as he said at the time, “My name is David Soul, and I want to be known for my music.”
The complication being, of course, his acting career. Though nothing household name, Soul did start with the theater company that worked out of Minneapolis’ The Firehouse Theater, and as a founding member. He traveled to New York City with the same company where members landed roles in a couple high-brow plays, so his hang-up about someone recognizing him wasn’t wildly delusional or anything. In fact that concern grew more valid as time went on, when Soul started landing TV roles like (someone in) Flipper (1967; probably not the dolphin), Joshua Bolt on Here Come the Brides (ran from 1968-70); he also landed bit roles all over, including shows like I Dream of Jeannie, McMillan & Wife, Cannon, Gunsmoke, and All in the Family. That opened up film work - see Magnum Force (for which Clint Eastwood may or may not have done the casting), and that was the role that made him look like a plausible Ken “Hutch” Hutchinson when the casting kicked off for Starsky & Hutch.
This post would be longer (for better or worse) had Soul’s musical career done anywhere near as well as his acting one did - and has, for that matter. He never had another hit in the States, but the single “Silver Lady” sent him to the top of the UK charts for a second time. Whatever anyone thinks of his music, British audiences ate it up to the tune of five Top 20 UK singles and two Top 10 UK albums. That little detail begs the question of Soul’s career, the same question he asked by performing in a ski mask: did he land his number one single because millions of Americans wanted to hear “Hutch” sing?
Soul put out four albums in what most would call the prime of his career - after his eponymous debut there was Playing to an Audience of One (1977), Band of Friends (1979), The Best Days of My Life - but, even though he continued to perform for a time (including a tour to bring country music to the people of France), his musical career always lived in the shadow of his acting career. His TV career continued, taking in everything from oddball shit like playing Rick Blaine in the short-lived TV series, Casablanca (yes, that Casablanca and, yes, that Rick Blaine) to appearing in respected independent movies like 1987’s Hanoi Hilton and, personal favorite (because it scared the piss out of me at the time), Stephen King’s Salem’s Lot (“a theatrical feature in some countries”) opposite the great, slurring James Mason. The mid-1990s saw him move to London, where he enjoyed a long second act/return to the stage in London’s West End. He later became both a dual citizen and a fan of Arsenal, and he talks fondly of falling in love with Britain, but he had two secondary motives at a minimum: 1) the UK was where he was biggest the longest (maybe some gigs?), and 2) fewer people would know him as “Hutch.”
His personal life bears some noting, because it suggests what happened with his singing career. Soul released another album - 1997’s Leave a Light On - and the first song on it, “I Drink,” opens one avenue of inquiry. Soul went through more wives than most - five in all (and as many kids) - and he put at least one of them, Pati Carnel Sherman (ex-wife of his co-star from Here Comes the Brides, Bobby Sherman), through something bad enough to get sent to therapy for alcoholism. Whenever I heard people ask Soul about his singing career in recent career, he mentions health issues and acknowledges that his voice is shot. I won’t chicken-egg his health conditions - that’s not my business - but you can hear what came off the voice you hear on his albums to understand why he wouldn’t try it again. Something in me respects that...
About the Sampler
First, I don’t intend to over-sell Soul’s voice. It is good, and he has good range and phrasing, but it’s by no means among the best or the strongest I’ve ever heard. Again, it’s just a little surprising.
Apart from the songs already linked to above, I drew most of the sampler from his debut and Playing to an Audience of One, which, for the record, are fairly different albums. For instance, his debut mixes olde-tyme throwbacks like “1927 Kansas City” and “Hooray for Hollywood” oddities with…call it a country-funk number in “Black Bean Soup” (which aired onMinnie Pearl Country Christmas) and a reasonably straight stab at funk with (the fairly unfortunate) “Landlord.” “Topanga,” meanwhile, melds the 70s fascination/appreciation with the piano (this is my origin story, btw) with what I hear as western-inspired folk. Some of that carries over into Playing to an Audience of One - e.g., songs like “Tattler” and (more so) “Rider” - but both the title track and “Silver Lady” sound more like mainstream 70s soft rock; hell, Soul slips a couple disco horns/violins into “Silver Lady.”
I’d call the rest of the sampler a grab-bag - e.g., “Troubadour” and “Beachwood Blues,” both from Band of Friends and much more generic 70s than his earlier material - and I rounded things out a couple (more) from his 1997 album, “Sailor Man” and “Tearing the Good Things Down.” Even there, you can hear what came off his voice (even if I can’t find a word for it), but he deals in the same themes. I don’t have a lot of favorites in there - see “themes” - but it’s worthy material, especially for a guy who, near as I can tell, wrote his own material and mostly as a side-hustle. I’ll be giving this another pass tomorrow, but it’s, for lack of a gentler phrase, a little goofy.
Just looked ahead at the next artist in line. I’m not sure how much I’ll have to work with, but I do know I’m interested. Till that one goes up….
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