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\n<\/p>\nNeil Diamond had no idea what he passed up when he turned down a song his roadie, Larry E. Williams, had written. It was 1975, and Diamond was focused on cutting demos for his next album, Beautiful Noise, in Los Angeles.<\/p>\n
Instead, the song went to recent arrivals in the City of Angels, Howard and David Bellamy \u2014 better known as the Bellamy Brothers. \u201cLet Your Love Flow,\u201d the duo\u2019s debut single, didn\u2019t just go big \u2014 it went international, topping the charts in the U.S. and Germany and reaching the Top 10 in numerous other countries.<\/p>\n
But how the Bellamys got the song in the first place is a story in itself \u2014 and it\u2019s all thanks to a stash of homegrown weed.<\/p>\n
You may like<\/p>\n
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The Bellamy Brothers perform their debut hit on television in 1976. (Image credit: Alamy)<\/p>\n
In 1974, Howard and David Bellamy were struggling musicians from Darby, Florida, with a slim r\u00e9sum\u00e9 that included writing songs for local commercials. Their early involvement with comedian-musician Jim Stafford led David and Stafford to co-write \u201cSpiders & Snakes,\u201d a number-three hit for Stafford in 1974. The song\u2019s success proved crucial to their survival in the music business.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n \u201cJim and that song were really important because, at the time, we were broke,\u201d David reveals. \u201cHaving that break gave us a little bit of stability and allowed us to move out to Los Angeles.\u201d<\/p>\n Which is how they met Diamond\u2019s band.<\/p>\n \u201cThey were doing sessions here and there, and we met them through mutual friends, and then we all became friends,\u201d David says.<\/p>\n \u201cWe smoked a lot of pot together, so that was really helpful,\u201d Howard adds with a laugh. \u201cWe had a lot of homegrown weed, so we got to know each other, and we all became great buddies.\u201d<\/p>\n The brothers began cutting demos of their songs with assistance from Diamond\u2019s backing band. One day, Diamond\u2019s drummer, Dennis St. John, came to them with a proposition.<\/p>\n \n Posing with Strat and Telecaster guitars in 1996. (Image credit: Alamy)<\/p>\n \u201cHe said, \u2018Hey, Larry, our roadie, wrote this great song, and you guys should listen to it.\u2019 It was \u2018Let Your Love Flow.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n You may like<\/p>\n By that point, the song had been rejected not only by Diamond but also by singer and guitarist Johnny Rivers.<\/p>\n \u201cAnd when we heard the song, we were both floored,\u201d David says. \u201cWe just thought it was a great song.<\/p>\n \u201cDennis said, \u2018It sounds like something you guys would do.\u2019 And I said, \u2018Yeah, you\u2019re exactly right.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n Enhanced by the haze of weed permeating the studio, the Bellamys got down to work with help from Diamond\u2019s band and their gear.<\/p>\n \u201cWe used Richard Bennett\u2019s acoustic guitars<\/a> on the track,\u201d David says. \u201cIt was a black Gibson Everly Brothers J-180 with the double pickguards. I remember Richard taking it out of the case all the time and playing it. We also used a Martin D-28 acoustic<\/a> as well.\u201d<\/p>\n It wasn\u2019t like you had to go in and strip it down and start all over. We cut the single in about five or six takes.\u201d<\/p>\n \u2014 David Bellamy<\/p>\n The sessions went smoothly. \u201cThe band had played on the original demo, and it was actually arranged perfectly,\u201d David says. \u201cIt wasn\u2019t like you had to go in and strip it down and start all over. We cut the single in about five or six takes.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cBut the mix took three days!\u201d Howard interjects. \u201cWe were searching for that sweet spot. I just remember those late nights with that mix and our engineer throwing his headset against the wall. It took a while, but whatever we did seemed to work in the end.\u201d<\/p>\n \n Howard (left) and David Bellamy perform at Country Thunder Wisconsin, July 22, 2016. They\u2019re currently on the road with their 50 Years of Hits tour. (Image credit: Timothy Hiatt\/Getty Images for Country Thunder)<\/p>\n Indeed it did. Released by Warner Bros. Records in January 1976, \u201cLet Your Love Flow\u201d reached number one on the Billboard Hot 100 in May and crossed over to the Adult Contemporary and Country charts as well. David notes that their label gave the single to visiting record executives from the Netherlands, who in turn shared it with label heads in Germany. The song subsequently charted in both countries, reaching number one in Germany and Switzerland. It also enjoyed major success in Norway, Sweden, the U.K., South Africa, New Zealand and Australia.<\/p>\n I don\u2019t know if Neil later regretted it or not, but he was always very complimentary about it.\u201d<\/p>\n \u2014 David Bellamy<\/p>\n The duo have continued to thrive over the years, particularly on the country charts, with hits like \u201cIf I Said You Have a Beautiful Body (Would You Hold It Against Me)<\/a>\u201d and \u201cDo You Love as Good as You Look\u201d among their 26 Top 10 country singles. They\u2019ll hit the road this year on their 50 Years of Hits tour<\/a>, with an extensive run of dates. That includes their first-ever headlining show at Nashville\u2019s Ryman Auditorium on June 25.<\/p>\n As for Neil Diamond, did he ever rue the day he passed on \u201cLet Your Love Flow\u201d?<\/p>\n \u201cI don\u2019t know if Neil later regretted it or not,\u201d David says, \u201cbut he was always very complimentary about it. We\u2019ve stayed friendly, and he\u2019s been kind of a lifelong contact of ours ever since.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Neil Diamond had no idea what he passed up when he turned down a song his roadie, Larry…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":309052,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[93,61,60,278],"class_list":{"0":"post-309051","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-music","8":"tag-entertainment","9":"tag-ie","10":"tag-ireland","11":"tag-music"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/309051","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=309051"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/309051\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/309052"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=309051"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=309051"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=309051"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"The](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/7AWYCFGae62bbT8x9rVwm.jpg\")
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