"Some Kind Of Wonderful" (J. Ellison) - Grand Funk; Capitol label, # 3 Billboard Hot 100, # 85 Billboard R&B - 1975. Inducted in 2009.
Growing up in and around Flint, Michigan in the 1960's, all of the members of Grand Funk were exposed to, and inspired by the soul music hits on the local AM radio stations. "Some Kind Of Wonderful" by the Soul Brothers Six got a lot of airplay on Flint's WTAC in 1967. The guys in Grand Funk always loved the song and would often sing it as a warm-up in their limo on the way to concerts.
The band finally recorded it for their 1975 album, "All The Girls In The World". Producer Jimmy Ienner wanted Grand Funk to make their cover version of "Some Kind Of Wonderful" sound as basic as possible - almost like a demo recording. The cut has Mark Farner and Don Brewer singing together to a musical backing that is mostly just bass and drums.
"Some Kind Of Wonderful" was a very different sounding single for Grand Funk in that it had very little guitar; but it became their fifth consecutive Top Ten hit, and spent 13 weeks in the Hot 100 in early 1975.
