Roger Nichols & The Small Circle of Friends

Roger Nichols & The Small Circle of Friends is an American pop group. The group consisted of singer-songwriter Roger Nichols, and siblings Melinda MacLeod and Murray MacLeod. They released an eponymous album on A&M Records in 1968, considered an influential forerunner to the style of pop music that would be prevalent during the '70s. After almost forty years of little to no activity, the Small Circle of Friends reunited in the late '00s, releasing an album of re-recorded Nichols compositions. Roger Nichols & The Small Circle of Friends dealt with lyrical themes such as loneliness, a failure to communicate, and love in a manner more mature than most anything that had been heard before. Melinda MacLeod makes significant vocal contributions to the album, sharing lead vocal spotlight with Nichols almost equally. The usage of MacLeod's voice on the album may be considered a prototype for Karen Carpenter; indeed, Nichols would (in conjunction with Paul Williams) pen several hit songs for Carpenters. Read more on Last.fm. User-contributed text is available under the Creative Commons By-SA License; additional terms may apply.