The band's original tunes are largely in keeping with the b-gum sound of the Super K-supplied numbers, including three more silly but fun songs by "Simon Says" author Elliott Chiprut (including the hit "May I Take A Giant Step") and yet another take on Kaskat copyright "Soul Struttin'." In fact, drummer Marcus' hook-laden "Bubble Gum World" should have been a single itself. In more typically slapdash K&K fashion the song lineup on the cover and LP don't match. Usual lead singer Mark Gutkowski shares the vocal spotlight with the other band members throughout, and the group is also correctly identified on the cover. In a somewhat strange occurrence for a Super K group, the band also played on the album as well, according to drummer Floyd Marcus the audio evidence would bear that out, as this disc doesn't sound like the studio band. That was the right move, as it turns out that the real band wrote about half the songs on Simon Says. However, the later 1910 LPs are all worthwhile, so I gave it the benefit of the doubt. I was somewhat hesitant to pick up this disc after hearing the disappointing follow-up album, 1, 2, 3, Red Light, which contained that great hit, a couple sound-alikes and some really flavorless gum. The biggest contribution by the original 1910 Fruitgum Company can be found on their first LP, Simon Says from 1968. However, some contributions by the real 1910 Fruitgum Company made it onto wax as well. The 1910 Fruitgum Company usually followed K&K's more typical method: The band which was initially inked - formerly known as Jeckell and the Hydes - toiled on the road promoting the singles while the studio cats and a small stable of songwriters were back in New York creating new tracks for the vocalist to sing over.
In some cases, the band would end up skeptically recording bubblegum hits along with their own harder-edged material (a la The Lemon Pipers). Many Super K confections followed the Motown model, combining distinctive lead singers with essentially the same studio band to create several different groups cranking out hit records.Īt least initially, most of the K&K signings actually were self-contained bands, whether they got to play on the hit records or not. The Kasenetz-Katz bubblegum factory produced many indelibly catchy singles during its mid- to late-'60s heyday, most famously for the Buddah label out of New York City.
0 kommentar(er)
