In 1976, Elvin Bishop released this track as a single. It would go gold and become the greatest hit of his life: “Fooled Around and Fell in Love.”
It’s a toe-tappin’ seventies country cock-rocker soft-bluesy lovin’ ballad that truly deserved that gold status. You may know it best from its place on the soundtracks for “Boogie Nights,” or “Guardians of the Galaxy.”
The song rose all the way to #3 on the US Billboard Hot 100 chart, and featured vocalist Mickey Thomas and drummer Donny Baldwin– both of whom later joined Jefferson Starship. Bishop jammed with the Grateful Dead and other awesome bohemian stars of late ’60s and early ’70s Bay Area rockdom before this hit made him famous.
It was a gold record when I was six years old, and it transports me back to that sepia-toned instagram filter vibe of my childhood.
Molester vans, black velvet rock posters, wire-framed aviator sunglasses, old-school weed, golden sunsets, long hair and long songs and an ever-present sense of fond longing, all of which you can hear in this track.
The song was featured in a number of films, decades after it was a chart-topper. Those movies include Illtown (1996), Boogie Nights (1997), The Family Stone (2005), Invincible (2006), Harold & Kumar Escape from Guantanamo Bay (2008), Lovelace (2013) and Guardians of the Galaxy (2014).
LISTEN: “Fooled Around and Fell in Love” by Elvin Bishop, 1976. Play it on YouTube, or buy it on Amazon, or dig up the vinyl from somewhere fun.
He’s still playing live today, and he would have been so fun to see back in the era of this hit. Here’s a wonderful video recording of a live set from that year, below.
