During the rest of that summer and through the fall of 1972, Love Song continued to tour extensively. In between the traveling, some of the guys helped Freddie build a new studio out in North Hollywood. The studio was completed just as Love Song began recording the tunes for their second album. Most of that winter was taken up recording "Final Touch," and, in between the recording sessions, there were more personal appearances.
Now we've been talking about quite a number of "personal appearances" and have mentioned more than once the fact that Love Song's ministry continued to "expand." One might ask the question, What with so many concerts, did those concerts ever become impersonal, or did the group ever become bored with it all? Happily, for Love Song, the matter never got to that point. Chuck explains it this way, "To us, all of the concerts were unified and every concert was a high point. We felt like the concert we were doing at any one particular moment was the best. You see, we considered all of our concerts a part of our ministry. Each concert was really important because of what God did in different situations with various individuals."
Chuck, Bob, Tommy, Jay |
Naturally, when five guys log tens of thousands of miles together as instruments of our Lord, there are bound to be high points and concerts they remember vividly. One such highlight will not soon be forgotten by John, Jay, Tommy, Chuck and Bob, for rarely has one musical group aroused the sheer volume of physical and spiritual response that Love Song did in the Philippines in February of 1973.
Months after Love Song's first album had been released and distributed throughout the United States, the title song off the album made its way to Manila, where it quite literally skyrocketed to the number one position on the pop charts. Love Song's reputation, for the moment, surpassed that of such notables as the Beatles and the Rolling Stones. Some local missionaries caught wind of the furor and discovered that the group responsible for the music was indeed a Christian group. They soon realized that Love Song would be the perfect evangelistic vehicle in a massive outreach program to Manila's millions of young people. Love Song accepted the invitation to go to the Philippines and what happened there after the news came that Love Song was coming wets nothing short of phenomenal. For one thing, the advance publicity was immense. A foreign rock group had not visited the Philippines in more than a year, so Love Song's arrival was, in itself, an event. Scores of newspaper and magazine articles and sixty-foot billboards heralded the five American musicians who had "come out of the hippie movement into a personal and meaningful relationship with Christ."
Once on the islands, Love Song was followed continually by a hoard of news reporters and photographers. Over 50,000 people flocked to the week-long "Love Song Festival" at Manila's Rizal Stadium, while the group ministered to another 30,000 students at various campuses in the area. "I guess the Philippines was the closest we came to that dream every musician has, that is, playing before vast throngs of people and knowing you're being accepted," recalls Bob. "And yet, with all of the exposure and acceptance, not once did any member of the group ever develop a 'star complex.' Our only real purpose at all of our concerts was to minister to those who came to hear us."