Song of the Day: The Spiral Starecase - "More Today Than Yesterday" (1969)
A '60s classic to enjoy...oh, and I finished "Interstate '85" once and for all
Happy September Marshall Artists!
With the last few official days of summer flickering away, it’s time to pivot to the true greatest time of the calendar year: fall. That’s right. For all the romanticism of summer, I truly maintain the autumn chill brings about the most bountiful period of the 365-day marathon. The MLB playoffs, the beginning of the NBA season, Halloween, that certain turkey holiday that’s really nice save for historical connotations, and my birthday (November 21)…it’s ALL happening now. Once that’s all done and processed, time to immediately pivot to Christmas.
That said, it was a nice summer, for one big reason in particular. In case you aren’t in my social media orbit where I heartily announced it, I submitted the final manuscript for my long-awaited 1985 World Series book, Interstate ‘85, to University of Missouri Press on September 1. I was tempted to write a long-winded reflection on the four-year odyssey here, especially after my delightful trip to Kansas City last month.
Truth be told, I’ll save that (and other similar pieces) for later, perhaps closer to when it hits shelves in March or April 2025. Partly because, much as I love the book and am proud of finishing it, I am simply exhausted from it, to the point of taking a hiatus from writing books that will last a minimum of two years. I am instead shifting my mind to other life goals, including weight loss, travel, combat sports training, and developing a detective video game with my close friend Alex Aguilar.
Also, with the news of Tyler Glasnow’s assuredly season-ending injury (followed by two embarrassing pummelings by the Braves), I don’t really feel like talking about the Dodgers, let alone writing my next Ravine Ramblings piece. Sorry. That said…I will be in L.A. when the NLDS starts in early October for a Big Star supergroup concert. Here’s hoping this current spate of doubt amongst the Dodger faithful will be a distant memory by then, and the end of October. I am not holding my breath.
Instead of any baseball missives, I feel it’s time to add another entry to the Song of the Day gallery. For today’s pick, I’m traipsing my neck of the woods for a one-hit wonder so good that I genuinely can’t believe the band responsible didn’t parlay it into a big career. Said band is the Spiral Starecase, a Sacramento, CA-based group with matching vests and bowl cuts so comically late ‘60s they could be the template for one of Spinal Tap’s trend-chasing alter egos.
The band’s origins began 60 years ago in 1964, when they started in Sacramento as a four-piece instrumental group named the Fydallions. Formed for an Air Force contest, the band later went on the road, eventually becoming a fixture in Las Vegas. Their Sin City grind paid off when a representative for Columbia Records noticed them, leading to their signing with the label (under the condition they changed their name, which they did with a slightly altered spelling of the 1946 psychological horror film The Spiral Staircase).
After signing, the band churned out a pair of singles in 1968. After that, Columbia pushed the Spiral Starecase to record an entire album, with plenty of original material alongside their well-rehearsed covers. The resultant product, More Today Than Yesterday, hit record store shelves on May 19, 1969. Two months before a human being landed on the moon for the first time, and three months before Woodstock. The album drew its name from a single of the same name that the band issued in January of the same year, a track that ultimately found its way to #12 on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100.
And for good reason. “More Today Than Yesterday” is not only a perfect song, but also the perfect kind of one-hit wonder. It’s so era-specific that you can immediately compare it to the two most obvious influences on its sound. The horn-heavy arrangement sounds like something one would expect from Blood, Sweat & Tears, whose unique jazz-rock hybrid exploded into the mainstream just a year prior. Singer Pat Upton’s vocal, meanwhile, could easily be mistaken for Stevie Wonder’s innocent timbre, a mimicry whose intention is all the more evident given a cover of “For Once in My Life” comes just two tracks later on the album.
Truthfully, such proximity to those bigger names is secondary to the fact that “More Today Than Yesterday” is just an outstanding song that stands on its own, without any frame of reference. Musically, it blends an uplifting horn section with an insistent rhythm section that never loses time. Lead singer Pat Upton (who also wrote the song) expounds on that buoyant sound with a pristine declaration: “I love you more today than yesterday/But not as much as tomorrow.” It’s the fresh kind of phrasing needed to make a love song more than just another standard love song. It’s a declaration, one tailor-made for infinite anniversary celebrations.
However, as impeccable as “More Today Than Yesterday” was (and still is), it ultimately proved an outlier. The album’s only other single, the Upton-penned “No One for Me to Turn To,” petered out at #52 on the Billboard charts. The Spiral Starecase wouldn’t release a sophomore album, breaking up in 1971 over a plethora of troubles. Upton absconded to work as a session musician (including working with Ricky Nelson), while organist Harvey Kaye reformed the band in the mid-’70s to tour across North America for the next decade. Many key original members have since passed away, with Upton departing the mortal realm in 2016.
Yet, even if the original Spiral Starecase proved to be ephemeral, their one hit thrives more than a half-century after its release. In the decades since, its staying power is reflected by the armada of big acts that have covered it: Diana Ross, Chicago, Andy Williams, Lena Horne, Goldfinger, and many others. Enjoy it fresh today, and cherish it for the rest of your life.