Any artist that was "lucky" enough to be signed to a major label back in the '80s knows all too well what it was like to get that call from the record label asking if they'd like to take part in a movie soundtrack.
On one hand, the thrill of getting a song attached to a big movie and accompanying soundtrack can be a great way to jettison your career to the next level. On the other hand, it can be an excruciatingly pointless exercise in record label ass-kissing that can either blow up in your face or, even worse, go completely unnoticed by even your biggest fans.
While I have occasionally had the pleasure of rubbing shoulders with a few of the guys in Chicago's Insiders, I cannot speak for them, but I suspect that the latter scenario applies to their otherwise enjoyable contribution to the "Iron Eagle II" soundtrack in 1988.
All things considered, the band's high-octane cover of the Spencer Davis Group's 1966 hit remains a highlight of an otherwise forgettable moment in soundtrack history where the powers that be at Epic Records seemed more intent on belittling certain acts on their own label for what appears to be their own amusement.
The best example of this is Henry Lee Summer's contribution to the very same soundtrack wherein the Indiana-based hit maker is teamed up with legendary producer/songwriter Mike Chapman (The Knack, The Sweet, Blondie) to record a song that neither of them wrote. The song itself is a steaming hunk of garbage that embarrasses all concerned so, in that sense, Insiders made out like bandits.
Even so, you can still tell that Epic was trying to fuck with the band by putting them in the studio with producer Charlie Midnight.
WHO?!
Exactly.
Nothing personal, Mr. Midnight, but Insiders just so happened to have a very capable producer in the band by the name of Jay O'Rourke, who had produced the band's debut album, Ghost On The Beach.
Of course, there is no quicker way to make the suits at a record company nervous than for an unproven band to produce their own album, which is why I suspect that the label essentially stopped promoting the album the minute that the title track began gathering steam at radio stations across the country.
After all, if the band had a hit by producing their own material, then the label couldn't control them as much as if they were working with a producer that the label had hand-picked.
Seeing Epic team the band with a producer with no real track record of his own to record a song that the band had not written appears, in hindsight, to have been Epic's passive-aggressive attempt at putting Insiders in their place.
I could be wrong, of course, but the fact remains that the band did end up agreeing to work with an outside producer (Joe Hardy) for their second album and, SURPRISE, it never even saw the light of day and, by 1989, the band and Epic Records had parted ways.
Thus, the band's butt-kicking cover of "Gimme Some Lovin'" would be their last release for the label.
To add further insult to injury, the band's lone Epic Records album Ghost On The Beach remains out-of-print despite the title cut still pulling down serious airplay on Chicago's WXRT.