by Phil Lorito

7th House was the product of a vision conceived and developed in 1970 by Phil Lorito whose concept was to combine the virtues of a singing group with that of a pop/rock band.

Working over a period of many months to fulfill this vision, Phil Lorito embarked on a search for talent.  He started the building process with two members of the popular defunct Long Island band Chain Gang, drummer/vocalist Anthony Pizzarelli and guitar/vocalist George Fanno.  They became the building blocks for what would turn out to be the first band of its kind in the world - a seven member pop/rock ensemble with complex multi-part vocal arrangements spanning an unbelievable and amazing range.  Add to this the fact that each band member was an accomplished and talented musician and the sum creation was a wonderfully exciting and enormous musical presentation to compliment a very uniquely original vocal sound.  This musical orchestration along with astonishing vocals created a sound never before heard in the pop/rock field.

With a good deal of hard work 7th House started to take form.  With the addition of Christine Spero (piano/vocals), Carrie Yates (guitar/vocals), Sue Scourby (percussion/vocals), Richard Lanna (keyboard/vocals) and Robert "Otto" Wahl (bass/vocals), the band embarked on playing the club circuit throughout the metropolitan New York area and gained immediate popular acclaim and developed a massive following.

In a very short period of time, Phil Lorito arranged a successful record company showcase for the band at the popular Cheetah Club located on West 55th Street in Manhattan. Three record companies emerged as serious suitors - Mercury Records, Buddha Records and Kirshner Records. After numerous discussions and a very sizable record royalty advance the group signed a recording contract with Kirshner Records.

Entering the recording studio with producers Neil Sedaka and Howard Greenfield the group recorded several original songs.  The first single recorded, entitled "Ode To Freedom" was written by Chris Spero along with the B-side, a song entitled River Queen which was written by Neil Sedaka never achieved the level of airplay or sales to make the song or band noteworthy other than to say a copy of this vinyl record would surely be a rare collector's item today.