To this day, David LaFlamme still tells the public that it was purely because of the legal situation and nothing else..You can hear it for yourself on on David's own website with an archived audio concert from KPIG.com last year...What David fails to mention is the reason behind it, and the underlying cause as to these legal difficulties

The problem with this is that while it's the lawsuits that did the band in, the lawsuits NEVER would have succeeded if the band remained the original 6 musicans...If David didn't get the mindset that he was the sole inspiration and soul of the band and replace the entire band in 1971-72, and continue to use It's A Beautiful Day on both recordings and live shows, this would have never happened...

The original six musicians won a major lawsuit against Katz in 1969.(see the legal section)...The judge determined that it was the six musicians that made the name famous, not Katz, despite all the so called(or self described) work he did....That means the six musicians, not Katz, not David, not Hal, not Mitchell individually.....The six original musicians, collectively..It's not just a matter of public perception, it was also a court order.,..

This judgement was entered despite the fact that most of the band had signed a contract with Katz. By the time 1969 came around(katz first filed his lawsuit in October of 1968), the band had long cut their ties to Katz and had been touring around the world. The court determined that it was actually the six original musicians who made the name It's A Beautiful Day famous, and not Katz, even though he came up with the name....

That is the ONLY reason why It's A Beautiful Day was able to get studio time in Los Angeles at the CBS studios and cut the first album...The band had won the lawsuit, and all the attorneys told them that, quite correctly...

The first album was cut in Los Angeles in Autumn of 1969. Hal: "We won the judgement in May 1969, signed with CBS in August, spent September recording basics in LA, overdubs for the band in October. David and Pattie worked out their parts and overdubbed them in November with a lot of coaching from the engineer, Bernie Ross-Myring ("Ross"). He really should have claimed producer credits for all the work and guidance he gave us. Mixing was completed before Christmas and we released it early in the spring of 1970. This timing was against the advice of the marketing executives, but we felt there would be no "bad" time for this album, so plowed ahead."..

This should have been the end of the story, with a string of succesfull albums after that, and a continuing legal victory over Matthew Katz and San Francisco Sound, but that was not to be.

Linda LaFlamme was the first to leave in early/mid 1970...The band had become quite famous, and lots of groupies came with that...A husband and wife team at that time was pretty rare, and the touring scene proved to much for Linda, on top of personal conflicts, and the fact that it isn't easy hauling a big B3 hammond organ all over the place. Linda was replaced by Fred Webb in 1970.

Mitchell Holman and Hal Wagenet left the group right in the middle of Choice Quality Stuff, in 1972.If you have the album, you'll see it's two different recordings, one on each side. This is where things really started falling apart. I've seen reports on other websites that David LaFlamme was fired himself in the middle of this recording for demanding too much money. I've also heard reports of David demanding the rights to songs he didn't write, which would be consistant with what Vince Wallace has written. Billy Gregory was brought in halfway through and essentially saved whatever Hal recorded on after David wanted to trash it. Tim Dawe was hired to write songs for the album in a last ditch attempt by then manager Col John Walker to save the group. Tim Dawe also left soon after, and along with Mitchell Holman and Hal Wagenet, formed Natural Act in 1972

By most accounts, the albums started to go downhill once the core of this group left. By the time the 3rd album, Choice Quality Stuff came out, all that was left of the original group was David LaFlamme(only on one half), Patty Santos and Val Fuentes.. By The 4th album, Today 1973, even David LaFlamme had left the group and only Pattie Santos remained. In 1973 Katz refiled his original lawsuit and this time completely reversed the 1969 decision because it was determined that it was no longer the same band performing as It's A Beautiful Day. It was no longer the same band that made the name famous in the first place, and won their judgement against Katz in 1969

On another side note, if whatever band remained at that time simply changed their name to any other band except It's A Beautiful Day, a large part of the lawsuits also likely never would have happened

Basically if most of the group had stayed as a group, Katz never would have gained control of the IABD rights This is a problem that continues to this day, see news/performances

back to main page