An Informal History Of Bubblegum Music, Part 5

Continuing my history of bubblegum music, originally published in the April 25, 1997 issue of Goldmine.  It was subsequently edited for an appearance in the book Bubblegum Music Is The Naked Truth, partially for length and style, but also to avoid duplication with subjects discussed elsewhere in the book.  Writer Gary Pig Gold and I revamped my original article's section on The Monkees into an amusing debate on whether or not The Monkees were every really a bubblegum group.  Except for some minor editing, this restores the original, full-length piece as it appeared in Goldmine.  You can catch up with PART 1 PART 2 PART 3 and PART 4

                              

The Bubble Bandwagon

While bubblegum was hot, a lot of other hit-seeking acts tried their hands at chewy tunes.  One was a studio group called The Cuff Links, who had a # 9 hit in 1969 with a Vance and Pockriss tune called "Tracy."  The Cuff Links' lead singer was our old pal Ron Dante.  Since "Tracy" entered the Top Ten before "Sugar, Sugar" fell from the top spot, Dante had two simultaneous Top Ten hits, but neither of them under his own name.

"They were out at the same time," Dante says.  "And it was by the same team that wrote 'Leader Of The Laundromat,' Vance and Pockriss wrote that song.  And they brought me in, and they said, 'Could you sing this?'  And I said, 'Well, I've got a big hit in 'Sugar, Sugar.'  And they said, 'Well, you know, for old time's sake, come sing this for us.  If it's a hit maybe you'll do an album.'

"So I went in with them and I did like 16 voices on it, and I did the vocal arrangements, came up with something to help arrange it vocally.  And it became a [Top Ten] record.  And it was funny to have 'Sugar, Sugar' as # 1 and Cuff Links [at # 9], and I had another group called The Pearly Gates, which had a record called 'Free' on Decca I think it was.  So at the same time I had three records on the chart under different names."

In spite of the success of "Tracy" (and, to a lesser degree, its sprightly follow-up "When Julie Comes Around," which made it to # 41),Dante declined to return to the mic for the second Cuff Links LP.  His spot was filled by Rupert Holmes, later to achieve pop infamy with The Bouys' "Timothy" and his own solo "Escape (The Pina Colada Song)," two perennial candidates for the All-Time Top Ten in Hell.

A couple of former hitmakers who'd gone a while without a big record each staged a return to the Top Ten via bubblegum.  Lou Christie had a # 1 hit in 1965 with "Lightnin' Strikes," but had been absent from the Top 40 since "Rhapsody In The Rain," a # 16 entry in 1966.  Recording for Buddah--where else?--Christie cut a gooey, gooey, thick 'n' chewy number called "I'm Gonna Make You Mine" and bounced up to # 10 in 1969.  "I'm Gonna Make You Mine" was written by Tony Romeo, who'd earlier penned The Cowsills' "Indian Lake," and would later write the Partridge Family smash "I Think I Love You."  "I'm Gonna Make You Mine" was Lou Christie's last hit, but it was arguably his best.

Tommy Roe also bubblegummed his way back into the hearts of radio listeners with “Dizzy,” a superbly sweet trifle that topped the charts for four weeks in 1969. Roe's first hit had been the amazing Buddy Holly soundalike “Sheila,” a #1 hit in 1962. Roe also hit with “Everybody” (#3) in '63, and two 1966 singles, “Sweet Pea” (#8) and “Hooray For Hazel” (#6) that were definite bubblegum prototypes. But “Dizzy,” co-written by Roe and the Raiders' Freddy Weller, was his first hit in a couple of years, and it was certainly one of bubblegum's defining singles. Two more bubblegummy singles, “Heather Honey” and “Jam Up And Jelly Tight” were also hits at #29 and #8, respectively.

In the same time frame, a British session singer named Tony Burrows was writing his own anonymous chapter in the bubblegum story.  Burrows has been referred to as the only person in pop history to be a one-hit wonder five times. The first four of these all occurred in 1970:  "Love Grows (Where My Rosemary Goes)" by Edison Lighthouse, "My Baby Loves Lovin'" by White Plains, "United We Stand" by The Brotherhood Of Man, and (gulp!) "Gimme Dat Ding" by The Pipkins.  The first two of these were solidly in the bubblegum mold, while "United We Stand" was slightly more ersatz-soulful (and the novelty hit "Gimme Dat Ding" was in a remedial class all by itself).  Burrows' last hit was with The First Class:  the incredible Beach Boys pastiche "Beach Baby" in 1974.

(Note:  in 1996, the Varese Sarabande label put out a Tony Burrows career retrospective under the title Love Grows (Where My Rosemary Goes)--The Voice Of Tony Burrows, collecting Burrows' various incarnations in one package.)

                        

The Cowsills were a family group from Newport, Rhode Island, consisting of five brothers, their mother, and their little sister.  By virtue of their clean-cut image and such chirpy singles as "The Rain, The Park And Other Things" (# 2 in 1967), "We Can Fly" (# 21 in '68), and "Indian Lake" (# 10 in '68), The Cowsills were thought of as a bubblegum act, though their music probably had more in common with The Mamas and the Papas than with any Super K concoction.

"I think The Cowsills were bubblegum against their will," Pitzonka says.  "They were a family, they really had aspirations to be The Beatles, they really wanted to be this jangly power pop band.  But then the record company said, 'Oh, look!  A wholesome family from Rhode Island!'  And they kind of got lumped in that way.  But their later records--let's say from 'Hair' [#2, 1969] on--they really dug their heels in and tried to break that image in whatever way they could.  But they were also hawking milk.

[NOTE:  I originally wrote this bubblegum history in 1997, prior to the release of The Cowsills' terrific 1998 album Global, which I now regard as one of the best albums of that decade.]

                             

"The Cowsills were also the basis for The Partridge Family.  And The Partridge Family is definitely a bubblegum band.  I mean, they actually retained some credibility by the fact that David Cassidy actually sang; originally it was supposed to be the Bahler Brothers [singing lead].  The whole thing was that originally they didn't even know he could sing, he was just supposed to lip-sync his way through it."

Like The Monkees and The Archies before them, The Partridge Family found a weekly TV series to be an effective tool to promote record sales (or vice versa).  "I Think I Love You" topped the chart for three weeks in 1970, but The Partridge Family's finest moment was "I Woke Up In Love This Morning," a # 13 stunner in 1971 that would have been a great record no matter who did it.

                             

And, without conceding our position that The Monkees weren't really a bubblegum act during their heyday, it should be noted that the final pre-reunion Monkees album, 1970's Changes, was at the very least on bubblegum's periphery.  Reduced by now to the duo of Micky Dolenz and Davy Jones (following the departures of Peter Tork and Michael Nesmith), Changes found the Monkee pair again working with "I'm A Believer" producer Jeff Barry, as well as with bubblegum stalwarts Bobby Bloom and Andy Kim.

Though not really as bad an album as it's come to be regarded--the "Oh My My" single was a pretty good soulful-pop number that deserved a much better fate--Changes was still The Monkees' most disposable work (at least until Pool It! in 1987).  The album did not chart until its 1986 reissue, in the wake of resurgent Monkeemania.  "Do It In The Name Of Love," a bouncy bubblegum tune left over from the album sessions, was issued as a Mickey [sic] Dolenz & Davy Jones single in 1971.  (Interestingly enough, when Dolenz and Jones regrouped with songwriters Tommy Boyce and Bobby Hart to form Dolenz, Jones, Boyce and Hart in 1976, Dolenz defended the group against "charges" that it was bubblegum by saying something to the effect that, "Yeah, but we're progressive bubblegum!")

And then there was Dawn, originally a studio creation featuring lead singer Tony Orlando and background singers Telma Hopkins and Joyce Vincent Wilson.  With Orlando recording in New York and Hopkins and Wilson recording their contributions in California, the first two singles--"Candida" and "Knock Three Times"--raced up the charts to # 3 and # 1, respectively.  Orlando had previously been a solo singer in the early '60s, and had fronted a studio group called Wind, which made it to # 28 with the single "Make Believe."  Further illustrating how all this stuff seems to tie together, Joey Levine was also involved in the Wind single.

"We had this record company out of Kasenetz and Katz," Levine says.  "Artie [Resnick] and I had Earth Records, which was then L & R Records, and we had [Bobby Bloom's] 'Montego Bay,'  we put out that record.  And we had a record called 'Make Believe' with Wind,put out that record that Bo Gentry and I wrote, which was Tony Orlando's first record.  Matter of fact, the follow-up to that was 'Candida,' but the record company went under, and he went over and sold it over to someone else.  Or 'Knock Three Times,' I forget--one of those two."

In any case, Dawn's success prompted its members to become an actual touring, performing unit.  Bill Pitzonka sees this as the cut-off point for the end of the bubblegum era.

NEXT:  (Wait For It) The Bubble Bursts

                                             

1.4.5.: Rhythm n' Booze review

I've had this unpublished review of 1.4.5.'s 1988 LP Rhythm n' Booze in my blog's to-be-posted queue for a few weeks.  I mentioned the review during This Is Rock 'n' Roll Radio's memorial for lead singer Norm Mattice this weekend, and intrepid  TIRnRR listener Pete Murray suggested it would be a good blog piece.  So...yeah.

This was written for Goldmine magazine, and accepted by editor Jeff Tamarkin, but it wound up sitting in inventory too long, and its publication was cancelled.  The album itself is an undiscovered pop gem, and I wish more people knew about it. 

1.4.5.
Rhythm n' Booze
Beautiful Sounds (MRBS Long 1)

The first full-length release from Boston's 1.4.5. is a nice surprise:  self-assured rockin' pop, reminiscent of The Romantics, or a more aggressive Records, with maybe a dash of New York Dolls for extra spunk.  For all that, the record really doesn't sound derivative, and the original tunes far outshine the perfunctory covers of "Do We Still Do It" and "Hippy Hippy Shake."  Don't be surprised if a major label snaps this mob up soon. 


2016 POSTSCRIPT:  Upon re-reading this review decades after the fact, I'm struck first by my dismissal of 1.4.5.'s cover of Slade's "Do We Still Do It" as "perfunctory."  What the hell was I drinking?  I love that track!  I've put it on mix tapes, and I even played it during a guest appearance on The Wax Museum with Ronnie Dark over on WVOA in Syracuse. "Perfunctory?"  Jeez.  Never trust a rock critic.

A bit of background for 1.4.5.:  The original version of 1.4.5. formed in Syracuse in 1980, led by once and future Flashcubes guitarist Paul Armstrong.  The first line-up of 1.4.5.  was basically The Most (Paul's first post-Flashcubes group), minus singer Dian Zain:  PA on guitar, plus bassist Dave Anderson and drummer Dick Hummer.  Hummer left to form his own act, Machine And Hummer, and was replaced by Ducky Carlisle, formerly of The Ohms, and now a hotshot (in a good way!) record producer.  This version of 1.4.5. went through several line-ups, and still plays today.  It is represented by a compilation CD called 3 Chords & A Cloud Of Dust; my liner notes for that are HERE 

But the 1.4.5. of Rhythm n' Booze was different and distinct.  The addition of Norm Mattice on lead vocals gave the group a pop sheen 'n' shine it never had before, without sacrificing any of the three-chord swagger and grit that made the original 1.4.5. a guaranteed good time.  In the late '80s, PA, Norm, Ducky, and bassist John Fortunato moved the new 1.4.5. to Boston, seeking the fame and fortune that should have been their divine right.  Rhythm n' Booze certainly makes that case.  Later on, PA and Norm changed the group's name to The Richards, and released one more album, 1995's Over The Top.  (And, as I noted yesterday, The Richards also recorded a track called "Five Personalities," which is one of my all-time favorites.)

I don't intend to write a fresh review of Rhythm n' Booze, even though my original review was....um, perfunctory.  But lemme tell ya this much:  while preparing for our tribute to Norm Mattice this weekend, I listened to Rhythm n' Booze again, start to finish, for the first time in years and years. And it holds up.  "Right Now" and "Do We Still Do It" had been the two tracks I'd returned to over the years, but I did myself a disservice by not playing the rest more often.  In particular, "Girl In The Window" and "Your Own World" (the latter re-done more recently by the current 1.4.5.) just demand more volume than my cheap speakers can handle.

Whatta record.  Given the bad news about Norm, I may suffer from a temptation to overpraise Rhythm n' Booze now...but I don't think so, honestly.  This was just a damned fine rockin' pop record, probably one of my favorites of  the 1980s, and it's a record more people should have a chance to hear. It's long out of print, but there are copies still kicking around; if someone wants to entertain the notion of a CD reissue, I'll write the liner notes. Meanwhile, we played a bunch of it on This Is Rock 'n' Roll Radio's tribute to Norm:  TIRnRR: Norm Mattice  Turn it UP.  You need new speakers anyway.

This Is Rock 'n' Roll Radio # 822: Norm Mattice

This is the story of a homeless man in Syracuse.  We don't know what circumstances led him to a life with no fixed address; we only know that he had been staying at a Catholic Charities homeless shelter since December.  Later on, we know he was reported to have had an altercation of some kind, and that he has been unseen, missing, since the beginning of April.  This weekend brought news that a body had been discovered at Onondaga Lake Park.  And this morning, authorities confirmed that the deceased was indeed our missing homeless man.

All of this would be sad enough, as is.  But it's even worse to know that this was not some anonymous statistic.  The man's name was Norm Mattice, and he was--is--one of our own. Norm was a musician, a singer, a guitarist; he was in some great rock 'n' roll groups in the '80s and '90s--Dress Code, 1.4.5., The Richards--and no one can understand how any of this awful stuff could have happened.  One of our own.  The Syracuse music community is shaking its collective head.  Like a warped jigsaw puzzle, we can't force the pieces to fit. This is wrong.  This makes no sense.  This just can't be.

Dress Code began at the end of the '70s, a scrappy quartet of teen titans, comprised of cousins Norm, Elliot, and Eric Mattice, plus Steve Martell.  They were part of a vital Syracuse new wave/power pop scene, inspired by local heroes The Flashcubes, and avowedly influenced by a litany of all the right people:  The Who.  The Kinks.  The Easybeats.  The Monkees.  The Jam.  The Beatles.  If you never saw Dress Code play live, I bet you're wishing right now that you did.  Can't blame you.  Dress Code rocked. The group released just one four-song EP, Alone In A Crowd, in 1981, and it remains a stirring example of low-budget, high-heart rockin' pop, culminating in a haunting ballad,"Something's Really Wrong," written in the aftermath of John Lennon's murder.

After Dress Code's demise, Norm Mattice eventually became the new lead singer for 1.4.5., a rock 'n' roll combo of varying line-ups, always piloted by guitarist Paul Armstrong of The Flashcubes.  This edition of 1.4.5. released a simply splendid album called Rhythm n' Booze in 1988; the group later changed its name to The Richards, released the 1995 album Over The Top, and also recorded a song called "Five Personalities."  "Five Personalities" is one of my all-time favorite tracks by anyone, and the group allowed us to use it on our own 2013 compilation CD, This Is Rock 'n' Roll Radio, Volume 3.

That's Norm Mattice's musical c.v. as I know it.  I didn't really know Norm at all--I don't think we ever had a conversation, over the course of decades spent in the same Central New York nightclubs.  No one believes me when I say this, but I tend to be shy in public, and I rarely initiate contact.  But this loss hits hard. One of our own.  God damn it, one of our own.

Broken hearts are the price we pay for survival.  Sometimes that price seems all too steep. I guess we'd best appreciate--and declare our appreciation--as much as we can along the way.  We offer our condolences to the friends and family; we share our kinship with the fans; we really, really hope for brighter days ahead.

This week's installment of This Is Rock 'n' Roll Radio with Dana & Carl is dedicated to Norm Mattice.  We play music.  This week, we played music from one of our own.  This is what rock 'n' roll radio sounded like on a Sunday night in Syracuse this week.

This Is Rock 'n' Roll Radio with Dana & Carl streams live every Sunday night from 9 to Midnight Eastern, exclusively at www.westcottradio.org

This week's show is now available for download:  http://westcottradio.org/archive/rock_n_roll_radio_2016-04-17.mp3


TIRnRR # 822:  4/17/16  A TRIBUTE TO NORM MATTICE

THE RAMONES:  Do You Remember Rock 'n' Roll Radio? (Rhino, End Of The Century)
--
1.4.5.:  Girl In The Window (Beautiful Sounds, Rhythm n' Booze)
THE BASEMENT WALL:  Never Existed (Senate, single)
THE RASPBERRIES:  Tonight (RPM, Power Pop Volume Two)
THE JAM:  Disguises (Polydor, Direction Reaction Creation)
THE BEATLES:  She Said She Said (Apple, Revolver)
THE ROLLING STONES:  She's A Rainbow (Abkco, Their Satanic Majesties Request)
--
DRESS CODE:  I Knew (Semaphore, Alone In The Crowd)
DAVID BOWIE:  Anyway, Anyhow, Anywhere (Rykodisc, Pinups)
THE ROMANTICS:  When I Look In Your Eyes (Nemperor, The Romantics)
THE MONKEES:  I'm A Believer (Rhino, More Of The Monkees)
1.4.5.:  Your Own World (Beautiful Sounds, Rhythm n' Booze)
THE GREENHORNES:  Mary Anne With The Shaky Hand (V2, Sewed Soles)
--
RAY PAUL:  I Love It (But You Don't Believe It) (Permanent Press, Whimsicality)
TOMMY JAMES & THE SHONDELLS:  Hanky Panky (Rhino, Anthology)
1.4.5.:  Right Now (Beautiful Sounds, Rhythm n' Booze)
RICHARD THOMPSON:  Legal Matter (Cooking Vinyl, 1000 Years Of Popular Music)
20/20:  Nuclear Boy (Real Gone Music, 20/20 -Look Out!)
JOE JACKSON:  Throw It Away (A & M, Look Sharp!)
--
THE RICHARDS:  Over There (Northside, Over The Top)
THE UNDERTONES:  Teenage Kicks (Rykodisc, The Undertones)
THE FLASHCUBES:  No Promise (Northside, Bright Lights)
SANDY NELSON:  Pinball Wizard (Liberty, The Very Best Of Sandy Nelson)
1.4.5.:  Dancin' Spree (Beautiful Sounds, Rhythm n' Booze)
THE BEATLES:  Hey Bulldog (Apple, Yellow Submarine Songtrack)
--
HERB EIMERMAN:  Soft Landing (joealgeri.bandcamp.com, single)
SIMON & GARFUNKEL:  America (Columbia, Old Friends)
MANNIX:  Highway Lines (Kool Kat Musik, VA:  This Is Rock 'n' Roll Radio, Volume 3)
NICK LOWE:  Cruel To Be Kind (Yep Roc, Quiet Please...)
THE RICHARDS:  Blue Eyes (Northside, Over The Top)
PAT DINIZIO:  Behind Blue Eyes (Famous Monsters, This Is Pat DiNizio)
--
1.4.5.:  Famous Local Hero (Beautiful Sounds, Rhythm n' Booze)
THE SMALL FACES:  Things Are Going To Get Better (Immediate, The Darlings Of Wapping Wharf Launderette)
THE KINKS:  Better Things (Velvel, Give The People What They Want)
THE BEACH BOYS:  I Can Hear Music (Capitol, Good Vibrations)
DRESS CODE:  Never Let Me Go (Semaphore, Alone In The Crowd)
THE PETE BEST COMBO:  I'll Try Anyway (Music Club, Best)
--
THE RICHARDS:  Tried And True (Northside, Over The Top)
THE LYRES:  Help You Ann (Matador, On Fyre)
THE WHO:  The Kids Are Alright (MCA, My Generation)
THE ROOKS:  Reasons (Not Lame, Encore Echoes)
THE RAMONES:  I Just Want To Have Something To Do (Rhino, Road To Ruin)
FASTBALL:  The Real Me (Edel, VA;  Substitute)
--
DRESS CODE:  Alcoholic (Semaphore, Alone In A Crowd)
THE FLAMING LIPS:  Anyway, Anyhow, Anywhere (Restless, Acid)
1.4.5.:  Do We Still Do It (Beautiful Sounds, Rhythm n' Booze)
THE 101'ERS:  Keys To Your Heart (Chiswick, VA:  The Chiswick Story)
1.4.5.:  Here Come The Cops (Beautiful Sounds, Rhythm n' Booze)
THE SOFT BOYS:  I Wanna Destroy You (Yep Roc, Underwater Moonlight)
THE RICHARDS:  Five Personalities (Kool Kat Musik, VA:  This Is Rock 'n' Roll Radio, Volume 3)
DRESS CODE:  Something's Really Wrong (Semaphore, Alone In The Crowd)
LORD SITAR:  I Can See For Miles (EMI, Lord Sitar)

Tonight on THIS IS ROCK 'N' ROLL RADIO

We are shocked, saddened, angry, and numb.  We hope for the best, but...damn it.  For all that, tonight's show will be a celebration.  Join us as we play some music from Dress Code, The Richards, and 1.4.5., spotlighting the talent of Norm Mattice.  We'll play Norm's music alongside music by some of his heroes, like The Beatles, The Jam, 20/20, The Monkees, The Who, The Romantics, The Raspberries, and The Flashcubes, plus new music from Herb Eimerman.  Raise a fist, raise a glass, or even raise just one finger, but please do turn it up and raise the roof.  We're not going quietly.  Sunday night, 9 to Midnight Eastern, www.westcottradio.org

Boppin' (Like The Hip Folks Do) # 100

Hey, it's Boppin' (Like The Hip Folks Do) # 100!

I actually do own a copy of this comic book!  My copy is so beat and tattered that another section of it flakes off every time I even just think about it.  So stop looking at the image.  STOP, I say!  NOW!!!

     
     

100!  That's not counting two posts I deleted (because they were both contained within another, larger post), but it does count This Is Rock 'n' Roll Radio playlists, tonight-on-TIRnRR hype, blogkeeping updates, one complaint about Rolling Stone quoting my Johnny Ramone interview without proper (or any) attribution, and two all-in-one consolidations of long, previously-serialized entries.

Come to think of it...yeah, big razzafrazzin' deal.

Nonetheless, I'm gonna keep coming back daily, with one post a day, every day.  This coming week should see the conclusion of my bubblegum history (though I still have one big chunk to transcribe), and I have a number of other new posts in various stages of not-anywhere-near-done-yet.  I've been putting off the return of Singers, Superheroes, And Songs On The Radio, my reminiscence of reading comic books and listening to records while growing up in the '60s and '70s.  I've already covered the '60s (and I can prove that HERE), so we're up to tales of me in The Me Decade...and the '70s were tough, man. Gotta gear myself up before I'm ready to re-live all of that. But the series will return, probably pretty soon.

Oh, and we're just about to 6000 views.  Not bad, but I crave more attention.  Feel free to spread the word; we're here every day!

As always, I thank you folks for kindly droppin' in.  Stay tuned!  And don't be afraid to contact me at ccdatsme@aol.com, and to listen to me and intrepid co-host Dana Bonn on This Is Rock 'n' Roll Radio with Dana & Carl, Sunday nights from 9 to Midnight Eastern, www.westcottradio.org

And coming up in future installments of Boppin' (Like The Hip Folks Do):
 
 
 

  
 

 


                      



 
 

                                 

A GIRL AND A BOY: The Story So Far

I love citing Irwin Shaw's description of what a writer is supposed to do:  to chronicle "where I think I am, and what this place looks like today."  And I think you can do the same thing with pop songs.  I've long been a fan of song cycles, where different songs from different artists can be arranged in a specific sequence to convey a mood, or even tell a story.

Late in 2014, when my This Is Rock 'n' Roll Radio co-host Dana Bonn needed some time off to add "Cancer Survivor" to his resume (and mission accomplished there!), I decided to devote an entire three-hour TIRnRR to a song cycle, detailing the story of a girl and a boy.  And here 'tis: 

                              
                               


In Dana's absence this week, rather than trying to do a regular show, we're going to try something a little bit different.  If you just wanna kick back and listen to the music, then we have a spectacular set o' tunes lined up for you. But if you want to pay closer attention, you'll discover that the individual songs come together to tell a story. It's a simple story, a universal story, about a girl and a boy:  how they meet, how they fall in love, and what happens to them after that. The story is told as a dialogue between the girl and the boy, chronicling their relationship as they see it, as it happens.  We'll hear from girls named Susan, and Maura, and Holly, and Gail, and Rachael, and Lisa, and Kirsty, and Kelley; we'll hear from boys named Sid, and Joey, and Gary, and John, and Paul, and Jeff, and Steve, and Chris, and Eytan.  But all of the female leads we hear will speak collectively from the point of view of just one girl; all of the male vocals will sing on behalf of just one boy.   We'll tell you the names of that one girl and that one boy near the end of the program.  But until then, we'll let the music do the talking, as we present our story without further interruption.  Right now, turn your radio up as THIS IS ROCK 'N' ROLL RADIO presents A GIRL AND A BOY:  The Story So Far.

THIS IS ROCK 'N' ROLL RADIO with Dana & Carl streams live every Sunday night from 9 to Midnight Eastern, exclusively at www.westcottradio.org.  GET WELL, DANA!

TIRnRR # 751:  A GIRL AND A BOY: THE STORY SO FAR

THE MONKEES [with JULIE DRISCOLL]:  "I'm A Believer" (from 33 1/3 REVOLUTIONS PER MONKEE)

--

BMX BANDITS:  "I Wanna Fall In Love"(Big Deal, Theme Park)

THE GANTS: "I Wonder" (Rhino, VA:  Nuggets)

THE BURNS SISTERS BAND: "I Wonder Who's Out Tonight" (Columbia, The Burns Sisters Band)

THE RAMONES:  "Do You Wanna Dance?" (Rhino, Rocket To Russia)

THE PORTUGAL JAPAN:  "Boy Meets Girl" (Dionysus, VA:  Innocence Is Bliss)

AL GREEN:  "I Want To Hold Your Hand" (The Right Stuff, Green Is Blues)

ELLIE GREENWICH:  "Medley:  Goodnight Baby/Baby I Love You" (Razor & Tie, I Can Hear Music)

THE FLASHCUBES:  "No Promise" (Northside, Bright Lights)

THE PATTI SMITH GROUP:  "Because The Night" (Arista, Easter)

SHOES:  "Tomorrow Night" (Bomp!, VA:  The Roots Of Powerpop)

THE COWSILLS: "Cross That Line" (Robin, Global)

THE RASPBERRIES:  "Tonight" (RPM, Power Pop Volume Two)

P.P. ARNOLD:  "Angel Of The Morning" (Immediate, The First Cut)

TODD RUNDGREN:  "Couldn't I Just Tell You" (Rhino, Something/Anything?)

THE VELVET UNDERGROUND:  "I'll Be Your Mirror" (Polydor, Peel Slowly And See)

THE PARTIES: "Let's Call It Love" (Rainbow Quartz, Coast Garde)

NANCI GRIFFITH & THE CRICKETS:  "Well...All Right" (Decca, VA:  Not Fade Away)

THE DIRTY ROYALS:  "I'm In Love" (n/a, Star Burrito)

WE FIVE:  "You Were On My Mind" (Big Beat, There Stands The Door)

THE ROMANTICS:  "When I Look In Your Eyes" (Nemperor, The Romantics)

THE GO-GO'S:  "Head Over Heels" (IRS, Return To The Valley Of The Go-Go's)

THE VOGUES: "Five O'Clock World" (Varese Sarabande, The Best Of The Vogues)

THE KENNEDYS:  "Half Of Us" (Jiffyjam, Get It Right)

THE ZOMBIES:  "This Will Be Our Year" (Big Beat, Zombie Heaven)

COCKTAIL SLIPPERS:  "St. Valentine's Day Massacre" (Wicked Cool, Saint Valentine's Day Massacre)

THE BEATLES: "We Can Work It Out" (Apple, 1962-1966)

HOLLY GOLIGHTLY:  "Time Will Tell" (Damaged Goods, Truly She Is None Other)

THE RECORDS:  "Hearts Will Be Broken" (Virgin, Smashes, Crashes, And Near-Misses)

THE CATHOLIC GIRLS: "Someone New" (Renaissance, The Catholic Girls)

THE NERVES:  "Walking Out On Love" (Alive, One Way Ticket)

RACHAEL GORDON:  "When You Find Out" (Wizzard In Vinyl, Rock 'n' Roll Girl)

THE EVERLY BROTHERS:  "Gone, Gone, Gone" (Warner Brothers, Walk Right Back)

THE MUFFS: "Saying Goodbye" (Warner Brothers, The Muffs)

THE WELL WISHERS:  "Goodbye" (n/a, A Shattering Sky)

NUSHU:  "Spill" (n/a, Nevermind Lullabye)

SAMMY AMBROSE:  "This Diamond Ring" (Ace, VA:  You Heard It Here First!)

ADELE:  "I'll Be Waiting" (Columbia, 21)

SPLITSVILLE:  "Why It Can't Be" (Zip, Let's Go!)

BLUE ANGEL: "I'm Gonna Be Strong" (Hip-O, Blue Angel)

SQUEEZE:  "Another Nail For My Heart" (A & M, Singles--45's & Under)

THE PRETENDERS:  "Back On The Chain Gang" (Sire, The Singles)

STEVE STOECKEL & HIS THIS IS ROCK 'N' ROLL RADIO ALL-STARS:  "You Don't Love Me Anymore" (unreleased)

JOAN JETT & THE BLACKHEARTS:  "Love Is Pain" (Blackheart, I Love Rock 'n' Roll)

THE STALLIONS:  "Why" (Junk, Hey Baby, It's The Stallions)

KIRSTY MacCOLL:  "Days" (Capitol, Galore)

THE SPINNERS:  "My Whole World Ended (The Moment You Left Me)" (Motown, The Best Of The Spinners)

MAD MONSTER PARTY:  "Can't Stop Loving You" (Kool Kat Musik, VA:  This Is Rock 'n' Roll Radio, Volume 3)

THE HOODOO GURUS:  "Bittersweet" (Elektra, Mars Needs Guitars!)

FEAR OF STRANGERS:  "Shopping For A Dog" (Faulty Products, Fear Of Strangers)

THE FOUR TOPS:  "Reach Out I'll Be There" (Motown, The Ultimate Collection)

ASTROPUPPEES:  "Drop Down And Get Me" (Manatee, Lost Valentines)

ARROGANCE:  "Open Window" (Vanguard, Rumors)

LULU:  "The Boat That I Row" (Rhino, From Crayons To Perfume)

THE FLAMIN' GROOVIES:  "I Can't Hide" (Rhino, At Full Speed)

THE DAHLMANNS:  "Shake Me Up Tonight" (Pop Detective, All Dahled Up)

P76:  "Let's Get Back To Where We Started" (Zip, Into The Sun)

THE BANGLES:  "September Gurls" (Columbia, Different Light)

GUADALCANAL DIARY:  "Litany (Life Goes On)" (Elektra, 2 X 4)

DUSTY SPRINGFIELD:  "I Only Want To Be With You" (Mercury, The Very Best Of Dusty Springfield)

EYTAN MIRSKY:  "This Year's Gonna Be Our Year" (M-Squared, Year Of The Mouse)

And one last toast to our young lovers, whose story was first told years ago, when Ray Davies looked at the world from his window, and imagined a boy and a girl named Terry and Julie:

THE KINKS:  "Waterloo Sunset" (Essential, Something Else)

THE MIKE MORRISON CONGREGATION:  "I Got You Babe" (n/a, VA:  Reader's Digest Music--Airport Pop)

An Informal History Of Bubblegum, Part 4

Continuing my history of bubblegum music, originally published in the April 25, 1997 issue of Goldmine.  It was subsequently edited for an appearance in the book Bubblegum Music Is The Naked Truth, partially for length and style, but also to avoid duplication with subjects discussed elsewhere in the book.  Writer Gary Pig Gold and I revamped my original article's section on The Monkees into an amusing debate on whether or not The Monkees were every really a bubblegum group.  Except for some minor editing, this restores the original, full-length piece as it appeared in Goldmine.  You can catch up with PART 1 PART 2 and PART 3 

I also recommend Mark Evanier's terrific blog, News From ME 

                             

Cartoon Rock

The success of The Archies led to an odd tangent in the bubblegum story: Saturday morning cartoon characters singing pop-rock songs and, frequently, making pop-rock records. Kirshner himself was involved with many of them.

"He did a couple of other bands like the Chan Clan," Bill Pitzonka says, "which was also Ron Dante—it was Ron Dante and Barry Manilow, go figure that—and then there were all the other Saturday morning TV shows like Josie and the Pussycats."

Even the animated version of The Harlem Globetrotters played on this field, courtesy of Kirshner.
"Kirshner did that with Sedaka and Greenfield," Pitzonka says. "A lot of this is languishing in Don Kirshner's vault because he's for some reason going into delusions of grandeur that it's going to be worth a lot some day.

"There were a couple bands before The Archies. There was a band called The Beagles, which I know nothing about. They put out an album on Columbia and I knew nothing about them until I got this one CD which had their stuff on it."

"That was a show that was produced by Total Television," says writer and animation historian Mark Evanier, whose television credits range from Welcome Back, Kotter to Garfield and roughly a zillion other series, specials, one-shots and pilots. "The Beagles were—there were two of them, it was a team. That was one of the few shows like that done out of New York that was like that.   That was produced out of New York, and I think that was a case where somebody bought the show based on the name.

"There were a number of shows about music groups, and you could go back even further than that, I think. Did the Beatles cartoon show precede that? Certainly the success of the Beatles in other media spawned a lot of interest."

Still, animated pop groups proliferated to an unprecedented degree in the wake of The Archies.

"Yeah, a lot of that was a Fred Silverman belief," Evanier says. "Fred liked those. Fred was programming CBS quite successfully in the late '60s and his influence certainly bled over to the other networks. I'm not even sure chronologically what was the first show that did it, but the success of The Archies certainly didn't hurt any.

"The other trend that had a lot of parallels here was there was a trend toward pre-established properties. Which was a case of using characters that already existed. The idea was that, because of the way the cartoons were sold to the advertisers, frequently sold before the show even was finished, there became a very strong interest in programming cartoon shows that existed in other media. In other words, something that was based on a TV show, based on a movie. There was a dislike of shows that were 'only' cartoon shows. And one of the ways in which they took a property that otherwise was not known—like, say, Jabberjaw—and gave it some sort of a feel of familiarity was to try to spin a record group out of it, or to try to spin something akin to The Archies out of it.

"There were attempts several times to replicate the success of The Archies," Evanier continues, "because The Archies had a hit record, and The Archies were on a record label, and such. It also became a simple case of believing that that was an element that was popular in the shows, particularly with female viewers. One of the problems that Saturday morning animation has frequently had is attracting female viewers. It's very tricky to find a show that girls will watch that doesn't alienate boys. And the music segments seemed to be something that had some value there.

"There were a lot of reasons. But also, at that time the shows were a little more formularized than they later became, or than maybe was desirable. And the idea of just putting a music segment in, making that part of the format, it was pretty easy to crank them out assembly-linewise. The writers would write up to the chase scene, and then the idea would be that there'd be a minute-and-a-half song that would take over the action. You'd notice they would reuse animation an awful lot in those, and I think that was also a powerful incentive. Basically it was simply a case of a belief that kids liked [the music segments]; just as Scooby-Doo spawned a whole raft of shows where four kids went out and solved mysteries, The Archies spawned a whole raft of shows where, although the characters were not necessarily a rock group, they would at some point pull out their keyboards and drums and play something."

As noted previously, Kasenetz and Katz were also approached to provide music for a proposed Saturday morning cartoon, Captain Groovy & His Bubblegum Army.

"Well, we were approached," say Kasenetz and Katz.  "We were dealing with Hanna-Barbera, and the reason it really didn't come about is because they wanted 50 percent of whatever we did.  And we said, 'Hey listen, if we're gonna do it for you, we're gonna do it for you--it's our stuff.'  And we really didn't want to give everything up.  And I think more than anything that's why it never came about.  We thought they were asking for too much, and it wasn't worth it to us."

While pop music seemed to take over kiddie TV, no such music ever really crossed over to the pop charts after The Archies.  "The Tra La La Song (One Banana, Two Banana)," which was he theme song to The Banana Splits (actually a non-animated Saturday morning show featuring four guys in animal suits as a rock group) managed a # 96 showing on The Hot 100, but that was about it.  Joey Levine did contribute one song to The Banana Splits, "I Enjoy Being A Boy (In Love With You)," but it wasn't even released outside of a limited-edition mail order offer.  Still, the song had some high-profile fans.

"Basically, the only thing that became big about that was R.E.M., early in their career, used to play around with that song," Levine recalls.

A relative lack of chart success doesn't necessarily mean there wasn't some tasty bubblegum music being created for the Saturday morning crowd.  "Two of the best bubblegum albums ever are the album that The Sugar Bears did and the album done by Lancelot Link and the Evolution Revolution," Bill Pitzonka says. "And both of those were for prefab artists. That's the point at which they realized again that the faceless aspect was taking its toll, so they hitched onto TV shows or, in The Sugar Bears' case, a breakfast cereal."

It's also worth noting that reruns of The Monkees' TV show, which had completed its prime-time run on NBC in 1968, began airing as part of CBS' Saturday morning lineup in September of 1969.

                       

One Saturday morning act that may have deserved a better fate was Josie and the Pussycats. The group is something of a pop culture footnote for introducing the world to one Cherie Moor, later to find fame as actress/singer Cheryl Ladd. Though based on an Archie Comics title, the music for Josie And The Pussycats was produced, not by Don Kirshner, but under the direction of songwriter Danny Janssen, best known for co-writing "Little Woman" for Bobby Sherman. And the sound Janssen chose for Josie and the Pussycats was cast, not in the image of The Archies, but in the soulful pop style of The Jackson Five.

"That was fully the intention of Danny Janssen," Bill Pitzonka says. "They held auditions for the girls for Josie and the Pussycats and he had selected the three girls. Cheryl Ladd—who wasn't Cheryl Ladd  then—Cathy Dougher, and Patrice Holloway. And when he presented them to Hanna-Barbera they said, 'Well, we really like Patrice Holloway, but we've never had a black cartoon character before.' And he said, 'Well, tough, '" Pitzonka notes with a laugh. "'I won't do the project unless she does it, because she's got the greatest voice for it.'

"So they sat on it for a while and he didn't hear back, and then they said, 'Come down to the studio, we're doing Josie and the Pussycats.' And (Janssen said), 'You didn't fire her, did you? Because I wasn't gonna do it.' And they said 'No, just come down to the studio.' They hired every major soul musician in L.A. to work on those sessions. Because they said, "We're gonna do this right, we are gonna do this right.' And that's why there is a black character in Josie and the Pussycats, and why the music has such a soul slant.

Unfortunately, neither of Josie and the Pussycats' two Capitol singles, “Every Beat Of My Heart” and “You've Come A Long Way, Baby,” made so much as a light indentation on the Hot 100. (A competing version of “Every Beat of My Heart,” by 11-year-old singer Shawn, also failed to chart.) With the notable exception of Ladd, Josie and the Pussycats soon faded into obscurity.

"One of the things that a lot of different companies have tried to do over the years," Mark Evanier says, "is they like the idea of owning a group. You know, one of the things that made The Archies the envy of a lot of other people in the music business was that The Archies were anonymous, The Archies were owned. The Archies couldn't hold out for more money. I mean, I think they were always shocked that The Monkees, when they were done, turned into kind of independent guys. You couldn't just yank Mike out and put in somebody else. You had to go with those four guys.

"And I think that were was a couple of attempts in Saturday morning, through animation and through live action, to create groups like Kaptain Kool and the Kongs. It was owned by the Kroffts [TV producers Sid and Marty Krofft]. They could pluck people out, put people in. They could own all the publishing, they could own the likenesses, they could own the costumes, they could merchandise the characters in a way that you couldn't do if you had a comparable group that was using their real names and faces and such.

"And I think that's one of the appeals of some of these attempts, was, 'Well, we'll make our money on the records, we'll make money on the merchandising, we'll send the group out to tour.' I think at one point there was this dream that they could have four or five troops of Banana Splits going around the country touring, if The Banana Splits had been bigger. All you need is a set of costumes. Anybody in the world can be in the costumes, and anyone in the world can record the records. Like you have this generically-created music. In the same sense that right now a lot of live-action movie studios kind of envy Disney, because Disney doesn't have to cope with stars who want 25 million dollars. They can tear their stars up if they ever get out of line.

"A lot of the animation studios had deals with different people to produce the records," Evanier continues.  "For instance, I did a live-action pilot for Hanna-Barbera in 1977.  I did a show called The Beach Girls, which was about three girls in a rock group who lived at the beach and put on bikinis and played rock music.  Frankie Avalon was the guest star on the pilot.  And for the music tracks for these girls to sing, they didn't even let the three girls they'd hired sing; they pulled some of the music tracks which had been recorded for Josie And The Pussycats years earlier by some company that had produced those for Hanna-Barbera.  And this was the same type of thing, you know, 'We own these songs, we madea deal for these, so we're going to use them.

"That was the attitude.  And we did this live-action pilot, it was a sitcom, trying to kind of cross The Monkees with a beach party movie.  It was that period of time where every show had three girls in bikinis in it.  But there was a lot of that studio attitude of 'Let's create stars we own.'"

With no substantial hits to follow up The Archies' success, and with The Archies themselves already fading, the cartoon rock trend ran itself out.

"I think it was like a fad that (ended)," Evanier says. "See, you know, this business tends to always run in cycles of imitation. There was a period when everything was Scooby-Doo imitations. Somebody called them a 'Four kids and a nyaa-nyaa' show, or 'Three kids and a nyaa-nyaa.' Three kids and a dog, four kids and a horse, three kids and a car, you know, whatever it is, go solves mysteries. And you go through cycles on that until something else comes along. And I suspect that there was no specific catalyst here—The Archies was a hit, a bunch of other shows like that were tried, they weren't hits, something else was a hit, people tried other things."

NEXT:  The Bubble Bandwagon