Born 76 Years Ago Today in Florida, One Half of the Chart-Dominating Sibling Duo Responsible for the No. 1 Country Pickup Line of All Time

Before there was Brooks & Dunn, there was the Bellamy Brothers. Consisting of real-life siblings Howard and David Bellamy, the duo broke through in 1976 with the crossover smash “Let Your Love Flow”. From there, they would go on to score another 19 number-one country hits, including the saucy 1979 single “If I Said You Had A Beautiful Body Would You Hold It Against Me”. Today, we’re exploring the life and career of younger brother David Bellamy, born in Darby, Florida, on this day (September 16) in 1950.

David Bellamy Turns 76 Years Old Today

Howard and David Bellamy owe much of their musical style to the diverse influences surrounding them during their childhood in Florida.

Their father, Homer, played traditional country music around the house and performed with a Western swing band on the weekends. The brothers also soaked up the calypso music of the neighboring Caribbean islands, along with their sister’s rock and roll records. By their late teens and early twenties, they had come back around to country music, gravitating to artists like George Jones and Merle Haggard.

Musical Beginnings

Despite a lack of formal training, both brothers mastered the guitar, mandolin, and banjo, with David Bellamy also picking up accordion, fiddle, organ and piano.

Getting their start at a musical benefit concert alongside their father at the Rattlesnake Roundup in San Antonio, Florida, the brothers continued playing at local dances, performing covers of popular rock and R&B tunes.

The Bellamy Brothers earned degrees from the University of Florida — Howard in veterinary medicine; David in psychology. They also furthered their musical education, landing paying gigs at college fraternity parties.

In 1968, the siblings moved to Atlanta and formed the band Jericho. However, they returned home after eventually growing tired of the never-ending onslaught of bands and clubs.

Skyrocketing to Global Fame

In 1973, they met a friend of singer Jim Stafford, who co-wrote the humorous swamp-rock tune “Spiders and Snakes” with David Bellamy. Bellamy based the lyrics on his own childhood experiences growing up on a farm in Florida.

Stafford recorded “Spiders and Snakes” and released it as a single in early 1974. Selling more than three million copies, the song reached number three on the pop charts.

The success of “Spiders and Snakes” gave the Bellamy Brothers enough money to move to Los Angeles, where they pursued a full-time music career.

Signing with Curb/Warner Bros in 1975, their first single, “Nothin’ Heavy”, was a flop.

However, at the suggestion of Neil Diamond’s drummer, Dennis St. John, the brothers recorded and released the single “Let Your Love Flow”, written by Diamond’s roadie Larry Williams. 

The breezy tune topped the pop charts, also reaching number two on the adult contemporary listing and number 21 on the Hot Country Singles roster.

“You know, with Howard and I, we wanted to have a hit — find one, write one, record one, anything we could do. And we did. We ended up having a very, very big first record worldwide, and after that, I think we just saw the opportunities,” David told Taste of Country in 2015. “The first song was so big around the world, we just kept working those markets. The U.S., Europe, Australia, South Africa … anywhere we could go. I think it just evolved out of that. We had more hits, and the pop success that we had rolled into country.”

Still Going Strong 50 Years Later

Three years after the smash success of “Let Your Love Flow”, the Bellamy Brothers topped the U.S. country charts for the first time with “If I Said You Have a Beautiful Body Would You Hold It Against Me”.

According to a 2003 article from Country Weekly magazine, the song’s double-entendre title — derived from a Groucho Marx quote — is the number-one country music pickup line of all time.

Howard and David Bellamy continued their impressive country music run with a string of hits in the 1970s and ’80s, including “Redneck Girl”, “Santa Fe”, “Old Hippie” and “Kids of the Baby Boom”.

They would eventually go on to set the record for most duo nominations from both the Academy of Country Music and Country Music Association.

[RELATED: On This Day in 1979, the Bellamy Brothers Were at No. 1 With a Song That Sparked a Feud With a Pop Superstar Decades Later

The siblings released their most recent album, Covers from the Brothers, in 2021 on their own label, Bellamy Brothers Records.

Featured image by Joshua Applegate/Getty Images