There are sometimes said to be more than 200 neighborhoods in the City of Chicago. Each with their own character, their own culture, their own chemistry. So what better name when you bring nine musicians together from different parts of the city in creating their own Neighborhood. In 1970, they set out to pave paradise with their music and all piled into Joni Mitchell’s “Big Yellow Taxi” scoring their lone hit.
The core of the group started out as the Chicago Fire, a seven-piece aggregation in a Three Dog Night-style featuring three vocalists – Billy Mendes, Mike Tomasetti and Chick Stella – backed by guitarist Bob Brostoski, pianist Joe Evans, bass player Russ Rickmann and Bill Sharmello on drums. They would release a lone single “Candy and Me” b/w “Come See What I’ve Got” (USA). They then would expand to a nine-piece adding vocalists Elaine and Ellen Rangel, evolving into The Neighborhood.
The group already had somewhat of a musical pedigree. Tomasetti had a couple solo outings of his own on the USA and Constellation labels in 1964-65. Check Stella was with Chick and the Nobles who had released the single “I Cry” (USA) in 1965. Ellen Rangel had cut her first single in 1962 with “That Other Guy” credited as Little Ellen, and then would be joined by her sister Elaine in The Creslyns who had a local hit with “Boom Chip-a-Boom” (Beltone).
As The Neighborhood they would develop, “a kind of Fifth Dimension-type sound,” recalled Ellen Rangel in an interview with Jeff Lind for the History of Chicago Rock. “We were influenced by Broadway show tunes, folk music, easy listening, R&B and soft rock. We sang everything in big harmonies and elaborate arrangement, especially with five vocalists up front.”
At the time Doug Morris and Dick Vanderbilt were starting up a new record label – Big Tree. They would sign The Neighborhood, with the label’s first album release appropriately titled Debut.
The album would be a mix of a couple of originals with hits of the day including “MacArthur Park,” “Eli’s Coming” and “Sounds of Silence.” Then they plucked a song from Joni Mitchell, who had released “Big Yellow Taxi” earlier in the year in 1970 with little fanfare, scoring their lone big hit. “
“It was one of those things that happens right away,” Rangel said. “It was barely weeks after they released our record that it hit Billboard with a bullet, all the way to the top three!”
Ironically, “Big Yellow Taxi” was not what the band looked to be their first single. Rather, their choice was “Laugh,” but according to Rickmann the thought was that radio stations were unlikely to pick it up as too lighthearted during the Vietnam War period.
For The Neighborhood, the success came so quickly there was little time to put a definitive plan in place. “We were such babies in the business that we didn’t know how to handle ourselves or what to expect,” said Rangel, who was barely out of high school herself at the time. Some ill-advised tours and bookings in hard-rock venues started to put a strain on the band.
Big Tree would release a second single “Now’s the Time for Love,” but it failed to dent the charts. As Big Tree was not very deep in pockets to support growing a band, and with the expense of a nine-piece lineup trying to tour, the deck was stacked against The Neighborhood progressing any further. The Neighborhood’s Debutwas also their swansong.
With a repertoire comprised primarily of cover material, there wasn’t a place for The Neighborhood to truly establish themselves recording-wise.
In 1977 Elaine and Ellen had success in the disco era, working with producer John Dubiel, cutting records on the Lance, Ovation and Mercury labels. They enjoyed some success but timing was not in their favor. Ovation would fall on financial hard times, and when they moved to Mercury, even though it appeared they were going to score with a disc arrangement of Burt Bacharach’s “Look of Love,” the record was released two weeks after the Disco Demolition fiasco at Comiskey Park in the summer of 1979 with Chicago’s anti-disco movement killing the record’s chances.
Looking back, Elaine reminisces, “We recorded the first album that Big Tree ever put out. We were pioneers alright, just like babes lost in the wilderness,” commenting on how their experiences taught them a lot about the record business. But apparently not enough.
Russ Rickmann would join Wyld Oats, who produced a long DIY album Stage One in 1979. He now lives in Texas. Sadly, Chick Stella and Elaine Rangel are no longer with us.
Discography
CHICAGO FIRE
1968 Candy and Me b/w Come See What I’ve Got (USA 898)
THE NEIGHBORHOOD
1970 Big Yellow Taxi b/w You Could Be Born Again (Big Tree BT 102)
1970 Now’s the Time for Love b/w Laugh (Big Tree BT 106)
1970 Debut (Big Tree BTS 2001) LP