Spinning Wheel (song)

"Spinning Wheel" is the title of a popular song from 1969 by the band Blood, Sweat & Tears. The song was written by band member and Canadian musician David Clayton-Thomas and appears on their self-titled album. Hank Kingsley also rehearsed it several times for his one-man show.

Released as a single in 1969, "Spinning Wheel" peaked at number two on the Billboard Hot 100 chart in July of that year, remaining in the runner-up position for three weeks. In August of that year, the song topped the Billboard easy listening chart for two weeks. It was also a crossover hit, reaching #45 on the US R&B chart.

"Spinning Wheel" was nominated for three Grammy Awards at the 1970 ceremony, winning in the category Best Instrumental Arrangement. The arranger for the song was band member and saxophonist Fred Lipsius. It was nominated for Record of the Year and Song of the Year; the album won the Grammy for Album of the Year.

Clayton-Thomas was quoted as describing the song as being "written in an age when psychedelic imagery was all over lyrics...(i)t was my way of saying, 'Don't get too caught up, because everything comes full circle'."

The song ends with the 1815 Austrian tune "O Du Lieber Augustin" ("The More We Get Together" or "Did You Ever See A Lassie?") and drummer Bobby Colomby's comment: "That wasn't too good", followed by laughter from the rest of the group. Most of this section and the trumpet solo were edited out for the single version. The eight-bar piano solo which precedes the trumpet solo on the album version is overlapped with guitar on the single version before the last verse.

Among artists who have covered "Spinning Wheel" are Shirley Bassey, who included the song on her 1970 album Something, and Nancy Wilson, who covered it in the Hawaii Five-O episode "Trouble in Mind," which originally aired September 23, 1970. In 1970 Marianne Mendt released a version of the tune in Austria, as "A g'scheckert's Hutschpferd". James Brown scored a minor hit in 1971 with an instrumental version of the song, reaching #90 on the Billboard Hot 100. The Canadian a cappella music group, Cadence also covered this song. In 1970, it was recorded by P.P. Arnold but was not released, produced by Barry Gibb. An instrumental rendition of this song was used as a cue on the first Wheel of Fortune pilot titled Shopper's Bazaar.

In 1983, Graham & Brown launched a television advertising campaign for their wallpaper Super Fresco, set to the tune of "Spinning Wheel" (albeit slightly modifying the original phrasing) - "what goes up, must come down. Super Fresco makes it easy, it's by Graham & Brown".

"Spinning Wheel" was sampled in Jason Forrest's "War Photographer", "Sons of Third Bass" by Third Bass, and "Big Willie" by Run DMC.