Sunday September 11, 2022 “Sentimental Lady” Bob Welch
When asked about this song, singer/songwriter Bob Welch explained: "The lyric was probably referencing my first wife Nancy. The original placeholder/dummy lyrics for the chorus before I had 'real' lyrics were, 'my legs are sticks and my feet are stones.'...a far cry from “sentimental gentle wind blowing through my life again”. Welch said he wrote “Sentimental Lady” at the Gorham Hotel on 55th Street in New York City. That hotel no longer exists.
Welch was born in Hollywood, California, into a show business family. His father, Robert L. Welch Sr., was a producer and screenwriter at Paramount Pictures, producing films starring Bob Hope and Bing Crosby. Welch Sr. produced the 25th Annual Academy Awards TV special in 1953 and The Thin Man TV series from 1958 to 1959. Bob's mother, Templeton Fox, was a singer and actress who worked with Orson Welles' Mercury Theatre in Chicago and appeared in TV and movies from 1962 to 1979.
Originally Welch was the guitarist in the Los Angeles-based vocal group The Seven Souls. In 1964 the Seven Souls lost a battle of the bands competition, the prize being a contract with Epic Records, to Sly and the Family Stone. Bob Welch then became an early member of Fleetwood Mac from 1971-1974 and wrote Fleetwood Mac tunes that include "Hypnotized" and "The Bermuda Triangle."
Fleetwood Mac’s 1971 album Future Games featured the original version of Welch’s “Sentimental Lady” and his 1977 solo hit version of that same song features Fleetwood Mac’s Christine McVie, formerly Christine Perfect (real name) on background vocals.
When Fleetwood Mac was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1998, original band members Peter Green, Jeremy Spencer, Danny Kirwan, Mick Fleetwood, and John McVie were named to the Hall, as were Christine McVie, Lindsey Buckingham, and Stevie Nicks. Welch, who anchored the band for several years and five albums, was not.
Stay safe and well…and I hope you have a ‘sentimental gentle wind’ blowing through your life