Songfacts®:

• Grand Funk drummer Don Brewer wrote "Shinin' On" and sang lead. Says Brewer: "It came from me wanting to express myself as far as we are all winners and losers, bedfellow choosers, but we all have to shine on, keep on moving forward."
• From 1970-1972, Grand Funk didn't have any big hits but nonetheless were wildly popular, with a collection of Gold albums and a huge live following. In 1973 they became hitmakers as well with their album We're An American Band, which was produced by Todd Rundgren and spawned a #1 hit with "the title track. Rundgren returned for the Shinin' On album, which gave them another #1 with their cover of "The Loco-Motion". "Shinin' On" was the next single, and also a big hit.
  
  "It was the first record we had done at our own studio in Michigan," Don Brewer said. "We'd been working on building this place for a couple of years and we finally got the thing done and recorded that album there. We mixed it in New York, but we recorded the whole thing there. It was a fun project. There were some little tensions starting to arise at that point, but all in all, it was good fun." (Quotes from a Don Brewer Songfacts interview.)