Hi. Remember The Harlem Globetrotters cartoon from 1970? Kirshner Records released an album to coincide with the Saturday morning cartoon by Hanna-Barbera. The series was so popular that it made superstars out of the already famous basketball legends. Meadowlark Lemon and Curly Neal became household names in 1970. Enter Don Kirshner, who will make a bubblegum band from any known substance. The Globetrotters album is unique in that it transcended the kiddie market, and produced a huge beach-music hit with "Rainy Day Bells." Yes, this is the hit version that appears on The Beach Music Anthology box set among many other beach compilations. The other songs are a lot of fun as well. Neil Sedaka and Howard Greenfield penned half of the album, and the other half was written by gum legends like Jeff Barry, Ron Dante, and Jamie Carr. Good stuff! At my blog, http://www.mondodaddykin.blogspot.com/ , I’m sharing mp3 files of the album, including a couple of bonus tracks! Take care, more gum later…
Category: cartoon
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.