Guitarist glad to keep Blood, Sweat & Tears’ hits alive

I once knew a girl who would jump up on the bed - bare feet on the mattress, arms stretched in triumph - to sing me a love song older than her birth:

"You've made me so/ very happy/ I'm so glad you/ came into my life."

It was an old Blood, Sweat & Tears hit called "You've Made Me So Very Happy." As you can imagine, I'm fond of it.

You can also imagine that when I tell Blood, Sweat & Tears guitarist Dave Gellis about this memory he's not surprised.

"People come up all the time," and they say, "Oh, this is the song of my wedding," Gellis says. "It's gratifying."

He says there's an even more emotional connection between the band's 1969 hit, "And When I Die," with many Vietnam veterans. That song goes:

"And when I die/ and when I'm gone/ there'll be one child born/ in this world to carry on."

During Vietnam, armed forces DJs (like the ones in the film "Good Morning, Vietnam") would play "And When I Die" for troops.

"They come up to us all the time and say, 'Dude, I was in a (expletive) foxhole, and I remember this song,' " Gellis says.

"When a guy comes up to you and says, 'My guys were getting shot when we were listening to your song' - whoa!"

That is heavy, man.

Gellis was too young to be in Vietnam. He joined Blood, Sweat & Tears about three decades ago, after the group's run of hits in the 1960s and 1970s.

But Gellis feels lucky to carry the torch for the band.

He says even young adults who go to their shows recognize the core hits "Spinning Wheel," "God Bless the Child" and "You've Made Me So Very Happy."

The band also performs a few cover songs, including a James Brown-esque version of the Talking Heads' classic, "Burning Down The House."

At this point, Blood, Sweat & Tears is a tight nonet: four horns, four rhythm players, plus lead singer Thomas Conner.

Conner is singing lyrics made famous by vocalist David Clayton-Thomas, who seems to be in semiretirement.

The band's name is owned by drummer Bobby Colomby, who acquired it over the years by attrition as other group members left.

Colomby put together this current group from a list of longtime members whom he felt were strong musically but who could also "gel on a bus," Gellis says.

The group performs the old hits faithfully, to sound as close as possible to the way the songs sounded on albums, years ago.

"The band is full of outstanding instrumentalists, and we could certainly take a jazz approach" to songs, says Gellis, who has also toured with Stanley Clarke and Meat Loaf.

"But we're sensitive to the fact that the audience is varied," he says. "So we don't really do trippy, endless jams."

He jokes the band's recorded songs now get played more in elevators than on radio, since no radio format supports their kinds of hits.

So they make their money from touring the road.

"Our dinero comes from a day's work."

Contact Doug Elfman at delfman@reviewjournal.com. He blogs at reviewjournal.com/elfman.