Stories behind memorable albums of the 1970s as told by the artists

Month: April 2017

Dispelling a few longtime rock and roll myths

The 1910 Fruitgum Company opened the Sixties Spectacular show Saturday night in New Brunswick, New Jersey, with the song “Yummy, Yummy, Yummy,” which reached No. 4 on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 pop singles chart in June 1968. It is considered among the first handful of songs that we now identify as the beginning of “bubblegum pop.”

And for a long time, a lot of people have believed that “Yummy, Yummy, Yummy” is a 1910 Fruitgum Company song.

It’s not.

The song was first recorded by the Ohio Express in 1968. The band itself included various studio musicians and was something that was cooked up by Jerry Kasenetz and Jeffrey Katz, executives for Super K Productions, a recording company under the Buddha Records umbrella. Who is the “real” Ohio Express is has been a difficult question to answer over the years because Kasenetz and Katz used “Ohio Express” as sort … Read more

John Hall of Orleans: Still having fun and still the one

There was a moment during the John Hall solo show on Earth Day at the Philadelphia Folksong Society April 22 where I just had to say something.

Hall, co-founder of the band Orleans, former congressman from New York and longtime environmental activist, had gone through his set and was closing the show. He had mixed generous amounts of storytelling into the set, including stories about the songs themselves as well as his experiences on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C.

Of course, he included the big Orleans’ hits that he wrote or co-wrote – “Dance With Me,” which made it to No. 5 on the U.S. Cashbox Top 100 chart and No. 6 on both the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 singles and Adult Contemporary charts in 1975; and “Still the One,” which got to No. 5 on the Billboard Hot 100 singles and U.S. Cash Box Top 100 singles charts in … Read more

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