by David Smay

Pity the American child of the seventies, denied the spectacle of Marc Bolan on Top of the Pops, the Sweet lip-syncing on The Old Grey Whistle Test, and completely ignorant of Supersonic. The flashiest, trashiest, popcultiest of all rock genres, glam rock sparked more epiphanies on the telly than it ever did on Radio London. But television’s place in the history of the glam era is just one of the many parallels between glam and bubblegum.

We can parcel out glam rock into several loose packets. On the arty end of the aisle, you have Bowie, Roxy Music and Steve Harley & Cockney Rebel. Smartypants art-rock, heavily dependent on the Velvet Underground and the amusing notion that Pop Music offers many choice poses and costumes for the aesthete around town. This wing of glam dallies little with bubblegum. Still, Bowie’s assertion that the Spiders From Mars made better fake rock and roll than the Monkees reveals much of his method, and Roxy knocked out mutant pop songs like “Do the Strand” with casual ease. (Mott the Hoople were barely glam and never bubblegum. The fact that Bowie handed them glam rock’s anthem ranks as a brilliant mistake in their career aspiration to wed Bob Dylan with the Rolling Stones.) At the far other extreme from the art students lurked the prole brigade headed by the hard-rocking Slade, a group strongly associated with their boot-boy audience and fostered by ex-Animal/ ex-Hendrix handler Chas Chandler. Two facts already become clear: the high-degree to which most glam acts depended heavily on sixties musical veterans, and the profound influence of the mods on glam. Have you seen any mid-sixties photos of Bowie, Marc Bolan, Roy Wood? Mods the lot of ‘em. Back to our glam taxonomy, we find the middle ground occupied by the groups that owe the most to bubblegum. T. Rex and Gary Glitter belong here, and the bands produced by Mike Chapman and Nicky Chinn (The Sweet, Suzi Quatro and Mud).

Marc Bolan reinvented himself and invented glam with the singles “Ride a White Swan” and “Hot Love.” Hooking his fey, fairy folk music up to sturdy Eddie Cochran riffs (but keeping the conga drums), Marc caused a sensation in the UK. He shoved hippie crap off the charts and handed rock and roll back to the kids. And the Crash Street Kidds loved the glittery eyeshadow and platform shoes and the satin jackets and the overdetermined hairstyles. T. Rex perfected (then exhausted) their formula with a run of hits like “Get It On (Bang a Gong),” “Jeepster,” “20th Century Boy” and “Children of the Revolution. Despite Bolan’s brilliance as a singles artist, the disposable nature of his hits, and even the fact that he ended his career hosting a television show aimed directly at the bubblegum market, T. Rex is not really a bubblegum band. T. Rex did, however, mate rock and roll back with pop music and, perhaps more importantly launched a Pop Moment.

Into that moment stepped the makers of the gummiest of glam music, Nicky Chinn and Mike Chapman. Discovered by sixties pop veteran Mickie Most (Herman’s Hermits, Jeff Beck, Lulu), Aussie Chapman hooked up with Nicky Chinn and their earliest chart success was with a band named New World (later disgraced for rigging votes on the Star Search-like British show, Opportunity Knocks. You can already sense a barely checked ambition in their approach to chart success).

Chinn and Chapman soon turned their energies solely to songwriting, and linked up with a band formerly known as Sweetshop to turn out a slew of pure, no-mistaking-it bubblegum. “At the time there was a record called 'Sugar Sugar' by the Archies and it'd sold zillions, it'd sold about seven or eight million records worldwide. And I thought: wouldn't it be great to tap into that pop bubblegum market?” recalls Phil Wainman. These early singles by the Sweet—written by ChinniChap, produced by Wainman, and played by Wainman’s session crew—included “Co-Co,” “Chop Chop,” “Wig-Wam Bam,” “Little Willy,” “Tom Tom Turnaround” and “Funny, Funny.”

Sweet’s early singles charted (and were charming bits of bubblegum in their own right), but the band was allowed to express themselves on harder rocking B-sides. You can see the trouble brewing, since the band saw themselves as another Deep Purple, yet were having hits in an entirely Archies-influenced mold. Phil Wainman’s approach undoubtedly added to the tension: “I made as many enemies as I made friends because I'd upset other musicians, I'd upset other producers that I was working for. ‘Cause I put my team in: 'The only way you're gonna make that a hit is book my guys, we'll turn up and work out your songs.”

Sensing the potential in both the group and the emergence of glam, Chinn and Chapman stole the riff to “I’m A Man” (as recorded by the Yardbirds ) and produced “Blockbuster.” It’s worth noting that Bowie stole that same riff for “Jean Genie” (as did the Nashville Teens on “Tobacco Road.”) Chapman said, "It's a good thing to revive riffs from the past because you know kids like it.” To which Nicky added, “We get a lot of criticism from people saying we’re getting money for old rope, but it’s not easy to write plastic songs.” The Sweet actually had more hits and wider worldwide sales than T. Rex or Gary Glitter with Top 10s "Hell Raiser," "Ballroom Blitz," "Teenage Rampage," and "The Six Teens."

Mickie Most discovered Suzi Quatro in a Detroit club in 1970 and brought her to England. There Chinn and Chapman poured her into a black leather jumpsuit (searing the fantasies of spotty boys across the U.K.) and pushed “Can the Can” up the charts. Suzi’s subsequent singles closely aped the same formula (closer in spirit to Gary Glitter than the Sweet with their dependence on a HUGE tribal beat) until it was milked dry. To most Americans, she’s better known as Leather Tuscadero, the rockin’ little sister of Fonzie’s true love, Pinky Tuscadero.

ChinniChap’s third major glam act sported the least glamorous name imaginable, Mud. Barely known in the U.S. but much loved in the U.K., Mud scored eleven Top 20 hit singles and a trio of #1s: “Tiger Feet,” “Lonely This Christmas” and “Oh Boy.” Their best single might be “Dynamite” which went to #4 and showed off lead singer Les Gray’s Presleyan (Elvis, not Reg) vocals. Like the Sweet, Mud were a veteran live act that simply suffered for lack of material Chin and Chapman redressed that problem successfully.

One of the odder features of the glam movement was its fifties fetish, evident not only in Les Gray’s voice, but in Alvin Stardust’s paunchy rehash of Gene Vincentisms, the otherwise inexplicable band Showaddywaddy, the ubiquitous return of saxophones and those D.A.’s Roxy Music sported on their first album. This was consistent with the same nostalgia wave that put Sha-Na-Na on TV and made American Graffiti a huge hit. In Britain, however, a conscious desire to recapture the initial impact of American rock and roll in the fifties drove glam’s fascination with the era.

Gary Glitter began life as Paul Gadd, made several unsuccessful runs at the charts in the sixties as Paul Raven and was a pot-bellied, leftover never-was when he hooked up with Mike Leander. Leander was (yet again) a respected music veteran from the sixties, best known for arranging the strings on Marianne Faithfull’s early singles and scoring the Ultra-Mod movie Privilege. Seizing the glam opportunity, Leander (who played all the instruments except the horns) crafted pop singles with a gargantuan drum sound (inspired by John Kongos “Tokoloshe Man” and Dr. John), catchy singalong chorus and hammering guitar riffs.

Dressed like a Space-Vegas Liberace, plump, stately Gary Glitter ascended the hit parade and, implausibly, became an enduring British pop icon. Plus, he bequeathed “Rock and Roll, Part Two” to stadium sound systems into perpetuity. His trademark sound became an important and much cited influence on British new wave acts like the Human League and Adam Ant as well as on glam fan Joan Jett. On a gummier note, the Spice Girls heroically covered “The Leader of the Gang” in Spiceworld.

Glam’s biggest contribution to bubblegum (arguably after the Sweet) would be the Bay City Rollers. Curiously replaying Tommy James’ breakthrough, the Rollers recorded and released “Saturday Night” during the height of the glam era, several years before it inspired Rollermania. Tam Paton cobbled the group together from several Scottish bands (including the Saxons) and brought in the Sweet’s engineer Phil Wainman to give the Rollers that hit-ready sound. Paton then recruited the songwriting team of Phil Coulter and Bill Martin who provided the tartan-clad teens with their first hits. Wainman took over after Coulter and Martin left, and actually allowed the boys to play on their own records, squeezing out a few more hits before the mania evaporated.

A handful of other glam acts successfully charted during the heyday, including such noteworthy (and listenable) cuts as “I Love Rock and Roll” by Arrows (famously covered by Joan Jett), “New York Groove” by Hello (less famously covered by Ace Frehely), and “Angel Face” by the Glitter Band. Then there was a ton of appalling crap by people like Barry Blue and the Rubettes and Alvin Stardust.

Roy Wood’s (ex- of the Move) venture into glam rock produced the nightmarish vision of a bearded hippie with an excess of eye shadow. Wizzard’s singles had elements of ‘50s rock, Beach Boy harmonies, heavy metal guitars and a Phil Spector-like density of production. Fascinating in their own right, and certainly a product of the glam era, Wizzard owe little to bubblegum. Bubblegum or not, “Ballpark Incident” and “See My Baby Jive” are recommended listening.

T. Rex brackets the glam era, from its first revolutionary singles to the sad sight of Marc Bolan toppling off the edge of the stage on his afternoon, kid-aimed TV show, Marc! Weirder still, it was the final episode of his six-show run with Granada and featured Marc jamming with old friend and rival David Bowie. Marc died shortly after that ignominious tumble.

Glam’s immediate influence turned out to be in new wave music, where Mike Chapman successfully put Blondie and the Knack on the pop charts and Phil Wainman worked with Generation X and XTC. Like bubblegum and disco, glam was primarily a producer’s genre and the sleek, radio-ready, hook-heavy hits still sound brilliant today.

The Yummies, interview with Les Fradkin
by David Smay

The Yummies (AKA Les Fradkin) had a regional hit in October 1970 called "Hippie Lady," a single on Sunflower Records. Hundreds of bubblegum one-shots ricocheted off the charts without doing any lasting damage. Here we get the inside scoop on how one such act, the Yummies, came to be.

David Smay: How did you first get signed to MGM? Did you submit a demo tape? Were you a studio singer/musician that they thought they could spin into a solo act?

Les Fradkin: I was brought over to MGM by Randy Edelman, another songwriter who I befriended at April-Blackwood Music (CBS), where I was already signed as a staff writer. He bolted over to MGM where the "grass looked greener" and suggested that if I was looking for a solo deal (which I was), to give them a try (which I did). My "demo" consisted of a live audition with my acoustic 12-string guitar for Eddie Deane and Wally Schuster (Leo Feist Music) who signed me to a long-term production and songwriter agreement. They thought they could spin me into a solo act due to my involvement with Edison Lighthouse, where I had never had the opportunity to contribute as a writer. Plus I had the endorsement of John Hammond Sr. from my tenure at CBS and I guess that meant something in those days.

DS: Who produced the sessions for the Yummies? Who wrote the songs?  Who played on the sessions?

LF: The sessions were produced by myself, Eddie Deane and Steve Katz (our engineer). The sessions took place at Sound Exchange Studios in NYC in the early fall 1970. This situation evolved because I was already signed to Sunflower/MGM Records as a solo artist ("Fearless Fradkin") and I was keen to prove myself as a producer to the powers that were. So, brazenly, I asked for the shot. They said, "do something on your own and, if we like it, we'll buy the master!" I already had a single out as Fearless Fradkin (SUN #101: "Song Of A Thousand Voices" b/w "You Can Cry If You Want To"). This record was given a Billboard Top 60 pick and superficially sounded like the Brotherhood of Man type style. The song was successful on the MOR charts (#12) but never made it higher than #87 US. BUT… Mirielle Mathieu recorded it for Philips and had a massive hit with it in 1971 where it hit #1 and sold really well.  I talked endlessly about this possible independent production project to Steve Katz.  He was very supportive of the idea to do a bubblegum record, since it was still quite popular on the charts at that time. So we went to the record shop and bought every bubblegum record we could lay our hands on and proceeded to "dissect" the "formula." His boss Bob Morgan (who produced Bobby Vinton and owned the studio) was given a piece of the deal to get the time booked. I basically wrote both songs with a little help from Eddie Deane on lyrics. Steve and Bob were given co-credit although they really had nothing to do with the writing. More political perks, I guess.  Since we didn't want to spend much money out of pocket, I played all the instruments on both sides of the record. We "borrowed" a Farfisa organ (an important sound to use) and I played acoustic and electric guitars, bass AND drums to a click so I could keep accurate time. Eddie and Bob helped with endless handclap overdubs.  I sang all the lead vocals. Eddie and I did the backgrounds.  The single that we originally planned was "Patty Cake." We even cut an acetate with the B-side consisting of the A-Side played backwards! They said, "we want a real B-side!" Back we went. Out came "Hippie Lady"--a kind of "Bo Diddley" bubblegum piece. To our surprise, they like that side even more than "Patty Cake." So "Hippie Lady" became the A-side of Sunflower #103. It was released October 1970.

DS: Did the Yummies ever make any live performances, or were they only a studio creation?

LF: The Yummies were intended, at first, as just another studio group. But the record hit in a couple of regions, which necessitated our "employing" some of my friends to assist in a couple of TV spots to lip-sync it.

After The Yummies, Les continued to record for MGM, though his solo album was never released. As a producer he worked on an unreleased Left Banke album for Bell in 1972, and birthed (Lester Bangs’ favorites) the Godz’ two albums for ESP.  In the late ‘70s, Les joined the original cast of Beatlemania, left to write jingles and compose for soap operas, only to return to Beatlemania for the entire nineties.  Today, Les is again working as a producer.