I feel vindicated! According to the obituary in the "New York Times," Pete Townshend considered "Yummy Yummy Yummy" one of his favorite songs when it came out. And I loved it too! I even bought the single! And singles were made to be played over and over, until the vinyl turned grey, and mine did... I even took it along with me to Providence when we went to visit our cousins on some holiday, I was the only boy there, I sat in the corner of the room alone and listened...
You've got to know, everybody hated bubblegum music.
Scratch that... Bubblegum music had a huge audience amongst the young and brain dead, who had not shifted to album rock, which had its biggest triumph with "Sgt. Pepper," which had no singles at all, in the same year that the 1910 Fruitgum Company released...
"Simon Says." I hated that song! It was stupid!
1967 was not only the year of "Sgt. Pepper," it was also the year of "Disraeli Gears" and "Are You Experienced," both of which you had to own to hear, at least until the summer of '68, when "Sunshine of Your Love" crossed over, "Purple Haze" never did.
1967 was the year of FM rock's birth. First in San Francisco, then in New York. And believe me, I was a listener, I owned all those albums, but if you lived anywhere else you were a victim of AM Top 40 radio. Most people didn't even own an FM radio... That band was seen as traveling short distances and featuring classical music. As for cars...good luck finding one with an FM receiver back in '67.
So the hipsters not only knew the albums of the burgeoning album rock scene, but the Top 40 too. Upon which they placed judgment. And there were a lot of great tracks in '67, like "Dance to the Music" and "Respect" and "Soul Man" and...nobody bought the albums of these acts (don't write me and tell me you own one, the bottom line is the album phenomenon started with white rock, period). Stuff that those in the know could listen to and enjoy. But "Simon Says"? That was going backwards! That was a return to the pre-Beatle era. That was the kind of commercial dreck labels put out today, commerce as opposed to art.
And the following year's "1, 2, 3, Red Light" was just as bad, if not worse.
Bubblegum music was foisted upon the public by the team of Kasenetz & Katz. They were the stars, the bands were faceless, they usually didn't really exist, although concoctions were formed to go on the road and hoover up money.
But back in '67... "Rolling Stone" launched that year and didn't gain mainstream traction for almost half a decade thereafter. Meaning...there wasn't much information about these two producers and their productions, all we had were the records. It was not like today, where you can go deep down the rabbit hole on the internet.
But it was more than straight bubblegum. Kasenetz & Katz had their first hit with the Music Explosion's cover of "Little Bit O' Soul" earlier in the year of 1967, before anybody had even heard of bubblegum, never mind "Simon Says." And "Little Bit O' Soul" was seen as credible, it was infectious without being saccharine, it got respect. It fit into the Texas oeuvre of Doug Sahm and...even though the band was from Ohio.
And after the run of bubblegum was just about done, in 1969, Kasenetz & Katz had a hit with Crazy Elephant's "Gimme Gimme Good Lovin'." Which had the rough-throated vocals of FM rock matched with an undeniable hook of a chorus and a driving beat. These were not saccharine, clean-cut boys who'd barely crossed the line over to puberty, these were definitely men, there was a sexual undertone, and an organ solo and a guitar solo... If only today's acts could write a song so infectious. Yes, that's what Kasenetz & Katz specialized in, infection...you heard their songs and you could not get them out of your head.
Now I didn't know until the internet filled in the gaps that 10cc worked with the producers, even participated in the records before they were called 10cc...they used the money to build Strawberry Studios in Manchester.
But Kasenetz & Katz's epoch faded except for one last gasp with Ram Jam's version of "Black Betty," which was big in the heartland, not so much on the coasts.
But their benefactor, Neil Bogart, really hit his stride in the seventies. After parting ways with Buddah and forming Casablanca he stumbled with his initial release, a Johnny Carson compilation, but then struck gold with KISS and Donna Summer and more.
What Bogart did best was promote. As for the money and where it went... Well, Polygram ultimately swallowed the label. And although Bogart started over with Boardwalk, the times were different. The full force promotion of yesteryear no longer worked. Bogart could will a hit. Well, not exactly will it, but create such a field of distraction and excitement that people paid attention, and hits ensued.
It was a different era.
Well, not completely different from today, which is cottage industry. Kasenetz & Katz came from nowhere, they established a foothold with the help of Bogart and more. Today, you've got all the tools at home, you don't need a major label deal, you can post and get views and listens and make money and most people have never even heard of you or your music. But back in '67, it was different. There was a threshold. Either you had a record deal or you did not. And either you were on AM radio or you were a sideshow... FM came along to rescue the sideshow, make it the main show, but before that...
"Yummy Yummy Yummy"...
I constantly have acts and their retinue tell me to give a record a few spins, to live with it.
Nothing like that was a hit back in the days of sixties Top 40. If you didn't get it on the first listen, didn't die to hear it again on the radio, didn't need to go to the store to buy the record to hear it whenever you wanted to...you weren't in the game, no one was interested, not the stations or the public.
And unlike today, records didn't last a long time. They were hits and then they were done, replaced by new hits...not that you ever forgot the old ones. You played them to death until you could listen no more, but they were indelibly imprinted upon your brain.
As for "Yummy Yummy Yummy"...it had a driving beat. And then a nasal vocal that did sound straight out of the bubblegum canon, but then there was a change...
"Ooh love to hold ya, ooh love to kiss ya
Ooh love, I love it so"
The singer took it up a notch, lost his nasality, and then there was a chorus of backup vocalists, making the whole thing sweet.
And then the driving beat once again, with stabs of emphasis.
And the second time through the verse the backup vocals were littered throughout, everybody was having a good time. There was exuberance!
And then came the nonsense lyrics...
"Ba, da, ba, da, da, da, da
Ba, da, da, da, da, da"
And then the modulation up! And even more emphatic vocals.
And an outro with the "Ba, da, ba" backup vocals and the lead singer testifying on top...and when it fades out all you can do is take it from the top once again.
And if you don't get it...
You're too hip for the room. You're the same person who believes "Metal Machine Music" is a masterpiece, who listens to music with your head as opposed to your heart, who is worried about what others think about your taste while simultaneously bullying them into believing your word is gospel.
In other words, you need to take "Yummy Yummy Yummy" on the surface. Shut off your brain and just let the music...
Infect you.
Kasenetz & Katz infected the entire world.
Legendarily, those behind the scenes make most of the money, the acts that front the songs end up famous with the name and oftentimes little else. Then again, Kasenetz & Katz were not only the producers, in many cases they were essentially the act.
Leaving the question... How did they do financially?
Now the truth is bubblegum music has never faded away, those songs are still played, so there's publishing money, assuming they took an interest, and it being the sixties they probably did.
And assuming they continued to get paid by the record company... You complain about streaming royalties? Good luck getting paid at all by indie labels in the past.
Now did they sell their interests?
I don't know... Maybe some deep research will tell me, but all I know is those records were hits over half a century ago and they're still part of the fabric of society today. So whoever owned the rights/income stream has done very well. What seemed as disposable, transitory back then, turned out not to be. Which is why I always tell acts not to sell their songs, their babies. Certainly when they're young.
So a piece of music history died this week. You may not have known Jerry Kasenetz's name, but if you're a student of the game, he and his partner Jeffry Katz are LEGENDS!
And I still smile when I hear the Music Explosion, Crazy Elephant and Ohio Express hits. They're part of my life. AND I AIN'T APOLOGIZING FOR IT!
--
Visit the archive: http://lefsetz.com/wordpress/
--
Listen to the podcast:
-iHeart: https://ihr.fm/2Gi5PFj
-Apple: https://apple.co/2ndmpvp
--
http://www.twitter.com/lefsetz
--
If you would like to subscribe to the LefsetzLetter,
http://www.lefsetz.com/lists/?p=subscribe&id=1
If you do not want to receive any more LefsetzLetters, http://lefsetz.com/lists/?p=unsubscribe&uid=0eecea7b60b461717065cbde887c8e25
To change your email address http://lefsetz.com/lists/?p=preferences&uid=0eecea7b60b461717065cbde887c8e25
