Description
Like Brothers is a compilation album featuring efforts by the American singer, songwriter, keyboardist, and producer Michael Omartian and Truett Pratt and Jerry McClain known as the 70s pop/rock duo Pratt/McClain, released on CD by Sonrise Music Company in 1995, distributed by The Benson Company. Executively produced by Jerry McClain.
Michael Omartian produced his first hit “Happy Days” – a timeless hit recording that is part of the highly successful Time/Warner Hits of the 70’s series. This album reunites top musicians in this compelling and classic Omartian production. (The title track, “Like Brothers”, produced by Jerry McClain, is dedicated to “Coach Bill McCartney and The Promise Keepers”.)
If you’re old enough to remember the Happy Days sitcom of the ’70s which featured a pretty naff recreation of 1950s rock’n’roll culture you’ll probably be less than impressed with the information that Pratt & McClain provided the “Happy Days” theme song, surely one of the corniest hits (number five in the US singles chart in 1976) ever. But two years before their breakthrough, Truett Pratt and Jerry McClain, along with producer Michael Omatian, were making some excellent Jesus music of which «Here I Am (Song of the Anti-Christ)» is their best known song. A powerful piece of pop rock with some biting electric guitar and a rapid-syllable vocal hook very reminiscent of the kind of thing Omartian used on his own album for ABC in 1974 ‘White Horse‘. The lyric is, of course, a warning against a world leader who will one day hoodwink a godless world (“I built my kingdom on a pot of gold”). Powerful stuff. [Tony Cummings, Cross Rhythms, 24th August 2017]
The duo of Truett Pratt and Jerry McClain went unnoticed in 1974 with a self-titled album and a single called «When My Ship Comes In». But they scored a big hit in 1976 with the «Theme to Happy Days» (No 5) and a second self-titled album. They followed up with a cover of «Devil With A Blue Dress» (No 71). This edited, promo single is also off their second self-titled album. There is a sax intro and a sax solo in the middle of the song that was cut out and can only be heard in the background on this version. There is a 12″ “Disco Mix” of this which really isn’t disco – just an extended version with additonal music. Reknown producer Michael Omartian co-wrote it with wife Stormie, and would record a similar version of his own on a rare album Adam Again in 1977. Pratt & McClain would disappear from the music scene after the success of their second album.
CD tracklist:
01. Did You Ever Wander/Don’t Let the Pieces Fall – 4:44
02. Sacred Heart – 3:02
03. I Remember – 2:36
04. Lay Me Down By the River/Shine On – 4:23
05. Here I Am (Song of the Anti-Christ) – 4:06
06. We Had It All – 2:57
07. Hold On – 3:55
08. Turn! Turn! Turn! (To Everything There Is a Season) – 3:54
09. Gulf Stream Slaughter – 3:58
10. Like Brothers – 3:47
Note: Simultaneously released on cassette and CD by Sonrise Music Company.
“Here I Am (Song of the Anti-Christ)”, written by Michael Omartian and released as a single, was recommended by Billboard Magazine according to their Billboard’s Top Singles feature, July 6, 1974. The single version of “Here I Am” is available on Sonrise Music’s multi-artist sampler The Rock Revival, Vol. 2: Remembering the Future (the single version is slightly shorter than the LP version).
In 2017 the Michael Omartian written – as well as Pratt and McClain recorded – song “Whachersign” (the original extended promo only version) was included on a sampler album entitled Too Slow to Disco, Volume 3, a mainstream compilation series of ’70s Westcoast Yachtpop.
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