This 3xCD package won’t help your ‘street cred’ one iota. Bubblegum music was pop music at its most basic; no thought-provoking lyrics, no complicated chord structures, no seven minutes long guitar workouts, just two and a half minute pieces of fluff, many that, if we’re honest with ourselves, we can still hum along to and remember just enough of the lyrics to even sing a long a bit as well. In other words bubblegum music was fun!
Ohio Express, 1910 Fruitgum Co., The Lemon Pipers, Kasenetz-Katz Singing Orchestral Circus and Crazy Elephant were little more than session singers and musicians given a group name thought up by producers and record labels which then made it onto the charts in America and here. Yummy, Yummy, Yummy, Simon Says, Green Tambourine, Quick Joey Small and Gimme Gimme Good Lovin’ are classic and still memorable bubblegum.
But hang on, let’s look more closely. Among the ninety-one tracks on this CD, there are names that you might not expect to see associated with bubblegum. The Beach Boys (How She Boogalooed It), Neil Diamond (Cherry Cherry) and The Box Tops (Cry Like A Baby) are here which, I suppose, goes to prove that a lot of pop records were so simple and catchy that they have become part of bubblegum’s rich tapestry. Tracy by The Cuff Links had a foot in both camps, as did Keep On by Bruce Channel, I’m Gonna Make You Mine by Lou Christie, Bobby Bloom’s Montego Bay and Me And You And A Dog Named Boo by Lobo and are all at home here and, course, so are The Archies and Tommy James and The Shondells (I Think We’re Alone Now). An old favourite of mine is here too which certainly endears me to this release, a little-known track called Alley Pond Park by Culver Street Playground. Suddenly I’m back in 1967 and loving every minute.
Don’t worry what friends might think of you when you buy this CD, just play it and enjoy the fun.
Author: AUSTIN POWELL
Austin Powell has spent his entire working life in the music business. From being an agent and manager of ‘beat groups’ in the sixties to working for major record companies in the seventies and eighties, he has also held management positions at radio stations in England, Wales and on the Isle Of Man. He continues to act as a consultant to several record companies and artists and presents a weekly 'oldies' show on Monday evenings on 101.8 WCR FM in Wolverhampton.
