Mixed Feelings

Based in St. Matthews, South Carolina, USA, Mixed Feelings band leader and keyboard player Glenn Walling never expected that "Sha-La-La" would become an international sensation three decades after its original release. Drafting it on the fly in under 20 minutes in 1976, he intended it for the flip side of the group's self-proclaimed masterpiece, a country-inflected soul ballad entitled "Love Will Find A Way," but the Nashville-based distributor inadvertently switched up the sides on the promotional copies. The Mixed Feelings grew out of the all-white Royals, an R&B/beach combo that Glenn Walling formed with friends from St. Matthews as well as nearby Orangeburg, South Carolina. The Royals met vocalist Arthur Donaldson and successfully auditioned him for lead vocalist, adding him as a permanent member the next year, and changing names to "Mixed Feelings."