Bubblegum University - Kim Cooper

Bubblegum documentary screening in Venice, CA

Fri, 09 Mar 2007 17:38:59 -0800

7 DUDLEY CINEMA at SPONTO Gallery, 7 Dudley Ave, Venice, 310-306-7330, Free!

Come early - seating is limited

WED., March 14, 7pm preshow: Author Domenic Priore, Luxuriamusic.com DJ Becky Ebenkamp and anthology editor Kim Cooper screen LA's rare back-door hit Shrimpenstein! Ostensibly a children's puppet show (adult satire in disguise), this '66 KHJ-Channel 9 warper featured booze & LSD jokes. Local fans included the Rat Pack & Rod Serling.

8pm. BUBBLEGUM MUSIC IS THE NAKED TRUTH! ('05, 93min) Based on Kim Cooper and David Smay's book, Kier-La Janisse's compilation of prepubescent pop from '67 to '72 features rare footage of the 1910 Fruitgum Company, The Archies, Ohio Express, The Sweet, The Bay City Rollers, the Banana Splits, the Wombles & the Jackson 5 Cartoon. It dismantles the worst myths about how bubblegum is produced and identifies the gum tendencies of artists as varied as the Sex Pistols, Abba, the Monkees and the Ramones.

1910 Fruitgum Co. - The Best of CD (Repertoire)

Mon, 27 Nov 2006 10:57:13 -0800

Not to be confused with the similarly-titled BMG collection for which I wrote the notes in 2001 (see below). If you're seeking the most of this splendid bubblegum band you'll need to pick up both discs, as there are six songs on the earlier release not on this mainly singles selection, among them the essential "1910 Cotton Candy Castle." But if only one Fruitgum comp is in your future, it'd be hard to compete with this 28-track behemoth. I wish BMG had been as ambitious with their own vault artists as Germany's Repertoire label! You'd have to dig through a lot of scuffy vinyl to assemble a comparable analog collection spanning the short, delicious career of this most infantile of semi-imaginary Buddah combos. Kicking off with the schoolyard earworm hits (including "Simon Says," "Indian Giver" and "1-2-3 Red Light"), the disc also spotlights the band (or its studio doppelgangers) in its jazzy, psychedelic and garagey manifestations. The b-sides are highlights (and a rare chance to enjoy band-penned compositions), like the growling bad girl raver "No Good Annie," and the Chinese psych-out "Reflections from the Looking Glass." Equally great are the retarded (in a good way) "Sticky Sticky" and the Link-Wray-in-orbit stylings of "Baby Bret." The comp closes with several scarce Italian-language tracks, from the Fruitgums' late, barely-noticed Continental phase, including the exquisitely spooky "C'e Qualcosa Che Non Picardo Piu." The booklet includes notes from John Tracy and a selection of colorful 45 sleeves, sheet music covers and oddities.

Read Kim Cooper's notes from The Best of the 1910 Fruitgum Company.

Andy Kim "How'd We Ever Get This Way/ Rainbow Ride" CD (Collectors Choice)

Tue, 29 Aug 2006 12:52:49 -0700

Not the Archies, but the Archies team (Jeff Barry and Andy Kim) at the peak of their musical creativity, with a two-fer reish of dreamboat vocalist/co-writer Kim's first two albums for their indie Steed Records. After nearly a decade as producer and songwriter for hire for some of the most savvy guys in the business, Jeff Barry found himself with the muscle to bring projects to completion on his own. With these two albums, you've got the sound of pop's finest craftsmen delighting in the formal structures of late sixties pop and forging two dozen lovely little moments. "HWEGTW" is more traditional Brill Building romanticism, with Barry's trademark eclectic arrangements brimming with handclaps, steel drum and hushed, layered vocals. On "Rainbow Ride," the pair are mildly psychedelicized, offering frenetic, organ-fueled rockers ("Please Be true"). Love You-era Stonesy rambles ("Nobody's Ever Going Anywhere") and with the gorgeous "Foundation of My Soul," a reminder that, no matter what the hippie critics said, in the magical world of Kim and Barry, love, and pop, are not at all disposable.

Remastered Archies & Crazy Elephant CDs

Sat, 29 Jul 2006 08:13:44 -0700

Repertoire has remastered the bubblicious debut from Riverdale's finest, and packaged it with the mono 45 versions of "Bang Shang A Lang" (just typing that makes me wanna shimmy) and "Truck Driver." They also have turned that hard-to-find Crazy Elephant album into a shiny silver disk, with nine bonus tracks. It's pachadyrmistic.

True Life Adventures of Count Chocula

Tue, 18 Jul 2006 14:57:01 -0700

Some clever soul on Wikipedia had a little fun with the entry for Count Chocula cereal. We're archiving it below, just in case the wiki-elves decide it isn't fit for the long haul.

Count Chocula is a member of the line of monster-themed breakfast cereals produced by General Mills. It contains chocolate-flavoured corn cereal bits and marshmallows. Count Chocula is the cereal's mascot, whose name is a pun on the vampire Count Dracula. Instead of craving blood like Dracula, Chocula craves Count Chocula breakfast cereal.

In 1971, the first two cereals in the line were introduced, the still-available Count Chocula and Franken Berry. Boo Berry, a pun on blueberry, was released two years later, in 1973, and Fruit Brute came in 1974, only to be discontinued in 1983. General Mills tried replacing Fruit Brute with Yummy Mummy in 1988, but that too had a short shelf life when it was ended in 1993. The latter two are no longer sold in retail stores.

Ernst Choukula was born the third child to Estonian landowers in the late autumn of 1873. His parents, Ivan and Brushken Choukula, were well-established traders of Baltic grain who-- by the early twentieth century--had established a monopolistic hold on the export markets of Lithuania, Latvia and southern Finland. A clever child, Ernst advanced quickly through secondary schooling and, at the age of nineteen, was managing one of six Talinn-area farms, along with his father, and older brother, Grinsh. By twenty-four, he appeared in his first "barrelled cereal" endorsement, as the Choukula family debuted "Ernst Choukula's Golden Wheat Muesli", a packaged mix that was intended for horses, mules, and the hospital ridden. Belarussian immigrant silo-tenders started cutting the product with vodka, creating a crude mush-paste they called "gruhll" or "gruell," and would eat the concoction each morning before work. The trend unwittingly spread, with alcohol being replaced by sheep--and then cow's--milk, and the demand for the Choukula's "cereal" reached as far south as Poland and as far west as the northern Jutland province of Denmark. It wasn't long before the unmistakable image (the original packaging, a three gallon wooden vat which featured a burnt etching of a jubilant, overalled Ernst holding a large dog and grinning broadly) made a pop-cultural splash throughout the entirety of Europe and northern Africa. In fact, Tunisia's "Carthagian Sand Crunch" was seen as the first imitation of the Choukula form; the aforementioned product was presented in broad leathern bags with the woven insignia of a nude tribesman holding a sword and a bunched stalk of oats. Sadly, this would neither be the first nor the tamest appropriation of Ernst's iconic visage. Meanwhile, in the "textile paradise"-region of Schenectady / Elmira New York, General Peter Mills--a celebrated turret gunner in McKinley's navy--was first beginning to mine America's seemingly insatiable desire to consume food before high noon. The trend, initially known in the United States as "brekkfest" had first appeared in 1903, with Dominic Eggo's invention of "wassled" or "waffled" bread, and really picked up steam throughout the teens and twenties, when eating in the morning was no longer deemed a sin by the Anglo-Catholic church. News of Choukula's economic domination across the Atlantic fascinated and troubled Mills, who was eager for similar success. In 1927, while vacationing the Iberian peninsula, he first encountered three discarded barrels of "Duke Choukula's Animal Supplement" (the name and design of the product had undergone several makeovers throughout the previous seven years, the most recent of which featured Ernst dressed in a cape and tiara, reflecting his family's oft-disputed ties to Eurasian royalty). Immediately intrigued, Mills brought one with him on his boat ride back to the States, and spent the twenty-three day trip obsessively studying the packaging. In the spring of 1929, General Mills' "Prince Chocula's Morning Digestive" was picked up for distribution in three dozen pharmacies, grocery stands and agrarian carts throughout New York, Pennsylvania, New Jersey and northern Maryland. The public response was confused and angered at the recipe's savory, clove-like sting; apparently a confusion over the name led many to believe the breakfast was made from chocolate, and by 1931 the formula had been updated to reflect the nation's collective sweet tooth. In 1932, boxes were labeled simply "Count Chocula's Chocolate Food" and Peter Mills was named Life Magazine's "Humanitarian of the Year, 1933". Ernst Chocula died in a Ukrainian cabin, penniless and alone, having descended into a type of brain-madness.

Sprawling Best of the 1910 Fruitgum Co. Released Next Week

Mon, 10 Jul 2006 08:21:06 -0700

Repertoire has compiled a best-of that goes beyond the usual twenty-two minute selection from the annals of the Fruitgum Co. We haven't heard the remastered versions of the tunes yet, but if you've been struggling to find some of these oddities, now's the time.

Tracklist: 1. Simon Says 2. May I Take A Giant Step (Into Your Heart) 3. 1-2-3 Red Light 4. Goody Goody Gumdrops 5. Indian Giver 6. Special Delivery 7. Train 8. When We Get Married 9. Go Away 10. Lawdy Lawdy 11. Reflections From The Looking Glass 12. (Poor Old) Mr Jensen 13. Sticky Sticky 14. Candy Kisses 15. Liza 16. No Good Annie 17. Eternal Light 18. Baby Bret 19. Track 20. Clock 21. Soul Struttin' 22. Hook, Line & Sniker 23. Game Of Love 24. Song Song 25. Book 26. Semplicissimo 27. C'e Qualcosa Che Non Ricordo Piu 28. Hip Hip Hip Urrah! (1-2-3 Red Light)

Press Release: Andy Kim two-fer reissues due in July

Wed, 31 May 2006 11:10:36 -0700

This press release just in:

ANDY KIM, CO-WRITER OF “SUGAR SUGAR,” IS SWEET ON COLLECTORS’ CHOICE MUSIC

Four albums by last of the Brill Building artists (How’d We Ever Get This Way/Rainbow Ride and Baby I Love You/Andy Kim) to be reissued on two CDs on July 18

LOS ANGELES, Calif. — Andy Kim has sold millions of records, but most people are under the impression he sold mere hundreds of thousands. The reason is simple. Although Kim had many hits under his own name (“How’d We Ever Get This Way,” “Baby I Love You,” “Rock Me Gently” and “So Good Together,” to name a few), he co-wrote (with Jeff Barry) the Archies’ mega-hit “Sugar Sugar,” which sold 6 million 45 RPM units. Ron Dante provided the magic voice. Yet the fans never saw the scaffolding behind the scenes. The Archies, after all, consisted of Archie, Jughead, Reggie, Betty and Veronica, right?

Collectors’ Choice Music on July 18 will re-release four Andy Kim LPs via two loaded CDs: How’d We Ever Get This Way mates with Rainbow Ride to document Kim’s 1968-69 output, while Baby I Love You is conjoined with the eponymous Andy Kim. All albums except for Andy Kim (which was on Uni Records) were originally released on Steed Records, which was founded in 1967 by songwriter/producer Barry as a division of Jeff Barry Enterprises. Distribution was through Dot Records. It was another era, to be sure.

Andy Kim, the man with the magic pipes, was born Andre Youakim in Montreal and at age 16 arrived in New York, where he played a song for his Brill Building hero Jeff Barry. Thus began one of the most successful songwriting partnerships of the late ‘60s and early ‘70s, which in turn led to Kim’s hit singles and albums for Steed, which are widely regarded as the last, glorious gasp of the Brill Building sound.

In the spring of 1968, “Baby How’d We Ever Get This Way” charted a respectable #21 on Billboard’s pop chart, only to be bested by a series of two Ronettes remakes: “Baby I Love You” (#9, 1969) and “Be My Baby” (#17, 1970). “Be My Baby,” penned by Barry with then-wife and co-writer Ellie Greenwich, would go on to be a hit once more per decade in the hands of Dave Edmunds in the ‘70s and the Ramones in the ‘80s. And Ron Dante, the voice of “Sugar Sugar,” appeared on Kim’s hit “Rainbow Ride,” remembered for its anti-drug message.

After Steed rode off into the sunset, Kim signed with Capitol Records and released one more hit, “Rock Me Gently” (1974), but by then the landscape of pop music had changed. And the magic he had captured with Jeff Barry at Steed was not to be surpassed. In the ‘80s, he re-emerged as Baron Longfellow with two enigmatic albums. But when we think of Andy Kim, we prefer to look back to the classic era of the 45 RPM record, the final but still vital days of the Brill Building, and of course a double dosage of sugar.

The Partridge Family + The Manson Family = The Poppy Family

Wed, 03 May 2006 22:21:51 -0700

by Kim Cooper

The sixties ended with bloodbaths at Cielo Drive and Altamont, and as 1970 slouched into view there was no reason to think that the giddy bubblegum genre had one last great wad in its maw. But up in the wilds of Vancouver, B.C., a young married couple was forging a new style of bubblepop, suffused with a blast of stale dark air that was utterly redolent of the times.

From our present vantage it seems obvious that all that folk-rock-protest crap was just an entertaining shuck, and the only songwriters who were really tapped into the esprit des temps were Boyce and Hart, Bo Gentry, Kasenetz and Katz, Neil Diamond and the like. Bubblegum hid its insight into politics and human behavior in a midst of infantile fancy, but in the end it's songs like the Archies' "Hot Dog" and "Love Beads and Meditation" by the Lemon Pipers (that's the one that goes "the tangled mass of membranes that used to be me/ is a memory") that continue to speak to the youth of today, while few still breathe who can tell Zager from Evans. It's no accident that this music was only appreciated by eight year olds when it came out, because little kids had tons more on the ball than their boo-huffin' older siblings, not to mention the critics, who were too busy praising Dylan's new direction(s) to notice all the great music on Saturday morning TV. But I digress.

Terry and Susan Jacks recorded two albums for London Records as the Poppy Family before Terry's lumberjack obsessions made Susan decide to hit to road running while she still had her health and looks. And despite her indisputable talent (imagine a Karen Carpenter who really meant it), it must have been her looks that got Mrs. Jacks noticed, especially when contrasted with the weirdos in her band. Terry resembled a misguided genetic experiment fusing a komodo dragon with one of the Campbell's Soup kids, and had been a walking bad hair day for years. The session hacks who masqueraded as band members looked stranger still. Satwant Singh could have been the model for Apu, the Kwik-Mart manager on "The Simpsons," right up to the turban that added six inches to his height. And Craig Mccaw seems to have been a stoned lumberjack like Terry, although his coke-bottle glasses and white boy 'fro gave him the look of a White Panther sympathizer. Against this nebbishy cross-section, Susan stood out like a goddess. She had a compact, curvy figure that she liked to drape in skintight red jumpsuits, nicely offsetting the bubble of platinum hair that grazed her shoulders. With her sexy smile and feline eyes, she was your basic Vegas-style knockout. She must have caused quite a stir up there in the woods, and it was only a matter of time before she caught the attention of lecherous label execs throughout the lower 48.

The debut album, Which Way You Goin', Billy?, is a haunting brace of menacing melodies, featuring eleven atmospheric classics and one hilariously misguided dog. From the opening number, the broken-hearted bus-ride opus "That's Where I Went Wrong," there's a dizzying air of mystery and hopelessness, with Terry's impressive studio work adding to the general sense of doom. Terry's songs have a knack for never resolving the troubled situations they describe, trailing off into washes of eerie noise instead. Despite the brilliance and difficulty of the album, the title song (a pathetic tale of abandoned womanhood) was a big hit�#2 in the United States; #1 in Canada and the best selling single ever�and "That's Where I Went Wrong" sold a million units as the follow up single. One song that was not a hit, although in a just world it would have been, is "There's No Blood in Bone," which begins with a terrifying spoken section where the pitch of Susan's voice careens widely as she intones "Marie now walks�her life is sleep�she never looks above her feet�she never smiles nor�does�she�speak." The song lives up to this demented introduction, and surpasses it, as Susan sings "When Joey died Marie went mad" over a kinetic backing track featuring a fuzz guitar roar every bit as startling as the proto-metal solo in the Carpenters' "Goodbye to Love." It's a good thing they picked this song to close the first side, because after hearing it any listener would be drenched in sweat and in serious need of a drink. In this chemically benumbed state, we're ready to continue.

Terry runs aground on side two when he briefly forgets that he's not Phil Ochs, and attempts to write a strict racio-political polemic: "What Can the Matter Be?" Over a tinkling music box backing, Susan sings an odious p.c. lyric about a black child kept from opportunity by the color of his skin. The whole number stinks of the Free to Be You and Me ethos, and is only redeemed by the amusing couplet, "Though his mind is his own it seems all that he's got/ Is six months in jail for just smoking pot." This is, however, just a momentary misstep on an otherwise groovy album.

One lyrical theme that recurs with monomaniacal frequency is a retreat from the moral and physical decay of the city, with a suggestion that the only way out is through a descent into drugs or psychosis. The epic (3:52) final track, "Of Cities and Escapes" is sung by Terry in the persona of a manic-depressive who lives in a cell-like apartment overlooking a hellish modern city. He's too edgy to answer the phone or read a newspaper, so instead he goes on the nod: "High in my mind/ Out of the reach of time/ I'm moving far beyond the city and its paranoid storm." But at the end the poor slob has to come down, and nothing has changed. It's an unspeakably miserable way to end a nearly perfect record.

Perfection could have been attained easily enough, had London put the b-side of "Which Way You Goin', Billy?" somewhere on the album. That was a mind-blowing cover of Jody Reynolds' teen-death classic "Endless Sleep" that's up there with the best stuff on the LP. But at this point I guess Terry felt that he could afford to leave great songs on the backs of his singles. He was riding high, writing fast and exquisitely. This creative spree, sadly, was soon to end.

While the follow-up, the cutely-named Poppy Seeds (1971) has a few remarkable tracks, the paucity of original songs bespeaks a serious sophomore slump. As Terry explained in interviews around the time of "Seasons in the Sun," the break-up of the Poppy Family was largely due to the conflict between Susan's love of touring and his need to be home to write. Terry also 'fessed up after "Seasons" that the Poppy Family had never really been a band, but anyone who saw the cover of Poppy Seeds could have told you that. The sleeve photos were of just Terry and Susan, both sporting looser, more countrified appearances. They're actually frolicking with barnyard animals on the back cover, Terry grinning like a loon by a calf's rear end, and Susan has wisely exchanged her showgirl duds for a crocheted earth mother outfit. Of particular interest on Poppy Seeds are the rocking "Someone Must Have Jumped," which ends with a wild guitar solo that gives way to a honking wah-wah Beefheart screech, and "Where Evil Grows," the first single. "Evil" is simply the greatest dark bubblegum song ever written, and one of the Jacks' rare duets. Over a sinuous nursery rhyme melody, Terry and Susan inform us that "Evil grows in the dark where the sun it never shines/ Evil grows in cracks and holes and lives in peoples' minds/ Evil grew, it's part of you, and now it seems to be/ Every time I look at you, evil grows in me." And how!

And yet Poppy Seeds is very nearly a citified c&w album, with half of the twelve songs written by guys like Merle Haggard. Not that there's anything wrong with Merle Haggard, but his song is so normal that it's a letdown after the strange glories of the first album. No non-LP b-sides this time. The band split up soon after, with Terry retiring to Vancouver to establish Goldfish Records and produce Susan's subsequent solo albums. He lost his already small interest in rock stardom, realizing that his true desire was to do a great deal of fishing and hunting, and to get in the occasional round of golf. Any difficulty he might have had in financing this lifestyle were solved once he released �Seasons in the Sun,� which ironically he'd been trying to convince such artists as the Beach Boys and Edward Bear to record for years. No one was as enthusiastic as Terry was about the song, so he finally recorded it himself and hit the worldwide Top 40 jackpot. Maudlin, lyrically confused, terribly French, the song must be respected if only because it gave Terry Jacks some of the recognition and success he'd earned during the life span of the Poppy Family. Of course that doesn't mean you ought to listen to the damn thing!

Terry's still up in Vancouver, apparently living an outdoor life which now incorporates a boat called, yup, Seasons in the Sun. If you see the first Poppy Family album for sale, BUY IT! It offers such a lovely mixture of depression and elation that you'll probably end up with altered brain chemistry and maybe even nightmares. And if that doesn't sound good to you, then I can't imagine what would.

Cutting a swath through the L.A. sound with P.F. Sloan and his pals

Tue, 02 May 2006 20:34:59 -0700

Cutting a swath through the L.A. sound with P.F. Sloan and his pals
by Kim Cooper

The �P.F.� in P. F. Sloan stands for the Phillip and for nickname Flip, fittingly embodying the formal and the goofball casual in an identity and career that would be rife with contradiction. Briefly with partner Steve Barri (n�e Lipkin) among the most successful American pop songwriters, by the late sixties P.F. would have effectively vanished, his absence noted by an especially lovely Jimmy Webb ballad that bears Sloan�s name. Full of mysticism, anger, and strangeness, the P.F. Sloan story is one that needs to be told. And yes, doubters, there is a bubblegum connection�two, in fact.

New York-born Flip was blessed with smart parents: they moved to Los Angeles when he was five. By twelve the sharp, ambitious kid had wangled a contract with Aladdin Records. But nothing much came of early singles �All I Want is Loving� b/w �Little Girl in the Cabin� (Aladdin 3461, 1959) and �If You Believe In Me� b/w �She�s My Girl� (Mart 802, 1960), and we hear nothing of him for several years.

By 1963 he�d hooked up with Steve Barri, and under Gary Usher�s supervision they provided enthusiastic back-up vocals for Jan & Dean and wrote some of that group�s most memorable material, including the immortal, Rudi Gernreich-inspired �One-Piece Topless Bathing Suit.� A fun Baggys album was released on Imperial in 1964 (Tell 'Em I'm Surfin' LP-9270/LP-12270). Other surfsploitation releases with Sloan-Barri-Usher involvement included The Rincon Surfside Band�s The Surfing Song Book (Dunhill LP 50001, 1965) and Willie and the Wheels� Surfin� Song Book (RCA LP 70044, 1965). RCA was presumably too cheap to pay for that final G.

As Jan & Dean�s co-manager (with Herb Alpert), Lou Adler had had ample opportunity to see the Fantastic Baggys in action. Favorably impressed, when he started Dunhill Productions in �64 he hired them to write for his Trousdale Songs publishing company and produce acts for the label. Trousdale immediately began racking up hits, among them �Secret Agent Man� (#3) for Johnny Rivers and ex-New Christy Minstrel Barry McGuire�s �Eve of Destruction� (#1, and the record that knocked �Help� off the top spot and kept �Like a Rolling Stone� from reaching it). Sloan�s first solo album also dates from �65, Songs of Our Times (Dunhill 50004). The powerful single �Sins of the Family� (about a girl�s hopelessness in the face of her parents� depravity) reached #87 on the Billboard charts

Sloan and Barri had been asked by Adler to write some songs in the trendy folk-rock idiom. They seem to have had no problem in shifting from beach themes to protest, love and pop psychology, and Sloan was soon out-Dylaning the kid from Hibbing. This early folk-rock material would be released as the album Where Were You When I Needed You by the non-existent band the Grass Roots. The odd cover art showing an old chair in a clump of hay should have been a tip off that something wasn�t kosher, but the credulous listener might be snowed by Andy Wickham�s rambling liner notes about the band and their Sunset Strip buddies. According to fantasist Wickham, the Grass Roots were �four Johnny Folk�n�rolls who don�t pretend to be anything else. They... have long, Dickensian haircuts and they blast up and down our hallowed strip on gleaming motor-bikes with long-haired birdies wooing and cooing on the back. They probably live high in the Hollywood hills in a castle �a mode of living which the Folk-n-roll set finds highly fashionable at the moment.� And where was this mythic band discovered? Why, in �a bawdy, boisterous, smoke-filled beat parlor called �The Trip,�� although they�d recently moved to the Whisky since The Trip started booking bands in matching suits.

The first song recorded for the Grass Roots project was the title track, with lead vocals by Sloan. When a local radio station started spinning the promo 45, Dunhill began looking for a band to �be� the Grass Roots. Bubblegum alert! Sloan suggested San Mateo�s Bedouins, and their singer Bill Fulton went into the studio to record a new lead vocal to replace Sloan�s. At first the Bedouins were willing to be manipulated into a calculated career, but when they were told that single #2, a cover of Dylan�s �Ballad of A Thin Man,� was to be recorded Byrds-style with Fulton backed by studio musicians, they were irked. When �Ballad,� released in October �65, failed to break the Top 100, the Bedouins bowed out and went home to the Bay Area, where they changed names again to briefly become the Unquenchable Thirst, then splintered. Fulton went on to play in Tower of Power for many years. Meanwhile, Sloan and Barri continued working on Grass Roots material, and the Where Were You album was released without an actual band yet under contract. It didn�t chart, although the title song hit #28.

The debut album sounds like what it is: half strong songwriter�s demos helped along by a crack session team and Bones Howe�s co-engineering, half garagey actual Bedouins recordings. The seven Sloan-Barri originals are insidiously catchy, and include the soon-to-be-Turtles-classic �You Baby.� Somewhat uninspired covers (�I Am a Rock,� �You Didn�t Have To Be So Nice�) fill out the grooves and suggest that there was some rush to complete the album.

When a Los Angeles band called the 13th Floor send their demo tape in to Dunhill, they certainly didn�t expect the Eliza Doolittle treatment they ultimately received. But ambition will make boys do strange things, and this gamble paid off handsomely for the former 13th Floor. Warren Entner, Creed Bratton, Rob Grill and Rick Coonce were soon transformed into the Grass Roots, and while it�s unclear how much they actually played on their records, this is the band credited with a terrific adaptation of the Rokes� Italian hit "Piangi Con Me" as �Let�s Live for Today� that broke the Top 10 in �67. Contrived or not, the album of this name is one of the gems of the folk-rock era, and deservedly launched a fairly successful career for the Grass Roots, first with Sloan-Barri songs and later with more soulful material from the band and other outside writers.

Sloan recorded a second solo alum in 1966 Twelve More Times (Dunhill LP 50007), containing the excellent �Halloween Mary� and �Upon a Painted Ocean.� Around this time Lou Adler sold the label and put his energies into the Monterey Pop Festival, and the following year Phil returned to New York. Although he would release two more albums (1968�s Measure of Pleasure on Atco 268 and Raised on Records, Mums 31260, 1972), Sloan was beginning to retreat from the commercial world. His partnership with Steve Barri lapsed, and Barri went on to be a major producer on his own.

Although Steve Barri left production in the seventies in order to guide the careers of artists of little interest to our readers (trust me, we�re talking Commodores), he wasn�t yet finished overseeing obscenely catchy hits. It was under Barri�s guidance that Tommy Roe returned to the charts in 1969 with �Jam Up and Jelly Tight� and the delightful �Dizzy.� He was also responsible for "Billy Don't Be A Hero" by Bo Donaldson and the Heywoods and for "Don't Pull Your Love" for Hamilton, Joe Frank and Reynolds. Barri was also the person called in when the powers that be decided that chimp band The Evolution Revolution needed a hit: Barri gave the critters an old Grass Roots demo �Sha-La Love You,� and the benefit of his production savvy for this one song. Barri returned to production in the late eighties in partnership with session guitarist Tony Peluso (the man who played that insane solo in the Carpenters� �Goodbye to Love�), and scored Top 20 hits for Animotion and the Triplets.

As for P.F. Sloan, after pursuing various spiritual paths, in recent years he�s made tentative motions towards reviving his career. There was some material recorded with the Posies, a few showcase gigs in Los Angeles and elsewhere, and even an updated version of �Eve of Destruction.� So don�t close the book on him just yet.

The Sopwith Camel

Mon, 01 May 2006 23:33:13 -0700

The Sopwith Camel
by Kim Cooper

Although they recorded for Kama Sutra, and their sole hit had the traditional double-barreled name, the Sopwith Camel was emphatically not a bubblegum band. What they were were mid-sixties San Francisco misfits, a little too weird for that scene, who scored a big hit single with a New York producer and broke up so quickly that they barely finished their album.

Nevertheless, people continue to lazily lump the Sopwith Camel in with the bubblegummers, and not entirely without reason. Most Kama Sutra acts had hardcore kiddie appeal, and the Camel was no exception. Their charming, retro songs would go over nicely during kindergarten quiet time. And like all the best bubblegum bands, they were brought to New York at a producer’s behest, only to have everything go wrong. If not truly of the genre, we’re willing to peg them as bubblegumesque.

Band leaders Peter Kraemer and Terry MacNeil met in a bookshop in 1966. Terry was a student at the San Francisco Art Institute, and Peter was from a bohemian Virginia City family—although he’d moved away before the Red Dog Saloon became hepcat-central during the Charlatans’ tenure. Drummer Norman Mayell had played with Mike Bloomfield and Charlie Musselwhite in Chicago before moving west to hanging out with the Kesey crowd. Martin Beard was British, seventeen, and the bassist, natch.

Kraemer had been living with Chet Helms in the Haight when the latter was trying to launch a new group. Names were bandied about, and Kraemer’s suggestion was mocked for being “trite and dumb”—so Helms’ group became Big Brother and the Holding Company (sheesh) and Kraemer remembered Sopwith Camel when he formed his own band.

Things started happening for the Camel once occasional bassist Bobby Collins sent a demo tape including “Hello, Hello” to Lovin’ Spoonful producer Erik Jacobsen. Jacobsen—a visionary who had left his bluegrass band after hearing the Beatles, and who collaborated with John Sebastian to forge a distinctly American brand of folk’n’ roll —smelled a hit with this light-hearted, retro ditty, and invited the group out to New York. They signed with Kama Sutra, making them one of the earliest SF bands with a record deal. They’d never quite fit in with the other San Francisco bands, and “selling out” to an East Coast producer ensured that this remained the case. Nonetheless, the Victor Moscoso cover art on their album was one of the first instances of mass exposure for an underground cartoonist from the SF scene.

Sure enough, “Hello, Hello” made the Top 10. Their album, recorded as the group was disintegrating in unfriendly Manhattan, is a delightful old-timey idyll mixing moments of whimsy with some nifty oddball rock’n’roll. Kraemer’s flapper vocal stylings and romantic lyrics are well-served by the organ grinding band. You can see why Jacobsen liked them—they’re much closer to the Spoonful in their sense of play and wit than to any of the super-serious Bay Area bands. After recording a couple of Levis ads, the band split up. They reformed around 1971, prompted by Burger King’s use of “Hello, Hello” as a commercial jingle, and went on to record one well-reviewed space-rock LP with Jacobsen, The Miraculous Hump Returns from the Moon (Reprise, 1973).

Joey Levine induction

Tue, 25 Apr 2006 23:12:17 -0700

Joey Levine inducted by Kim Cooper:

In bubblegum music, as in all great art, it's the deviations from the norm that are most fascinating. Joey Levine of the Ohio Express is bubblegum royalty, and in the whole kinderpop canon, there's no one else like him. It's a thrill to present his Bubblegum Achievement Award tonight.

As a songwriter (working with his Third Rail band mate Artie Resnick), Joey gave the genre its most iconic double entendre food metaphor in "Yummy Yummy Yummy" and also its hardest rocker in "Quick Joey Small." His unmistakable singing voice, that exquisitely snotty schoolyard sneer, leant a hint of punk menace to an otherwise vanilla scene--so to those who were paying attention, it wasn't much of a shock when a bubblegum-punk crossover was achieved by the Ramones.

Bubblegum is supposed to be about studio bands where the producers pulled the strings. But even at 17, Joey was savvy enough to understand the dynamic, make the most of his opportunities and get out before bitterness set in.

If you want to have some fun later, you can go on the internet and visit the ASCAP and BMI websites. Look up "Joey Levine." On BMI, you'll find 247 crazy rock and roll titles, among them the magnificent "Chew Chewy," "Down At Lulu's," "Gimme Gimme Good Lovin'," and "Try It," not to mention "Dammi Dammi L'Amor," which I'm pretty sure is "Gimme Gimme Good Lovin'" en espanol, though it might be a loose translation of "Yummy Yummy Yummy."

Over on ASCAP, the Other Joey Levine holds court. Because in his twenties, the Bubblegum King took on a new mantle, that of Jingle King. And when you think about it, it makes perfect sense: any great bubblegum song, when boiled down to its super sweet and sticky essence, could just as easily be an advertisement. "Sometimes you feel like a nut"�that's Joey. "Just For The Taste of It, Diet Coke," too. And "Sitting on a Ritz." The bubblegum factory taught him well, and he's made quite a career out of it.

When people talk about bubblegum music, they inevitably celebrate the hooks Joey Levine brought to our lives. So with great appreciation for the joys, Almond and sonic, that he's given us, I present this Bubblegum Achievement Award to the punkest gumster of them all, Mr. Joey Levine!

Discography of known cereal box records

Tue, 25 Apr 2006 19:05:56 -0700

Here's a useful appendix from the bubblegum book... but do please note: I'm not a dealer in cereal box records, and I can't tell you the value of yours. I recommend you go to eBay.com, get an account, and "search completed auctions" for "cereal box" and the name of the artist to see what they're selling for, or click on the link below to see live auctions. Have you got questions not answered on this page? So sorry, I don't know the answer either!

Discography of known cereal box records compiled by Kim Cooper with help from Don Charles, Michael Cumella, James Porter, David Smay, Vern Stoltz and especially Lisa Sutton

One of the most delightful of bubblegum artifacts is the cardboard cereal box record, cut raggedly from the back of the box by an impatient child, or carefully by a helpful adult. At the peak of the bubblegum era, it was possible to compile an excellent library of lo-fi gems by most of the major kinderpop artists, provided a kid could talk his family into eating the right cereals.

These records have interesting precedents in the annals of American marketing. Among the earliest records offered as cereal premiums was a series of six fairy tales with follow-along books put out by Post Raisin Bran in 1949. These mail-away offers included "Beauty and the Beast" and "The Golden Goose." In 1954, General Mills released a series of at least eight different 78-rpm children's songs that were actually imprinted on Wheaties cereal boxes. These included such proto-gum faves as "Take Me Out to the Ball Game, " "Three Little Fishes," and "On Top of Old Smokey." On the same boxes kids were also invited to send in a quarter to receive Wheaties-produced red-orange vinyl 78-rpm albums.

Vintage Scooby Doo Mystery Machine T-shirt

Vintage Scooby Doo Basketball T-shirt

Vintage Shaun Cassidy T

And more vintage T-shirts and iron-ons from RetroDuck.com

Around the same time there were at least two Walt Disney's Mousketeer Records, cardboard cereal box 78s that featured Mickey, Donald and Goofy singing "I'd Rather Be I" and the title character performing "Donald Duck's Song." In 1964, buyers of Kellogg's Corn Flakes could mail in a quarter and a back-of-the-box coupon to receive a 7" long-playing record with the story and theme song from Hanna-Barbera's animated movie Hey There, Yogi Bear.

In perhaps the strangest twist of all, around 1967 the pre-bubblegum Shadows of Knight released their great "Potato Chip" single-which was only available inside packages of Fairmont Potato Chips!

Bubblegum-era cereal box records typically recycled the same design for between three and five possible songs in each series. The song titles appeared on the label, and a kid could pick which box they wanted by the identifying numeral stamped onto the cardboard.

The following bubblegum cereal box record discography is as complete as we could make it in a full year of research. Once a kid cut the disk off the identifying box, these babies became an archivist's nightmare.

THE ARCHIES

Archies design #1 (Big Ethel, Dilton, Moose, Midge, Reggie, Sabrina, Archie, Veronica, Betty and Jughead dancing against a yellow background) (Honey Comb/ Kirshner) 1. You Make Me Wanna Dance 2. Catchin' Up On Fun 3. Jingle Jangle 4. Love Light

Archies design #2/version A (Archie, Betty, Jughead, Hot Dog, Reggie and Veronica holding the black ring in the center of the record) (cereal unknown/ Kirshner) 1. Archie's Party 2. You Know I Love You 3. Nursery Rhyme[s] 4. Jingle Jangle."

Archies design #2/version B (Archie, Betty, Jughead, Hot Dog, Reggie and Veronica holding the black ring in the center of the record) (cereal unknown/ Kirshner) 1. You Make Me Wanna Dance 2. Catching Up On Fun 3. Jingle Jangle 4. Love Light

Archies design #3 (The Archies playing their instruments with Hot Dog panting, no track list or numbering) (Post
Super Sugar Crisp/ Kirshner) [Michael Cumella reports that the concept for this disk was developed by Harry
Gorman of Allied Creative Services in Port Jervis, NY]

Tracks include (but may not be limited to) the following: #. Sugar, Sugar #. Hide 'N' Seek #. Boys And Girls #.
Feelin' So Good (SKOOBY-DOO) #. Bang-Shang-A-Lang #. (Archie's Theme) Everything's Archie.

BANANA SPLITS

There were two mail-order vinyl 7" EPs offered by Kellogg's cereal; only the first track on each is taken from
the band's LP.

Kellogg's 34578: "The Tra-La-La Song (One Banana, Two Banana)" "That's The Pretty Part Of You" b/w "It's A
Good Day For A Parade" "The Very First Kid On My Block."

Kellogg's 34579: "Doin' The Banana Split" "I Enjoy Being A Boy (In Love With You)" b/w "The Beautiful Calliope" "Let
Me Remember You Smiling"

JACKSON 5

Jackson 5 design #1; (Rice Krinkles/ Motown) (Photo of band standing off to the left, stacked vertically-yellow
label, blue tint to grooves) 1. ABC 2. I want you back 3. I'll bet you 4. Darling dear 5. Maybe tomorrow

Jackson 5 design #2/ version A (Alpha Bits/ Motown) (song titles on a cartoonish flower shaped background-no
mention of the J5, blue tint to grooves) 1. Sugar Daddy 2. Goin' Back To Indiana 3. Who's Loving You

Jackson 5 design #2/ version B (Alpha Bits/ Motown) (song titles on a cartoonish flower shaped background-no
mention of the J5, blue tint to grooves) 1. I'll Be There 2. Never Can Say Goodbye 3. Mama's Pearl

JOSIE & THE PUSSYCATS

(1970) These were mail away 45s. Up to four were offered for 35� each and the
coupon from the back of a box of Kellogg's Frosted Flakes.

Josie & the Pussycats Record #1 "A Letter to Mama"/ "Inside, Outside, Upside Down"

Josie & the Pussycats Record #2 "Josie (And the Pussycats)"/ "With Every Beat of My Heart"

Josie & the Pussycats Record #3 "Voodoo"/ "If That Isn't Love"

Josie & the Pussycats Record #4 "It's Gotta Be Him"/ "I Wanna Make You Happy"

THE MONKEES

(note: the absence of Peter Tork on designs #1 and #2 dates them to 1969 or after)

The Monkees design #1 (Rice Krinkles/ Colgems) (Micky, Davy, Mike; green label with guitar logos between each
head in spiral) 1. Monkees theme 2. Tear Drop City 3. Papa Gene's Blues 4. The Day We Fall In Love

The Monkees design #2 (Alpha Bits/ Colgems) (big Monkees logo in middle, Davy, Mike & Micky's heads around
logo, black label) 1. Last Train To Clarksville 2. I Wanna Be Free 3. Forget That Girl 4. Valeri

The Monkees design #3 (Honey Comb/ Colgems) (red and white Monkees logo and musical notes, blue or purple
grooves) 1. I'm A Believer 2. Pleasant Valley Sunday 3. I'm Not Your Steppin' Stone 4. Mary, Mary

H.R PUFNSTUF

There was an offer from an unknown Kellogg's brand cereal in 1970 where for 50� they would send you a
ten-song 7" EP of songs from the show, plus a lyric sheet and a picture of H.R. Pufnstuf himself.

BOBBY SHERMAN

Bobby Sherman design #1(Honey Comb/ Metromedia) (blue shirt-some printed purplish-with blue label) 1. Easy Come, Easy Go 2. La, La, La 3. July Seventeen 4. Time 5. Fun and Games

Bobby Sherman design #2(Alpha Bits/ Metromedia) (blue shirt with red label) 1. Easy Come, Easy Go 2. La, La, La
3. Seattle 4. Love 5. Spend Some Time Lovin' Me

Bobby Sherman design #3 (Raisin Bran) (purple shirt with orange label) 1. Little Woman 2. Hey Mr. Sun 3. I Think
I'm Gonna Be Alright 4. Show Me 5. I'm Still Looking For The Right Girl

Bobby Sherman design #4 (Rice Krinkles) (striped shirt with blue label) 1. Little Woman 2. Hey Mr. Sun 3. I'm In A
Tree 4. Bubblegum and Braces 5. Make Your Own Kind Of Music

Bobby Sherman Canadian design #1 (Raisin Bran) Lisa Sutton reports: "These are odd variations-they came flat
& square inserted in the box-each of the records has its own title with the same art. I only have "Free To
Roam" of design#1, which has Bobby in the same picture and pose from the Rice Krinkles box off to the left,
though they've made his pants black. The label is red, no name on it at all, but there is a row of cartoon
teenagers dancing down the right side of the record. the background is black like a circular record-it is orange
behind that bleeding out to the four corners of the square. There were four of these, I've no clue what the other
three were."

Bobby Sherman Canadian design #2 (cereal unknown) Same as Canadian design #1 except instead of the cartoon
kids on the left, there's a picture of Canadian singer Anne Renee. There is one Bobby song and one Anne Renee
song per record. On the back, along with playing directions, these have a logo that says "Auravision-an activity
of Columbia Special Products"

1. Tout Tournee Et Tout Bouge/ Run Away 2. Pas De Marriage/ Bubblegum & Braces 3. Toi Et Moi/ Bus Stop 4.
Comme Je T'aime/ I Think I'm Gonna Be Alright

A READER'S NOTE:

I am a Bobby Sherman fan, am a member of his fan club and have begun collecting various Bobby memorabilia. I have developed quite a collection of the cereal box records. I noticed that you mention in the list some that are from Canada and have cartoon teenage dancers down the side. You mention that you have one with the song "Free to Roam" and indicate that there were four of these. I now have 5 of these, all different from the one you have. The song titles are below:

"I Think I'm Gonna be Alright"
"Bubble Gum and Braces"
"Waiting at the Bus Stop"
"Run Away"
"It Boggles the Mind"

I think it is interesting that you must have seen something that indicated that there were a total of four but yet I have these 5. I have not seen the other design you mention. Just thought you might be interested in this information. -Lynne

THE SUGAR BEARS

The Sugar Bears (Sugar Crisp) (Sugar Bear, Honey Bear, Doobie Bear and Shoobie Bear playing musical
instruments in a circle with a background that looks like a gold record)

1. Love-you're a long time comin' 2. You are the one 3. Feather balloon 4. Happiness train 5. Anyone but you

back to the Bubblegum Book

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1910 Fruitgum Co. Liner Notes

Tue, 25 Apr 2006 18:04:12 -0700

Click to purchase The Best Of The 1910 Fruitgum Company

THE 1910 FRUITGUM CO. by Kim Cooper

A thick pink strain of bubblegum music came oozing out of the world's AM radios between 1967 and 1969, giving little kids something to pound their Mickey Mouse spoons about, and making critics groan. If you followed it back to the source you'd find New York City, and the studios rented by independent producers Jerry Kasenetz and Jeff Katz. Under their supervision a revolving crew of bands, session players and writers knocked out giddy pop songs that mixed garage band riffs and nursery school rhyme schemes with deliciously catchy results.

By late 1967, Kasenetz and Katz were anxiously seeking hitmaking bands that could be paired up with writers in their Super K Productions stable. They'd already mined the teen clubs of central Ohio to come up with the Music Explosion, Ohio Express (originally Sir Timothy & the Royals) and Lemon Pipers (Ivan & the Sabres), but their next discovery would be found much closer to home.

Supposedly Jeff Katz' dad met several members of Jeckell & the Hydes (previously known as the Lower Road, and the Odyssey) in a Linden, New Jersey diner, and passed their number along to his son; later, the producers heard them play at a house party. Kasenetz and Katz flipped over Mark Gutkowski's boyish voice, and quickly signed the band to a production contract. With a little work, they'd become the third act in the mega-selling Buddah bubblegum triumvirate that included the Ohio Express and Lemon Pipers.

Of course that retro garage band name had to go, and "1910 Fruitgum Co." fit right in with the other sugary Kasenetz and Katz confections. PR legend has it that rhythm guitarist Jeckell named the Fruitgums from an old gum wrapper found either in a suit pocket or an attic trunk (possibly both).

The 1910 Fruitgum Co. had their first hit with the immortal "Simon Says," a song K&K had been trying to place for some time. The kindergarten game lyrics set to a chugging garage rock organ riff set the stage for much of their future activity. They quickly established themselves as the most childlike of the bubblegum bands, their singles filled with babyish games and infantile alliteration. Album tracks revealed more adult themes, sometimes disturbingly fused with references to a loved one's yummy candy sweetness. With these guys, you never knew if they were about to kiss a girl or take a bite!

But even the singles were more suggestive than they appeared on first glance. The lyrics of "1-2-3 Red Light" are less a schoolyard game than the sound of a boy wearing down his sweetie's resistance through constant begging, with the threat of a break up if she doesn't put out.

Every time I try to prove my love
1-2-3 Red Light, you stop me...
If you stop me again
That's when we might end
So please don't refuse

And in the sorta-psychedelic "1910 Cotton Candy Castle," the promise of candy seems to carry a distinctly phallic subtext when Mark croons: "Here comes the Lollipop Man in his goody ship Lollipop/ all aboard for lollipop land where the lovin' never stops."

For their first few (most bubblegummy) albums, the 1910 Fruitgum Co. was officially made up of the old Jeckell & the Hydes lineup. This was Mark Gutkowski (vocals/ organ), Frank Jeckell (vocals/ rhythm guitar), Floyd Marcus (vocals/ drums), Steve Mortkowitz (bass) and Pat Karwan (vocals/ lead guitar). But sidemen were always being called in to play on K&K productions, and there's some controversy about who played on what. An intermediate lineup was Gutkowski with Chuck Travis (vocals/ lead guitar), Larry Ripley (vocals/ bass/ horn), Bruce Shay (vocals/ percussion), and Rusty Oppenheimer (vocals/ drums). Less than two years on, the hard rocking Hard Ride was the work of Jimmy Casazza (vocals/ drums/ percussion), Ralph Cohen (trumpet), Jerry Roth (vocals/ sax/ clarinet/ flute), Don Christopher (vocals/ guitar), Richie Gomez (vocals/ guitar) and Pat Soriano (vocals/ organ/ piano). Since K&K owned the band name, anyone they wanted could "be" the 1910 Fruitgum Co.

Mark Gutkowski's singing was the constant on most things released under the 1910 Fruitgum Co. name, but their #5 hit "1, 2, 3 Red Light" was supposedly Gutkowski backed by Vinnie Poncia, Pete Anders and guys from the touring version of session group the Tradewinds ("New York's a Lonely Town")-while other sources claim that Gutkowski wasn't present at all, and the vocals for this song and "Goody Goody Gumdrops" were by "Gumdrops" co-writer Billy Carl.

Personnel matters aside, whoever the 1910 Fruitgum Co. were, they made monster bubblegum records throughout their short career, and the kids loved them. A vintage press release offers the tantalizing claim that their fans threw so much bubblegum (chewed and otherwise) during performances, that a little man had to sweep it up after every show. We also learn a thing or two about the original band members. Frank Jeckell (21) is the oldest, and the one who makes sure the others behave. He digs country music and golf. Pat Karwan (19) surfs, hates diets and airplanes, and chews a lot of gum. He sometimes uses the pen name Scaramuche Quackenbush. Mark Gutkowski (18) likes girls, steak and onions and sheepskin rugs, and hates barbershops and oatmeal. Steve Martkowitz (19) studied art in Paris, and is the silent type. Floyd Marcus (19) is always late, wants to be a great songwriter, hates shredded coconut and likes girls and sports car racing. Such nice boys.

"Indian Giver," recorded with the middle Fruitgum lineup, proved to be the final Top 10 bubblegum smash for Buddah, first charting in January 1969. The song gives no sign that the power of bubblegum music was diminishing, and that hypnotic tom-tom beat can still stir the blood of tykes and their elders to this day. Master gumsters Bobby Bloom, Bo Gentry and Ritchie Cordell wrote this politically insensitive gem, while Bloom and Gentry wrote the Fruitgum's final charting hit, "Special Delivery," and produced both with Cordell.

Like most fads, bubblegum faded out after two years, but the Fruitgum Co. wasn't quite ready to call it quits. Kasenetz and Katz gleefully told Roctober magazine's James Porter that the final version of the band nearly got a plum gig at the Fillmore East, a hall far too hip to stoop to booking has-been bubblegummers. But an unlabeled test pressing of the heavier Hard Ride album impressed a booker sufficiently that a show was briefly offered, then immediately retracted when the ruse was revealed.

With that, the 1910 Fruitgum Co. retired, never to be seen again.

Thanks to Carl Cafarelli, Bill Holmes and James Porter.

Best of the Lemon Pipers liner notes

Tue, 25 Apr 2006 18:01:23 -0700

Click to purchase The Best Of The 1910 Fruitgum Company

THE LEMON PIPERS by Kim Cooper

Bubblegum music was largely the brainchild of producers Jerry Kasenetz and Jeff Katz, with more than a little marketing help from youthful Buddah Records general manager Neil Bogart. The core of the sound was basic American garage rock, two parts "Louie Louie" to one part "96 Tears." But the lyrics took a giant step backwards, avoiding teenage concerns (girl trouble, mean bosses, bad luck) in favor of the defiantly infantile (sugar-drenched oral gratification, nursery rhymes). It was a style just waiting to explode onto the charts, pushed by a preteen rock audience enjoying their first brush with the thrills of a weekly allowance.

So when in 1967 bubblegum kings Kasenetz and Katz needed a new band for their Super K Productions stable, they knew exactly where to look: central Ohio, which had already provided them with fine raw garage band material in the Music Explosion (which hit with "Little Bit Of Soul" for Laurie Records) and the Ohio Express.

In Oxford, OH they found Ivan & the Sabres, a somewhat progressive Miami University band that was willing to change their name to the Lemon Pipers and follow K&K back to New York City. It was a smart move. Within six months they'd have the #1 record on the pop charts, "Green Tambourine," just one of many Paul Leka (music)/ Shelley Pinz (lyrics) compositions they'd record.

The Lemon Pipers probably didn't realize it at first, but Kasenetz and Katz expected that they'd have hits, by any means necessary. If they could knock out a terrific bubblegum single on their own, that was great, but the psychedelic, Byrdsy rock they favored was going to end up as album tracks, if it was released at all.

Nevertheless, the Lemon Pipers would prove the most psychedelic of the so-called bubblegum bands recording for Buddah, as well as the only one that is generally accepted to have played on all their own records. As their producer and main writer, Paul Leka gave them playfully far-out numbers that made use of elaborate orchestration and charmingly simplistic lyrics full of alliteration and fanciful pairings. The result: two of the more cohesive bubblegum albums ever made, and a pair of minor hits to follow the one smash.

The band didn't think much of "Green Tambourine" on first hearing, and initially refused to record it. A gentle warning from Bogart that they'd do just that if they wanted to stay on Buddah was sufficient to coax out a fine performance. It would be the first Buddah bubblegum single to top the charts.

The Green Tambourine album shows the Pipers in a whimsical Beatlesque vein, dodging Liberace piano trills and raga riffs as they sang about how rice was nice on one's wedding day, as was living in love's world of blueberry blue. Leka's arrangements are dense without heaviness, witty and enjoyable. It's lightweight orchestral pop fun.

But kids who stuck around till the last track on side two were in for a big surprise. "Through With You" was a 8 1/2 minute garage rock rave up with a great propulsive energy and a mind-expanding, channel-hopping Byrdsy solo leading into an eerie section that's like a psychedelic whale song, sounding like another band entirely. The same can be said for their first single, another Bartlett original reprised on the album. "Turn Around Take a Look," is a deceptively simple little tune about stalking, with an insidious hook.

Somewhere between these two sounds was the real Lemon Pipers. You can see why the band was skeptical about becoming a musical mouthpiece for K&K, Bogart and Leka. While "Turn Around" could have been recorded by a number of groups, there weren't too many that could explore spacerock dimensions and keep a listener's interest for almost ten minutes. But eight-minute songs don't sell many singles, so the Pipers' progressive ambitions were kept carefully in check throughout much of the band's life.

So who were these Lemon Pipers? Vintage 1968 press releases and liner notes offer some peculiar clues. We learn that 20-year-old singer and rhythm guitarist Ivan Browne digs motorbikes, weird clothes and climbing trees, and lives in a belltower, which helps him get up in the morning. Bill Bartlett (21), lead guitar, from South Harrow, Middlesex, UK, is a senior in the fine arts department, digs Ravi Shankar and aluminum foil, and claims to have seven pet cats --quite an accomplishment for someone in a hit touring band. Organist R.G. "Reg" Nave (22) enjoys SCUBA and skydiving, preferably at the same time. New Zealand-born Steve Walmsley (18) plays bass, and is a poet who likes to catch passing freight cars, with or without trains attached. Drummer Bill Albaugh (18) got himself a pilot's license for kicks.

The first album reveals an apparent obsession with footwear. "Shoeshine Boy" has an interesting double tracked vocal, and a mournful "Penny Lane" quality. "The Shoemaker of Leatherware Square" is spookily medieval, and quite an odd subject for a pop song. Add these to frothy singles like "Rice is Nice," "Blueberry Blue," and of course "Green Tambourine" and you have a strange trip through a psychedelic fantasy land where life is simpler, more sugary, and ones' shoes look nice.

Album two, Jungle Marmalade, shows the Pipers slipping deeper into demented metaphor with highly entertaining results. The album's hit (stalling at #51) was Leka and Pinz' "Jelly Jungle (of Orange Marmalade)," in which the Pipers made a rare attempt at matching the lyrical double entendres practiced by their Buddah colleagues the Ohio Express and 1910 Fruitgum Co. Over an infectious riff the group entices you to "take a trip on my pogo stick/ bounce up and down/ do a trick/ I'll play a beat on your pumpkin drum/ and we'll have fun in the sun." And check out the tongue-in-cheek tribute to enlightenment, "Love Beads and Meditation," where the singer intones "the tangled mass of membranes that used to be me/ is a memory!" Moving away from orchestration, a countryish side ias revealed on "Catch Me Falling" and on a fine cover of Goffin-King's "I Was Not Born To Follow." "Wine and Violet" is cool apocalyptic psych with a freaky backwards tape section, and the 11:52 "Dead End Street/ Half Light" closes the record with some heavy psych slipping into spaced-out reverie.

A lack of chart action seems to have spelled the end for the Lemon Pipers, and the name was retired following album #2. But guitarist Bill Bartlett stayed in touch with Kasenetz and Katz, and his band Autumn again recorded for Buddah in '73. Four years later, as a member of Ram Jam, he brought K&K a countryish cover of Leadbelly's "Black Betty" that had earned some minor local airplay. K&K re-recorded it in a rock arrangement and saw it reach the Top 20.

Thanks to Gary Pig Gold and James Porter.

Best of the Ohio Express liner notes

Tue, 25 Apr 2006 17:55:11 -0700

Click to purchase The Best Of Ohio Express

THE OHIO EXPRESS by Kim Cooper

The Ohio Express are the quintessential non-animated American bubblegum band but if their story weren't so well documented, you'd swear it was a tall tale dreamed up by a drunken record collector.

It's hard to talk about "The Ohio Express" without confusion, because the name refers both to a touring band based in Ohio, and a studio concoction out of New York City. While both Ohio Expresses contributed to the group's albums, the East Coast version had most of the hits and were responsible for their signature sound. But we're getting ahead of ourselves.

The story begins with a perfectly good mid-American high school garage band, popular at teen dances and occasionally pegged to open for national acts like the Turtles. That was Sir Timothy & the Royals, the pride of Mansfield, Ohio. The leader was Tim Corwin (drums), and the Royals were Dale Powers (lead guitar), Doug Grassel (rhythm guitar), Jim Pfahler (organ) and Dean Kastran (bass).

Sir Tim and the boys might have ended up with a song or two on a Pebbles comp had producers Jerry Kasenetz and Jeff Katz not shown up one day circa 1967, inspired by the Music Explosion's success with "Little Bit Of Soul" to check out another promising Ohio combo. The underage band was quickly signed to a production contract, and rechristened the Ohio Express, because the producers felt their name sounded too English.

Kasenetz and Katz were fast moving pros whose specialty was making hit records and licensing them to labels. They picked up the Royals because they heard something lucrative in their sound-but who knew how long it might take these kids to write a hit of their own? K&K happened to already have a great song, not so loosely based on "Louie Louie," that had been a minor hit when released by the Rare Breed on the Attack label. That group reportedly didn't want to be musical puppets, and declined to work further with K&K. So "Beg, Borrow & Steal" was re-pressed with the Ohio Express name on the label, and it hit the top 40. This opened the door for more Ohio Express releases, but didn't bode well for any hopes of creative autonomy the band may have had.

With the group headquartered 500 miles from New York, even with frequent visits Tim's boys never got a chance to be fully in the loop. Their producers searched out songs for the Ohio Express; if it wasn't convenient for the group to record them, studio musicians would instead. It was around this time that K&K decided to rework the banned Standells single "Try It" as an Ohio Express song. This fairly innocent anthem to sexual experimentation was penned by "Under the Boardwalk" writer Artie Resnick and 17-year-old Joey Levine, who played together with Resnick's wife Kris in a group called the Third Rail. The Ohio Express liked the song, but the rush to release it meant the single only had Dale Powers singing lead over a session track.

When "Try It" charted in February 1968, Levine and Resnick were asked if they had a follow up in mind. Levine offered "Yummy Yummy Yummy," which Jay & the Techniques had rejected because it sounded too juvenile. Not a problem for a Super K band! A demo was recorded with Jimmy Calvert's group, K &K's house band. Levine sang a dummy lead, only intended to sell the song. Neil Bogart loved his nasal whine, and decreed that he should be the permanent voice of the Ohio Express' singles. To Levine's surprised dismay, it was this demo version that showed up on the radio soon after, and climbed to #4 on the charts.

Joey Levine's promotion to sometime lead vocalist created a conundrum for the touring band. Obviously the successful young songwriter wasn't about to relocate to Mansfield to join the group. So the five band members took turns trying to sing in Levine's distinctively bilious style, and Dean Kastran's pipes provided the nearest approximation. Henceforth the Ohio Express found themselves in the unenviable position of having to learn their own hit records from the recordings.

The first Ohio Express album, Beg Borrow & Steal, was released on the Cameo/ Parkway label, where Neil Bogart worked as A&R man. Soon Bogart entered into a partnership with K&K, bringing them and the Ohio Express over to the new Buddah label, which would soon be known universally as bubblegum central. The first album blended folky garage, soul and frat-rock songs, some from the pens of band members Jim Pfahler and Tim Corwin. The more poppy material came from established writers. A full accounting is hard to come by, but the underproduced originals were probably recorded by the touring band, and the rest by the session team. The cover had a photo of the band surrounded by views of their psychedelic tour van, emblazoned with self-conscious countercultural slogans like "You Have Just been Passed By A Happening."

The Ohio Express, album #1 for Buddah, opened with the organ- and bass-heavy kiddie pop sound of "Yummy Yummy Yummy," but it also featured some strong band originals, ranging in style from punky garage to psychedelic pop. But by the Chewy Chewy album the Ohio band was nowhere to be seen. On this and Mercy (both released in 1969), lead vocals and between-song patter were almost exclusively handled by Joey Levine, with material written by Levine and other Super K staffers.

"Mercy" proved to be the last Ohio Express hit. Not only was the bubblegum fad's popularity waning, but the pressure was taking a toll on both Joey Levine and the touring band. Organ player-and one-time main songwriter-Jim Pfahler had been missing shows. A band argument in the van on the way to a Cincinnati gig with the Lemon Pipers deteriorated until Pfahler hopped out with the keys. Tim Corwin hot-wired the engine and they ditched Pfahler. But there were more problems in store for the group. Turning on the radio, they heard for the first time "their" new single, "Chewy Chewy." Humiliated by fans calling for the song they couldn't play, Dean Kastran and Dale Powers quit soon after.

Meanwhile, Joey Levine was exhausted from his frenetic schedule as the Ohio Express' writer, arranger, lead singer and engineer, and irked that he wasn't making more money. He and Artie Resnick accepted an offer from MGM's Mike Curb, and relocated to L.A.

In the absense of all the interested parties K&K tried to keep the Ohio Express name alive, releasing several more singles with a revolving crew of musicians. Replacement keyboard player Buddy Bengert sang lead on "Pinch Me," while the countryish "Sausalito" was recorded in England by the group that would become 10cc, led by songwriter Graham Gouldman. In 1970, the name was quietly retired.

Today Joey Levine is a successful writer of advertising jingles. His work includes the very bubblegummy Almond Joy theme "Sometimes You Feel Like a Nut," "Just For the Fun Of It [Diet Coke]," "Sitting on a Ritz [Cracker]" and dozens more. Out on the road, drummer Tim Corwin continues to tour with a version of the Ohio Express that occasionally includes rhythm guitarist Doug Grassel. And on oldies radio, the Ohio Express still chugs along, sending kids of all ages into paroxysms of glee at their obscenely catchy riffs, snotty vocals and hilarious double entendres.

Thanks to Carl Cafarelli, Becky Ebenkamp, Bill Pitzonka and James Porter