Anthology

The Sons of Champlin started in 1965 in Marin County, California rising from the wreckage of the Opposite Six, a locally popular R&B band from the pre-Beatle era. “Six” members, Bill Champlin and Tim Cain, added Terry Haggerty and the first of a series of drummers and bass players, and the new band was named for the “front” man, Bill Champlin.

Bill Champlin started as a “pop singer” who discovered rhythm and blues in high school. By the age of fourteen he had written a blues tune, which remained a staple of Sons’ performances, “Beggin’ You Baby.” After winning all the music awards at Tamalpais High School, he took up music as a profession with the Opposite Six. As he began writing tunes for the Sons in 1967 his writing began to show signs of growing into something unusual and deeper than most R&B themes of love and loss. Bill’s blues-influenced guitar playing and Hammond organ kept the backgrounds close to the R&B roots, while the lyrics explored new territory. Bill has earned two songwriting Grammies, in 1979 and 1981.