Crazy Elephant

Crazy Elephant
by Bill Pitzonka

“There is no Crazy Elephant,” insists writer-producer Ritchie Cordell. “That was just Bob Spencer.” Robert Spencer was a member of the Cadillacs, who recorded the rock and roll classic “Speedo,” a #14 hit from 1955. In the years that followed, Spencer kept active in the industry, often penning songs and selling them off without just compensation, according to Cordell. In 1969, Spencer linked up with Kasenetz & Katz just as their Super K bubblegum machine was churning out the hits full-throttle.

Kasenetz & Katz hooked him up with Cordell and Joey Levine, who together had penned the soulful “Gimme Gimme Good Lovin’.” The searing single, featuring Spencer’s scorching lead vocal and an obvious background vocal assist by Levine, was submitted to Buddah Records, the New York-based label with whom Kasenetz & Katz had been so continually successful. “We played it for [Buddah General Manager] Neil Bogart,” the Super K boys recall, “but he said, ‘No, I don’t hear it.'” Undeterred, they walked Crazy Elephant over to Larry Uttal at neighboring Bell Records, who snapped it up. By May 1969, “Gimme Gimme Good Lovin'” hit #12 in Billboard. Its stateside success prompted a British release, where it also peaked at #12.

Kasenetz & Katz recruited a five-piece band of college-age youths to support the single on the road, pose for pictures, and fill out the inevitable album. According to the credits on that sole self-titled LP, the lucky winners of this strange sweepstakes were Larry Laufer (leader, keyboards and vocals), Ronnie Bretone (bass), Bob Avery (drums), Kenny Cohen (flute, sax, and vocals) and Hal King (vocals). The whole process was standard operating procedure for bubblegummeisters Kasenetz and Katz. More often than not, according to Cordell, they would “send five bands [with the same name] out on the road. They’d stick them in a room with the album and have them learn all the songs.”

“Gimme Gimme Good Lovin'” was the only Crazy Elephant record for Cordell and Levine. When the Spencer-soundalike follow-ups “Sunshine, Red Wine” and “Gimme Some More” failed to click, Kasenetz & Katz took Crazy Elephant in a new direction

Captain Groovy and His Bubblegum Army Are Coming to Take You Away

Captain Groovy and His Bubblegum Army Are Coming to Take You Away
by Bill Pitzonka

Early in 1969, a corporate summit occurred between limited-cel animation kingpins Hanna-Barbera and bubblegum cottage industrialists Kasenetz-Katz. Though seemingly a marriage made in marketing heaven, negotiations ultimately broke down between the two notoriously control-conscious purveyors of prepubescent product, but not before one semi-official act of business could be completed. Ritchie Cordell, who had recently joined the stable of Kasenetz-Katz Associates after a string of huge hits with Tommy James & the Shondells, was commissioned to create the theme for Captain Groovy And His Bubblegum Army. Cordell co-wrote the song with “1, 2, 3, Red Light” tunesmith Sal Trimachi, based on Kasenetz & Katz’s original concept. Cordell recalls that the lead vocal on the single was “Bobby Bloom sped up [on tape],” eerily replicating the nasal vocal stylings of Joey Levine, who had recently parted company with Kasenetz & Katz to found his own Earth and L&R labels with Artie Resnick. In the way that all things come full circle, L&R scored their biggest hit in 1970 with Bobby Bloom’s “Montego Bay.”

Kasenetz & Katz, meanwhile, had been given their own Super K imprint through Buddah Records. As one of their very first releases, they issued the rather dark Captain Groovy theme song (“Captain Groovy and his Bubblegum Army are coming to take you away,” as the lyric so ominously intoned). Despite the fact that the cartoon series never made it past the drawing board, a poster of the actual characters exists somewhere in the Super K offices. Without the series, the sole offering under the Captain Groovy banner managed to bubble under the Billboard Hot 100 for a few weeks, peaking at #127.

Boyce & Hart

Boyce & Hart
by Kim Cooper

Rock star? Feh! What a fifth rate ambition. Okay, say you got yourself an electric guitar, took some time and learned how to play, and now it’s happened. You’re signed to a big label that baby-sits your body in exchange for skimming just 90% off the top

Interview with Toni Wine

Interview with Toni Wine
by Bill Pitzonka

Bill Pitzonka: How did you get involved with the Archies?
Toni Wine: Donnie had asked for me. Donnie [Kirshner] and Jeff [Barry] asked for me to be Betty and Veronica.
BP: How did you link up with Don Kirshner originally?
TW: I was signed as a writer at the age of 14 to Screen Gems by Donnie Kirshner when it was Aldon Music. I was the youngest BMI writer ever signed. And so I