In the meantime, Dave Dawson and Rick Cunha had moved to Los Angeles from Hawaii, where they had worked as a folk duo. "The three of them were playing a hoot one night, separately, at Ledbetter's in Westwood, says Murray. All of a sudden, we were jamming after the hoot and said, "God, we sound great together. Nobody sounds like us.'"

The trio was particularly distinguished from other acts on the embryonic L.A. folk-rock circuit with their prominent autoharp, an instrument employed by few other folk-rock bands of the time (the Lovin' Spoonful being the most notable exception). Playing sometimes as an acoustic trio and sometimes as an electric band with bassists and drummers depending on the situation, the threesome began to stir interest from A&R men at several labels, including Columbia's Gary Usher, Elektra's Paul Rothchild, and Capitol's Nik Venet.

When I decided to record this song, we knew it needed a group of singers for backup vocals because the song never changes keys. It stays in "G" chord all the way, which can get repetitious for one vocal. The Oak Ridge Boys are some long time friends of mine and had sang backup on songs like Paul Simon's "Slip Sliding Away" and several others besides all of their own successful recordings over the years. When I ask them to be on this session, they were very gracious and seemed to be truly excited about being a part of it. They all showed up at Magic Tracks Studio together in their tour bus and did a great job on the song. I am very thankful to them for all of their help on this session.