Pink Links

VINTAGE SOUNDS

Jeff Barry: The Man and His Music

Mike Batt’s Official Womble Page

The Cowsills: still not the Partridge Family

Laura’s Ron Dante Fan Site: more grooviness about the man who was Archie

Ron Dante OnLine: Official site of the Voice of Archie

Official Tommy James website… no hanky panky here

Official Andy Kim website

Lemon Pipers fansite

The Lemon Pipers’ singer Ivan is still making music (with his wife Isa)

Chewing the Bubblegum with Joey Levine: book contributor Keith Bearden interviewed the Teenage King of the Bubblegum Whine

Robin McNamara Official Site

The 1910 Fruitgum Company… they’re back!

Unofficial 1910 Fruitgum Company site

P.F. Sloan website: Great page for the reclusive songwriter featured in the book for his behind the scenes work on the early Grass Roots albums

Mondo Daddykin: Gummy Sharities

OVERVIEW

The Classic Bubblegum Music Home Page: drop by and spend a week!

Bubble Gum Music: analytical/historical take on the big pink sound

Uncle Buzz’ Bubblegum World (see also: band sites for Pink Filth and Hyperbubble, because bubblegum didn’t die in 1968)

everything you wanted to know about the Buddah and Kama Sutra discographies (but were afraid to ask)

How can you have Too Many Golden Oldies?

 

TV EYE & SHOPPING MALL

Wingnut’s Banana Splits Page: with links to Hanna Barbera and Sour Grapes Bunch facts. And plenty more grooviness from Wingnut, including the Cattanooga Cats and Josie & the Pussycats.

Josie and the the Pussycats: Fan page with lots of fun facts

The Imaginary World’s cereal box pages

Unofficial Partridge Family site: C’mon Get Happy

Shazam! Its 70s Live Action Kid Vid

Cool cover art at the Bubble Gum Beat site (be sure to roll over the pics)

 

NEW GUM

The Partridge Family Temple: definitely not the Partridge Family… featuring Go-Go Giddle’s bubblegum fashions

Have you met the Bubblegumfink?

Champion bubblegum blower Chewsy Suzy

The Lost Feature: Tommy Roe, Brian Hyland, Tommy James & the Shondells

An Appreciation of Tommy Roe, Brian Hyland, Tommy James & the Shondells and other primordial examples of bubblegum
by Domenic Priore in conversation with Shelly Kidd

Domenic Priore: We were trying to figure out what separates the British Invasion groups from the ’60s Garage Punk bands in America that followed, and when you said “they warped it with Chili Dogs” that pretty much says it all

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”

Discography of known cereal box records

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