BUBBLEGUM
VA - Bubble Gum Festival CD1+CD2 (A Butterboy Compilation)
Bubblegum pop (also known as bubblegum music or simply bubblegum) is a genre of pop music with an upbeat sound contrived and marketed to appeal to pre-teens and teenagers, which may be produced in an assembly-line process, driven by producers and often using unknown singers. Bubblegum's classic period ran from 1967 to 1972. A second wave of bubblegum began two years later and ran until 1977 when disco took over and punk rock emerged.
Upon its genesis, bubblegum music was geared at pre-adolescents, something easy to spot by lending an ear to the lyrics. However, removed from their initial context and intentions, the best bubblegum comes across as catchy, funny, endearing songwriting of the finest order. Strange too, like shattered fragments of cartoons you've never seen, torn cardboard pieces from cereal boxes you never tasted. The sheer amount of bubblegum music flooding the market in the 60's makes for intriguing exploration, as do the various styles which fall under it. It wasn't just boyish voices, organs, tambourines and hand-claps, its ramifications bled into psych pop, fairy-tale psych and garage rock, eventually giving way to glam rock.(Wikipedia)
Here is presented some favorites whilst highlighting how diverse the style could be. Enjoy!
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VA - Bubble Gum Festival (A Butterboy Compilation) CD1+CD2
http://www.imagenetz.de/aDE8c
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Track list 1
01 Captain Groovy & His Bubblegum Army - Captain Groovy 03:07 [1982]
02 American Breed - Bend Me, Shape Me 02:14 [1968]
03 First Class - Dreams Are Ten A Penny 02:41 [1974]
04 Cowsills - The Rain The Park & Other Things 03:00 [1967]
05 Chordettes - Lollipop 02:12 [1958]
06 Bobby Sherman - Julie, Do Ya Love Me 02:56 [1970]
07 Archies - Sugar, Sugar 02:45 [1969]
08 White Plains - My Baby Loves Lovin' 03:00 [1998]
09 Spiral Starecase - More Today Than Yesterday 03:06 [1969]
10 Fun And Games - The Grooviest Girl In The World 02:53 [1968]
11 Tony Burrows - Every Little Move She Makes 02:52 [1998]
12 Monkees - I'm A Believer 02:47 [1968]
13 Tommy Roe - Dizzy 02:52 [1969]
14 Lemon Pipers - Green Tambourine 02:27 [1968]
15 Kasenetz-Katz Singing Orchestral Circus - Quick Joey Small 02:25 [1968]
16 Keith - 98.6 03:07 [1967]
17 Paper Dolls - My Boyfriend's Back 02:30 [1970]
18 Cowsills - Indian Lake 02:44 [1968]
19 Donny Osmond - Puppy Love 03:05 [1972]
20 Crazy Elephant - Gimme Good Lovin' 02:06 [1969]
21 Foundations - Baby, Now Thats How I Found You 02:58 [1967]
22 Domino - Have You Had A Little Happiness Lately 02:47 [1998]
23 Partridge Family - I Think I Love You 02:55 [1970]
24 Bobby Sherman - Easy Come, Easy Go 02:40 [1970]
25 Jay & The Techniques - Apples, Peaches, Pumpkin Pie 02:28 [1966]
Track list 2
26 Foundations - Build Me Up A Buttercup 02:59 [1968]
27 Troggs - Hip Hip Hooray 02:17 [1968]
28 Flying Machine - Smile A Little Smile For Me 02:53 [1969]
29 Steam - Na Na Hey Hey Kiss Him Goodbye 04:11 [1970]
30 Pipkins - Gimme Dat Ding 02:14 [1970]
31 Lita Roza - How Much Is That Doggie In The Window 02:15 [1953]
32 Cuff Links - Tracy 02:12 [1970]
33 Edison Lighthouse - Love Grows (Where My Rosemary Goes) 02:54 [1970]
34 Lou Christie - Trapeze 02:28 [1965]
35 Andy Kim - Rock Me Gently 03:28 [1974]
36 West End Boys - Summertime 03:13 [1984]
37 Monkees - A Little Bit Me, A Little Bit You 02:46 [1967]
38 Lesley Gore - Sunshine, Lollipops And Rainbows 01:35 [1963]
39 Christie - Yellow River 02:47 [2009]
40 Robin Mcnamara - Lay A Little Lovin' On Me 03:05 [1970]
41 Tommy Roe - Sweet Pea 02:21 [1966]
42 Little Eva - The Loco Motion 02:29 [1962]
43 Donny Osmond - Go Away Little Girl 02:33 [1971]
44 Shadows Of Knight - Shake 02:30 [1969]
45 Music Explosion - Little Bit O'soul 02:18 [1967]
46 Defranco Family - Heartbeat It's A Lovebeat 03:14 [1973]
47 Ohio Express - Yummy Yummy Yummy 02:18 [1968]
48 Dixie Cups - Iko Iko 02:03 [1965]
49 Fifth Estate - Ding Dong The Witch Is Dead 02:05 [1967]
50 1910 Fruitgum Company - Simon Says 02:13 [1968]
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I think I missed this one the first time around. Thanks!
ReplyDeleteThis was an early compilation and glad someone asked to re-post it. As a commenters suggests, it scratches the surface with a few almost lost unknown tracks. Enjoy
DeleteCheers
Love this style and I'll say it's related sound as well because I think this genre is sometimes hard to pigeon-hole. It may be blatantly obvious as in the Simon Says or Yummy Yummy songs or much less as in the Keith number (which has a brilliant intro by the way). You have included some of the best, but really only scratched the surface here. For me, the Bobby Sherman, Cuff Links, Tommy Roe, Spiral Staircase, Flying Machine, Edison Lighthouse, American Breed, Jay & The Techniques, and Andy Kim tracks stand out, but really like them all.
ReplyDeleteA few ideas for comps I'll throw out for thinking about or not..
1) I would encourage any more Bubble Gummy comps.
2) Also anything in the related Sunshine Pop vein.
3) Anything in a Horn-Rock/Pop style, hard or soft (think BS&T or Chase, but especially and not so obviously The Buckinghams, Grass Roots, Puzzle, and Liz Damon's Orient Express). Even Chuck Mangione and Herb Albert could work here, but really any song that makes good use of brass.
4) Anything in a Latin-Rock/Pop style, hard or soft. Obvious like Santana, Malo, El Chicano, Brasil 66. Not obvious like Dakila and many lesser knowns. A neglected category this one. I love anything with a Latin-y groove or vibe to it (The Girl From Impanema, or even The Look Of Love might qualify).
5) Songs with interesting intros (like the Keith song above or Tommy James's Crystal Blue Persuasion). These are few and far between but they are amazing when you find them.
Finally.. a few things I noticed..
You need to fix titles for #23 and #26
The full title for #33 is Love Grows (Where My Rosemary Goes)
.. but you likely already knew that!
but especially, and again.. Thank You Very Much for ALL your wonderful posts!
Hi mrRadio,
DeleteGlad the choices are to your liking and I agree there is so much more to expand on this genre. It was an early compilation and I limited my choices to 50 tracks.
Your compilation ideas are appreciated. I have started a Latin flavoured compilation. The Horn based rock idea is a great one. Finally fixed the titles and oversight due to my lack of review.
Great comment thank you.
Cheers
Looking back, I laughed that I mentioned Liz Damon for Horn Pop because they were not that kind of band but did use some brass to briefly accentuate/fill/embellish parts to good effect, and that was my point! There's myriad examples of where single or multiple brass instruments are just part of the music and not necessarily the driving force.. for instance, The Classics IV, The Carpenters, Tom Jones, Huey Lewis & The News, and Van Morrison to name but a few. And how about the many soul groups of which horns are vital to their sound.. guess those could be separate comp categories!! Should I have mentioned the obvious Chicago and Canada's Lighthouse? Of other lesser-known groups.. definitely, The Ides Of March, which were a horn band for their first two albums. Radio almost always only plays their hit Vehicle (an admittedly catchy tune).. but if you want to hear their depth, check out "Wooden Ships" or "Symphony For Eleanor (Eleanor Rigby)" from their 1st "Vehicle" album or "Superman" or "Tie-Die Princess" from their 2nd "Common Bond" album. As a final thought, you probably know, with Blood, Sweat & Tears, the first album with Al Kooper was totally different and uniquely wonderful from what came after with David Clayton-Thomas. Both great, but stylistically like night and day. The latter sound was oddly split between very jazz-oriented numbers and the horn pop tunes which became their hits.
DeleteYou always give me much to think about. Horns are a challenge I will tackle some day.
DeleteCheers.
thanks so much
ReplyDeleteYou are very welcome Juan.
DeleteCheers.
On horn bands: Check out IMPI, a South-African brass rock band that only recently came to my knowledge. Brass-rock, sort of; prog-rock, sort-of... hard to put a label on them. Early 70s. As a S.F. Bay Area guy, I want to point out the wonderful Tower of Power, Cold Blood, and the Sons of Champlin.
ReplyDeleteAlso: just to be contentious...is it "Brass Rock" or "Horn Rock?" Are they the same thing? Here's DRaftervoi, stirrin' the pot...:)
ReplyDeleteHi draftervoi
DeleteI a confused. Why this comment on this page?
Horn and brass rock are probably the same...
Cheers
BB.. Looked back at this Bubblegum post just now.. this person spoke of horn/brass here because going up a few comments you will see this is where I proposed a few things for you to hopefully think about and horn rock was one of them. So.. you can blame me for the mislead causing your confusion. And.. I agree, to me horn and brass mean exactly the same. Latin Rock, another suggestion, I see you posted today.. so going there now.. Oh Boy!
ReplyDeleteThanks for popping in mrRadio
DeleteI hope you enjoy the Latin Rock. And thanks for the suggestion.
Cheers
links are down...
ReplyDelete