Home | Songs By Year | Songs from 1976
The Rubberband Man
Buy The Rubberband Man now from AmazonFirst, read the Wikipedia article. Then, scroll down to see what other TopShelfReviews readers thought about the song. And once you've experienced the song, tell everyone what you thought about it.
Wikipedia article
"'The Rubberband Man'" is a song recorded by the American vocal group the Spinners.
The song, written by producer Thom Bell and singer-songwriter Linda Creed, was about Bell's son, who was being teased by his classmates for being overweight. Intended to improve his son's self-image, the song eventually evolved from being about "The Fat Man" to "The Rubberband Man".
The last major hit by the Spinners to feature Philipp Wynne on lead vocals, "The Rubberband Man" spent three weeks at number two on the U.S. 'Billboard' Hot 100 (blocked from the top spot by Rod Stewart's massive hit single "Tonight's the Night") and topped the U.S. R&B chart at the end of 1976. It was also a top-20 hit in the UK Singles Chart, reaching number 16 in October 1976.
The song was included in the 'Detroit Free Press's "Detroit's 100 Greatest Songs" list, ranking 70th.
Arrangement and structure
Wynne alternates between singing the verse and interjecting verbal asides and improvises the eight bars linking the chorus with the bridge. The backing singers' retort of "do-do-do-do" recalls the distinctive chorus in Stephen Stills' song "Love the One You're With."
Later uses
* Performed by Lynda Carter in a 1980 episode of 'The Muppet Show', accompanied by a band of Rubberband Men Muppets.
* The song also appears in the 1981 movie 'Stripes'.
* "The Rubberband Man" was used on the TV show 'Suits' in the 2012 episode "Discovery".
* The song enjoyed a surge in popularity in 2018 as a result of its use in the Marvel Cinematic Universe film 'Avengers: Infinity War'.
* From 2004-2007 in several back-to-school advertising campaigns for OfficeMax, the song Rubberband Man was used as the theme for The 'Rubberband Man', a character played by actor Eddie Steeples, who would happily distribute school / office supplies to surprised and somewhat disappointed children or thankful office employees . In one commercial, Steeple's character has lost his rubber ball, and the commercial documents his search for the missing ball. Archived at [https://ghostarchive.org/varchive/youtube/20211205/Y7scdHgc4Jw Ghostarchive] and the [https://web.archive.org/web/20210202075109/https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y7scdHgc4Jw Wayback Machine]: Archived at [https://ghostarchive.org/varchive/youtube/20211205/7AXn2KhjHtc Ghostarchive] and the [https://web.archive.org/web/20170813011857/https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7AXn2KhjHtc Wayback Machine]: At that time, Steeples was popular portraying the character of "Crab Man" on the television sitcom 'My Name Is Earl'.
Personnel
* Lead vocals: Philipp Wynne
* Background vocals: Bobby Smith, Pervis Jackson, Henry Fambrough and Billy Henderson
* Additional background vocals: the Sigma Sweethearts (Barbara Ingram, Carla Benson and Yvette Benton)
* Instrumentation: MFSB:
**Thom Bell: keyboards
**Tony Bell, Bobby Eli: guitars
**Bob Babbitt: bass guitar
**Andrew Smith: drums
**Larry Washington: percussion
*Produced, arranged and conducted by Thom Bell
Charts
Weekly charts
Year-end charts
All-time charts
References
Buy The Rubberband Man now from Amazon
<-- Return to songs from 1976