Spinning Wheel

David Clayton-Thomas wrote "Spinning Wheel" for Blood, Sweat & Tears' 1968 self-titled album. It was issued as a single in May 1969 on Columbia, with "More and More" on the flip, and reached number 2 on the Billboard Hot 100 in July of that year, number 1 on the Easy Listening chart and number 1 in Canada; Fred Lipsius won a 1970 Grammy for the arrangement. Clayton-Thomas has said the message is not to get too caught up. Peggy Lee, Sammy Davis Jr., Shirley Bassey, James Brown, Maynard Ferguson and Benny Goodman also covered it between 1969 and 1973.

Smith's version is track two on Drives, running 7:30, recorded on January 2, 1970 at Van Gelder Studio with the saxophonists Dave Hubbard and Ronnie Cuber, the guitarist Larry McGee and the drummer Joe Dukes. We assumed our upload is this version, as the video's title carries no album, which was not verified. Smith's recording was sampled by A Tribe Called Quest on "Can I Kick It?" (1990, from People's Instinctive Travels and the Paths of Rhythm) and "Buggin' Out", and Jambands counted over 60 hip-hop songs sampling it; Blue Note's 2015 note on his return also mentions the Tribe sample. We found no comment from Smith on the track, no video, and no live history.