Category: Bubblegum Achievement Awards

Chewing the Bubblegum with Joey Levine

interview by Keith Bearden from WFMU’s LCD issue #22

If you’ve listened to the radio or watched TV semi-regularly over the past 30 years, you’ve surely heard the work of Joey Levine. He was one of the main songwriters behind the Bubblegum Rock movement of the late 60’s, and his nasally, teen-sounding voice was perfect for rockin’ hits by The Ohio Express (“Chewy, Chewy,” “Yummy, Yummy”) and The Katsentz-Katz Super Circus (“Quick Joey Small”). Fans of the Nuggets LP will know him as the leader of The Third Rail (“Run, Run, Run”), a more “adult” version of the studio musician “bands” that Joey staffed under Buddha Records producers Jerry Kasenetz and Jeff Katz. And who over the age of 30 doesn’t remember being delighted/horrified by Reunion’s “Life Is A Rock (But The Radio Rolled Me)?” Or getting the munchies listening to the immortal “Trust The Gorton’s Fisher-man” jingle for Gorton’s Breaded Fish Sticks? Once again, the work of the busy Levine.

While the Bubblegum Rock movement has been critically lambasted for 30 years, its importance is undeniable. At a time in the 60’s when Merseybeat and garage bands had broken up or turned hippie, pre-fab studio groups like The Monkees, The Archies, The 1910 Fruitgum Company (“Simon Says”) and The Ohio Express created many beautifully crafted songs, carrying the torch of pure, simple pop/rock into the 70’s, where it was picked up by bands like The Raspberries, The Shoes and The Rubinoos, or in the UK got dressed up by The Sweet and other glam rockers. Later, punk bands like Funhouse, Slaughter & The Dogs and Joan Jett all paid a debt to their three-chord Bubblegum forebearers by covering some of Levine’s handiwork.

Getting involved in commercial jingles in the 70’s, native New Yorker Levine still works in the field, and currently heads up three music companies, Crushing Music, Crushing Underground and Levine & Company.
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LCD: What’s your background as a musician?

LEVINE: My dad Elli Levine was a band leader in the Army and a jazz pianist under the name Elden Lewis, and my mother Marion Kingsley was a singer who had her own radio show in NYC when she was 16 years old. My uncle Alan Stanton was a record producer at Columbia and A&M. I took piano and guitar, and did the whole teenage band kind of things. My first band was Joey Vine & The Grapes, I was in The Pastels, playing country clubs and synagogues and sweet 16 parties…

LCD: How did you get involved with the whole NYC Bubblegum rock scene?

LEVINE: I had been working in music publishing for a couple years over at TM Music, writing songs after school, where I met a songwriter named Artie Resnick, who had written ‘Under The Boardwalk.’ We really collaborated well, and were getting success off of some demos we were cutting. Jerry Kasenetz and Jeff Katz had heard a song I wrote called ‘Try It’ that The Standells had a kinda mini-hit underground thing that people were digging on, and then they recorded it with The Ohio Express after ‘Beg Borrow & Steal.’ They called me and said, ‘We’ve been hearing your demos and this and that and we think you can write some of this teenybopper music,’ and then Artie & I wrote ‘Yummy Yummy.’

LCD: How old were you when this was all happening

LEVINE: Just about 17.

LCD: Wow. How was it working for Katsentz/Katz? Was it a hit factory or did you have a lot of creative freedom?

LEVINE: Well, it was a factory in that there were a couple of different bands that we used-a lot of times it would be the same band-and we had a day to record and a day to do overdubs and mix. Also, when Jeff and Jerry thought a song was a hit and it didn’t fly, they’d have other bands record it again, slightly different. They’d have The Ohio Express do it, then The Shadows of Knight, then The Fruitgum Company, on and on. So you’d work all week, and in-between you’d write more songs.

LCD: Were the Ohio Express and 1910 Fruitgum Company real bands? Did they tour?

LEVINE: They were all real bands, but I sang on a lot of their records. Neil Bogart [Buddha Records President and the man who later gave the world KISS & Donna Summer] heard my demo of ‘Yummy Yummy’ and said ‘Have this guy sing on the records.’

LCD: That’s why on the Ohio Express albums you have the hits with you singing and then the other tracks sound like bad Procol Harum rip-offs.

LEVINE: Yeah. When the bands would tour I’d stay in New York and these guys would schlep out around the country singing my songs, though they didn’t sound like me.

LCD: What are your memories of those days?

LEVINE: It was great. I had Top 10 records, my voice was all over the radio, but nobody knew who I was unless I wanted them to. The best kind of fame. It got me into a lot more parties at school, for sure.

LCD: Studio songwriters produced some of the best pop songs of the 60’s. Name some songs you and Artie Resnick wrote from back then.

LEVINE: Oh, God, so many. Besides all The Ohio Express stuff, we wrote some stuff for The 1910 Fruitgum Company, me and Bobbie Blum and Bo Gentry and Richie Cordell. ‘Gimme Gimme Good Lovin’,’ Tommy James stuff like ‘Mony Mony,’ ‘Montego Bay,’ lots of stuff. You lost track you worked so much, and a lot of times we co-wrote and never gave each other credit. I also wrote stuff for Gene Pitney with Doc Pomus.

LCD: A lot of people interpret songs like “Yummy Yummy” and “Chewy Chewy” as being slyly sexual. Was that your intent?

LEVINE: Absolutely. We were told to write these innocent songs, keep it young and poppy, but we were all in our late teens so we wanted to slide some double entendres past ’em if we could. Eating was our big thing.

LCD: The Ramones have mentioned numerous times that they started out wanting to sound like The Ohio Express. How does it feel to be a godfather of Punk?

LEVINE: [Buddha Records publicist/New York Dolls manager] Marty Thau was producing some punk bands back in the 70’s, and he said ‘You should produce this stuff-all these guys mention your records.’ To tell you the truth, even though in the 60s we were all in our own funky state, meeting these bands-I just couldn’t deal. It was too weird for me.

LCD: Why do you think critics trash the whole bubblegum scene?

LEVINE: Well, the music’s a little contrite. It was just played for fun, and it was a period of time that was very serious. People were looking for big, heavy themes-drugs, war, revolution – and it looked very thin under those criteria. Bubblegum to me was making fun of all that. Basically it was like, ‘We get the serious issues – so why not smile and dance and goof around?’

LCD: Tell me about Third Rail.

LEVINE: The Third Rail I did before I was in The Ohio Express. I was 16 or 17. It was me, Artie and Kris Resnick, some of the earliest songs we wrote that we recorded together just as songwriters. Very political, more all over the map musically. Teddy Cooper over at Epic heard the stuff we were recording and said, ‘Let’s do an album.’ It just got re-released on CD in Britain.

LCD: The internet says you co-wrote stuff with Jim Carroll. Huh?

LEVINE: That’s my friend Jim Carroll. Not the Basketball Diaries junkie poet guy.

LCD: OK. (sigh) Tell me about “Life is a Rock but the Radio Rolled Me”?

LEVINE: That song is imitated a lot I think, by people like REM, with ‘The End of The World’ and Billy Joel with ‘We Didn’t Start The Fire.’ Not directly, but a lot of songs are based on people’s memory of our song. Some guy called me and said [affects dunderhead accent]’I think that’s the first rap record!’ And I said, ‘I don’t know about that.’ And he said, ‘Well, before that you had country rap, and story raps, but just rhythmic rhyming of words flowing together, that was the first!’ So I said, ‘Look, I’m the father of bubblegum-don’t make me the father of rap. Somebody will put me on a hit list.’

LCD: You work exclusively in commercials now. Do you miss writing songs about love as opposed to tampons or fish sticks?

LEVINE: I have never written a song about tampons.

LCD: OK.

LEVINE: The jingle thing is just cleaner, more honest. You write the song, you record it, people hear it, less politics, less rip-offs, the pay is good. No muss, no fuss. I still wrote songs. I write songs for my wife or my kids, but now it’s all fun. No headaches and ulcers wondering about having a hit or not.

LCD: What are some of your commercial songwriting credits?

LEVINE: ‘Sometimes You Feel Like a Nut’ for Peter Paul/Mounds, (singing) ‘Oh, What A Feeling to Drive-TOY-OTA!,’ ‘Can’t Beat The Feeling’ for Coca-Cola, ‘The Softer Side of Sears,’ Diet Coke, ‘Just For The Taste of It’…

LCD: God. People will carry those jingles with them to their graves. With your pop songs and TV, how does it feel to be so deep in the public consciousness?

LEVINE: Ah, I feel good about it. I feel lucky to be able to do what I do for so long.

LCD: Tell me something people might not guess about Joey Levine?

LEVINE: I always thought of myself as a soul singer.

2005 Bubblegum Achievement Awards DVD

Can you say… ARCHIES REUNION?! Gummy Awards DVDs are finally available, including the amazing live duets from Ron Dante and Toni Wine and Ron Dante and Joey Levine!

Canned Hamm and the Bubblegum Queen performed live and hosted a night of many delights, including a puppet spectacular by the Bob Baker Marionettes, the L.A. premiere of a documentary based on the book "Bubblegum Music is the Naked Truth," Abram the Safety Ape’s tribute to Lancelot Link, and musical performances from Ron Dante solo and in duets with his fellow Archie (and 2003 Gummy winner) Toni Wine and the Ohio Express’ Joey Levine.

Then it was time for the Gummy Awards, with trophies presented to Steve Barri (Lancelot Link, Grass Roots), Ron Dante (Archies), Dr. Demento (radio hero) & Joey Levine (Ohio Express).

Now available: a 71 minute DVD spectacular featuring the highlights from this most pink and magical night, The 2005 Bubblegum achievement Awards Show. Copies are available for $22 postpaid in the USA and for $25 elsewhere. Or add $12 to your Scram subscription and save $10! Please send payment in US dollars to Scram, PO Box 31227, LA, CA 90031, or paypal to scram @ scrammagazine . com. Please note that the documentary is not included in the DVD package, and the puppet show has been heavily edited due to time constraints. Special orders for a second DVD containing the entire puppet show are possible. Email scram @ scrammagazine . com for more info.

Steve Barri induction

Steve Barri inducted by Becky Ebankamp (following Abram the Safety Ape’s video tribute to Lance Link):

Thanks, Abram. I’m also a big Lance Link fan. But we should let our audience know that while Lance, Mata Hairi, Bananas Marmoset and Sweetwater Gibbons played their instruments with heart and soul, a professional production team that shares 98.5 of chimps’ genetic material contributed to their primitive sound. Steve Hoffman wrote and sang many of their songs. And the Evolution Revolution’s catchy single, “Sha La Love You,” was produced by a man who has a pedigree in pop, from surf to soul to bubblegum and beyond: Mr. Steve Barri, who we are honoring tonite.

If Steve has a little trouble remembering the particulars of the recording sessions for Lancelot Link and the Evolution Revolution, he has a pretty good excuse. In 1967, Barri was promoted to head of A&R for all of ABC Dunhill Records when his mentor, Lou Adler, left to work with the Mamas and the Papas. Only in his early 20s at the time, Barri was juggling songwriting with his new duties of discovering artists like Steppenwolf, 3 Dog Night and Jim Croce and producing everyone from Mama Cass to the Four Tops.

One day in the middle of all this creative frenzy, label founder Jay Lasker came to Steve and said, “ABC is doing this show with monkeys and they need some songs.” Barri dispatched some steady songwriters in his stable, Michael Price and Dan Walsh, to get crackin’ on delivering chimp rock hits. Like Barri, the Price and Walsh team had written songs for the Grass Roots, and in fact, Lancelot Link’s lead single, “Sha La Love You” was a rumored Roots reject.

Oh, and did I mention the deadline? Barri and his team had to write the group’s hits and record demos within about four days. Dan Walsh may have sang the single, or it might have been bubblegum singer Austin Roberts. It gets a little hazy after that…

As it turns out, Lancelot Link — a show that applied manic monkey antics to the comical spy theme of Get Smart — was not the Saturday Morning TV darling it deserved to be, so Barri moved on to other projects. But the group did release their album and Barri-produced single, and the TV show aired several videos of the EvRev performing.

Barri does recall an ABC Dunhill industry event where the label was introducing its new music roster. On hand were members of 3 Dog Night and Steppenwolf, while Richard Harris and Beverly Sills were there to lend an air of non-teenybobber sophistication. Also? About a half dozen chimps. Like true professionals, the simian members of the Evolution Revolution waited patiently backstage for their moment in the spotlight, but it was briefly interrupted by a star fit: Barri recalled how Richard Harris stumbled upon the motley crew, and in his refined queen’s English inquired, “What are these monkeys doing back stage?! I did a film with apes, and I DON’T get along with them that WELL!” With that, the thespian/MacArthur’s Park crooner promptly made like a banana and split.

Frankly, Steve Barri’s songwriting and production resume is too long to list in a five-minute speech. In the early 1960s, Barri and his songwriting partner, P.F. Sloan, sang back up vocals for Jan & Dean. The pair went on to write the popular TV theme song “Secret Agent Man,” “A Must to Avoid” for Herman’s Hermits, “You Baby” for The Turtles and “Where Were You When I Needed You” for the Grassroots. In fact, Sloan and Barri WERE the Grassroots. Their songwriting demos were recorded for the first album. When the group got hot, they hired musicians to “play” the Grassroots because they didn’t dig the idea of touring. Along with ABC Dunhill, Barri has worked at Warner Bros., Motown, JVC Records and Gold Circle Entertainment in A&R and producer roles.

Bubblegum fans will be especially thrilled to know that Steve Barri produced “Dizzy” by Tommy Roe and “Billy Don’t Be a Hero” by Bo Donaldson and the Heywoods. If that isn’t enough to convince you that he’s a grand poobah of bubblegum, consider that the Fantastic Baggys, his early ’60s surf group with PF Sloan, appeared on an episode of The Flintstones with singer “James Dar-rock,” who performed two of their songs.

Also worth noting: Unlike some, Barri is not ashamed to wear the Bubblegum badge. “I loved ALL the music,” he told me. “And some of these Bubblegum songs have held up a lot better than rock.” To wit, one of his Mama Cass productions, “Make Your Own Kind of Music,” brilliantly kicked off the opening sequence of this season’s first episode of the TV show Lost.

Please join me in welcoming Steve Barri to the stage to receive his Gummy!

Joey Levine induction

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”