Jack Mack & The Heart Attack

Live From Centennial Park, Atlanta 1996

SSR Free Roll Records

The Eagles had just broken up and Glenn Frey hadn’t yet started his solo career. In 1982 he found some friends to have fun with and the R n’ B cover band Jack Mack & The Heart Attack were born. They established their Thursday night residency at Club Lingerie in Hollywood and released their debut studio album “The Cardiac Party”, produced by Frey, later that year. The band has since been featured in numerous film and television shows and current and past members number forty-three.

Every few years Jack Mack would re-unite and this set was recorded during the 1996 Summer Olympics held in Atlanta. A pipe bomb exploded near the sound tower and the event is depicted in the new Clint Eastwood film “Richard Jewell”. At the time of the incident Jack Mack was known as “the hardest working band in soul business”. The band lineup at the time were Andrew Kastner, guitar and vocals; Bill Bergman, sax and vocals; John Paruolo, Hammond B-3 and vocals; Lester Lovill, trumpet and vocals; Tim Scott, bass and lead vocals; TC Moses, lead vocals; and Alvino Bennett, drums. Two of the songs from this set are featured in the film and its release follows on the heels of the bands 2016 album “Back to The Shack”.

The set kicks off with the funky “(We Got) More Soul” first recorded by Dyke and The Blazers in 1968, best known for their song “Funky Broadway” also recorded by Wilson Pickett. “Breaking Down The Walls”, a danceable message of social consciousness, is the first of five originals.  The two songs included on the “Richard Jewell” soundtrack are “I’ll Take You There” written by Al Bell and first recorded by The Staples Singers in 1972; and “I Walked Alone” co-written by band members Kastner, Bergman, Paruolo, Moses and Bill Wray.

Other selected covers include “Respect Yourself” co-written by Stax Records songwriters Luther Ingram and Sir Mack Rice and also recorded by the Staple Singers in 1971; James Brown’s “Sex Machine” from 1970; Al Green’s “Take Me To The River” recorded in 1977; and a Sly and The Family Stone Medley.

At the time the bombing cut short this performance. This historic set is testament to the legacy of Jack Mack & The Heart Attack, one of our greatest party bands.

Richard Ludmerer