A Manufactured Sound

Bubblegum: Part 2

One of the most convenient ways to promote the manufactured sound of bubblegum music was through Saturday morning TV shows and cartoons. Produced by Hanna-Barbera Productions in 1968, The Banana Splits Adventure Hour was a TV program that featured both live action and animated segments, hosted by a bubblegum rock group of comedic animals characters. The show's songs were provided by studio professionals, and released an album titled We're the Banana Splits in '68 with the show's theme actually breaking into the Billboard chart. Goofy animals aside, this song ("Wait Till Tomorrow") isn't half-bad with its harpsichord intro, but even more interesting is this great footage of late-'60s San Francisco!

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Remember the British pop music group The Flower Pot Men from our Flower Power Series last summer? In 1969, with studio vocalist Tony Burrows (you know, that guy who also sang "Love Grows (Where My Rosemary Goes)" with Edison Lighthouse), The Flower Pot Men evolved into another studio creation called White Plains. The group released several hits songs including their top-selling single "My Baby Loves Lovin'," which was record in October of 1969 and reached #13 on the US charts in early 1970. In this performance on Top of the Pops, the song's co-writer, Roger Greenaway, is lip-syncing the lead vocals, while original lead singer Burrows was also featured in this same episode, singing lead with Edison Lighthouse and Brotherhood of Man (another umbrella title for the frequently-changing line-up of session singers).

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Next up, we have another studio pop group, The Cuff Links, who had a #9 hit with "Tracy" in the fall of 1969. This song's rich harmonized vocals were provided entirely by Ron Dante, another session vocalist who had just recorded lead vocals for The Archies' "Sugar Sugar" a few months prior. Dante recorded all the vocal parts for "Tracy" in a matter of hours, and promised the song's writers, Paul Vance and Lee Pockriss, that he would record an entire Cuff Links album if the song was a hit. Sure enough, this tune spent 12 weeks in the U.S chart, earning a gold disc after selling over one million records, and Dante recorded The Cuff Links' first album (the lead and background vocals) in about a day and half. A seven-member touring band was assembled (without Dante) and were likely lip-syncing over Dante's original vocals in this performance.

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And speaking of Ron Dante and the fictional band The Archies, we all know that "Sugar Sugar" (featured here) was one of the biggest hits of the bubblegum pop genre. Created by Monkees' producer Don Kirshner in 1968, The Archie Show was a Saturday morning cartoon series featuring a teenage garage band; definitely another great vehicle for the production of bubblegum songs. One distribution mode for The Archies' music was actually cereal boxes, in which an embossed cardboard record in the back of the box could be cut out and played on a turntable (like on this Post brand cereal box). Before "Sugar Sugar," their first single, "Bang-Shang-A-Lang," reached #22 in 1968, and is featured in this episode below along with the "Dance of the Week" (conveniently called The Bubblegum). Ron Dante is pictured above with singer Donna Marie who recorded the female vocal parts for the animated group.

A Barrel Full of Monkees and Friends

American Response: Part 7
For regular readers of The '60s Beat, this is not the first time I've mentioned the fascinating story (see here) of how The Monkees began as a made-for-TV band, created as the American answer to The Beatles, pairing great music with zany antics like A Hard Day's Night. Assembled in 1966 by television producers Bob Rafelson and Bert Schneider (who later used "Monkees" money to produce films like Easy Rider), the quartet consisted of two actors (Davy Jones and Micky Dolenz) and two musicians (Michael Nesmith and Peter Tork) who eventually became a respected band in their own right, even outselling The Beatles. With the Emmy Award-winning TV series as the springboard for their music, their initial success was fueled by releasing hit songs by top songwriters, hand-picked by music supervisor Don Kirshner, "the man with the golden ear." When The Monkees began performing live and touring as a real band, they realized they wanted to write, record, and perform their own music, thus firing Kirshner (after some intense disagreements), and against all historical odds, the band continued to produce hit records. With diverse musical styles including pop rock, country rock, folk rock, bubblegum, psychedelic rock, soul/R&B, Broadway, even English music hall, The Monkees have sold over 50 million records worldwide (and counting) and are in the Guinness Book of World Records for having the most #1 albums in a single year (that's four #1 albums in 1967)! Here's their debut single and first #1 hit from September 1966, "Last Train to Clarksville," written by songwriting duo Boyce & Hart:

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Speaking of those top-notch songwriters, Boyce & Hart were a prolific singer-songwriter team that were the initial driving force behind The Monkees' sound. Meeting in 1959, Tommy Boyce and Bobby Hart formed a successful musical partnership that would go on to write more than 300 songs including TV show themes, film scores, and commercial jingles, and sold over 42 million records. In 1965, the duo wrote, produced, and performed the soundtrack for the pilot episode of The Monkees, even providing lead vocals (which were replaced when the show was cast), and were responsible for many of The Monkees' hits including "Last Train to Clarksville," "(I'm Not Your) Steppin' Stone," "Valleri," Words," "I Wanna Be Free," and of course the "(Theme from) The Monkees." Simultaneously, Boyce & Hart had a successful career as recording artists with five charting singles, including "I Wonder What She's Doing Tonight," which reached #8 on the Billboard charts in 1968. Introduced by Herb Alpert, here's the classic song that earned the duo a gold disc (gotta love the velvet suits!):

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Another one of those notable singer-songwriters was pop music performer Neil Diamond, the third most successful Adult Contemporary artist of all time (behind only Barbara Streisand and Elton John), selling over 115 million records worldwide. From Brooklyn, New York (and apparently a classmate of my husband's uncle!), Diamond spend his early career in the 1960s as a songwriter, gaining fame when The Monkees scored a #1 hit with his song "I'm a Believer" (the Popular Song of the Year in 1966). Also released in 1966 was "Solitary Man," his debut single as a recording artist, and although it was only a minor hit, it did peak at #21 on the charts after its re-release in 1970 (even becoming a hit for other artists as well across five decades). Diamond went on to score hits in the '60s, '70s, and '80s, and was recently inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame (yes, I voted for him!). This video is a bit on the jiggly side but there's no mistaking the distinct voice of a young Neil Diamond, singing one great tune!

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American singer-songwriter Harry Nilsson also gained more attention in the music business when The Monkees recorded and featured his music in their TV show and film ("Cuddly Toy" and "Daddy's Song"). An impressive vocalist with a natural talent for writing wonderful melodies, Nilsson became The Beatles' favorite American artist upon hearing his 1967 album Pandemonium Shadow Show. Ironically, the song Nilsson is most known for is one he did not write. Written by Fred Neil, "Everybody's Talkin'" helped Nilsson achieve global success in 1969, as it was also used as the theme for the film Midnight Cowboy, and it earned him his first Grammy Award. Propelling him into stardom, Nilsson would go on to have his biggest commercial success in the early 1970s, winning another Grammy. I'll definitely have to share some of his fantastic, original songs on another post, but here's his performance of his biggest hit; a song everyone could relate to during the turbulent times of the late '60s.

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Although The Monkees were influential as the first band in history to fight and win creative control over their music, Don Kirshner does go down in history as kind of getting a bum rap. After all, he was a business man and knew how to find a hit-worthy song. In the late 1960s, Kirshner's next endeavor involved producing another fictitious band, The Archies, however, this time they were animated (and couldn't talk back!). With all the male vocals provided by studio musician Ron Dante, the animated garage band scored a #1 hit with "Sugar, Sugar" in the summer of 1969, selling six million records and was ranked Billboard's number one song of the year (the only time a fictional band has ever claimed that spot). Written by Andy Kim and Jeff Barry, a rumor still circulates that this song was first offered to The Monkees, which Kirshner claimed Mike Nesmith put his fist through a wall refusing to take it (the wall-punching part is true but the song is still in question). Regardless, Kirshner knew this would be a big hit, and in fact, "Sugar Sugar" is one of the biggest bubblegum hits of all time, in both the U.S. and the UK. Notice Ron Dante's is "playing" all the instruments in this video: