The Turtles -- "Happy Together" (1967)

Can this be one of the most perfect pop songs ever written, performed and arranged? I'm thinking it's got to be in my top 10.

The Turtles, formerly the surf band the Crossfires, had a string of "sunshine pop" hits in the mid-60's that make it well worth your while to buy their greatest hits album. Many of their songs were highly slick, west coast groovy, semi-bubblegum tunes -- almost all of them not written by the band, but an artillery of LA's top songwriters. In many ways, they were a musical precursor to the wonderful Grass Roots.


The Turtles, besides the rather un-threatening goofy name, were the home of the infamous Howard Kaylan and Mark Volman, better known later as dubbed by Frank Zappa as "the Phlorescent Leach and Eddie" when they joined his Mothers of Invention, and later just shortened to "Flo and Eddie." As you'll see in the videos below, Kaylan was the good looking lead singer, practically standing in for rock and roll's first bar mitzvah boy. His good friend Volman was his comic foil, a heavyset goofball with a kinky hair and nerdy glasses, always looking to make trouble or crack him up mid-song.

The verses of "Happy Together" were based on one of music's perennial chord patterns, the descending from the E minor, to the D, to the C, to the B major (ironically, the same blueprint for The Grass Roots' "I'd Wait A Million Years" verses -- if it ain't broke, don't fix it!). The lyrics are very much like a nursery rhyme, and that is why I feel it is so instantly familiar to any living breathing human being with its cadences and rhymes:


Imagine me and you, I do
I think about you day and night
It's only right
To think about the girl you love
And hold her tight
So happy together.

If I should call you up
Invest a dime
And you say you belong to me
And ease my mind
Imagine how the world could be
So very fine
So happy together.

And then later...

Me and you
And you and me
No matter how they tossed the dice
It had to be
The only one for me is you
And you for me
So happy together.


What brings it to a whole other level is the chorus, where it shifts into E major, straight electric guitar chords on the eighth beats, lots of horn and layered vocals ("pa-paa!"), like a blissful explosion of love, flower power and euphoria.

I can't see me loving nobody but you
For all my life
When you're with me
Baby the skies will be blue
For all my life.


This is akin to when Frankie Valli revs to the next gear on the second part of "Can't Take My Eyes Off Of You" when he belts out: "I-I love you baby, and if it's quite all right, I need you baby, until the morning light...." You are forced, literally forced to sing along, perhaps loudly, maybe even in a public setting and hypnotically forgetting any embarrassment.

For crying out loud, this is the song that knocked one of my very favorite Beatles songs, "Penny Lane," out of the #1 spot! I remember being at some Queens, NY day camp in the summer of '67, picking up dodgeball throwing tips from some kid named Barry (a two-handed grip on two sides of the ball, making an aggressive circular wind-up and then letting it loose at some poor kid's stomach), and "Happy Together" was rotating constantly on the AM radio. You just could not get it out of your head and everybody sang along to those nursery rhyme lyrics.

Let's just stop and honor these anonymous songwriters of "Happy Together," who never quite became as famous as Lennon and McCartney, or Bacharach and David, but who had the amazing skill to write these classic unforgettable pop songs. "Happy Together" was written by Gary Bonner and Alan Gordon, who also collaborated on Three Dog Night's "Celebrate."

Below, a fun home-movie-type promo video shot in '67 for "Happy Together," followed by their semi-live performance on "The Ed Sullivan Show."

Tommy James -- "Draggin' The Line" (1971)

Through the latter half of the 60's, Tommy James & The Shondells evolved from a prototypical garage rock with bubblegum band ("Hanky Panky," "Mony Mony") to a flat out psychedelic bubblegum band ("Crimson & Clover," "Crystal Blue Persuasion").

Then Tommy James dropped the Shondells and decided to make what would now be called Christian rock and basically nearly committed career suicide... except for this one single that landed on his Christian Of The World album.

Sounding like it made no difference that the Shondells left, "Draggin' The Line" continued James' uncanny knack for spaced out lyrics packaged in short irresistible three-minute pop songs.

This song had so many good things going for it in all its simplicity, it would be nearly impossible for it to not be a hit. Take out your perfect 45 checklist and so many items you can mark off:

• Ridiculously catchy bass line played nearly throughout the whole song.
• Equally catchy verses and chorus.
  
• Three or four chords, tops.
• Chugging guitar and the rigidly-played 4/4 drums.
• Simple horn arrangement emphasizing the melody during the break ("I feel fine, I'm talking about peace of mind, I'm going to take my time, I'm getting to good times...").
• Bass voice echoing the song title, followed by two syncopated horn pops.
• The cool 8th-note snare drum part that transitions out of the break.

Was James high on a drug called "life" or something else when he wrote the following verse:

My dog Sam eats purple flowers,
We ain't got much, but we got ours,
Digging the snow and the rain and bright sunshine,
Draggin' the line (draggin' the line)

Or what was he thinking when writing these lines:

Lovin' a free and feelin' spirit,
Huggin' a tree when you get near it.

I guess he could have used the words to the National Anthem, because the music itself was so good, the words nearly didn't matter.

R.E.M. did a decent cover of "Draggin' The Line" on the soundtrack to "Austin Powers 2: The Spy Who Shagged Me."

No real good live videos around from this song, but here's a nice "Draggin' The Line" montage that serves as a tribute to Tommy James...

The 10 Greatest Bubblegum Songs of the Late 60's

I spent all my elementary school years in the 60's and listened to a lot of WABC-AM and WMCA-AM radio. While there was plenty of great pop and rock music, I dropped right into the whole bubblegum music craze of the late 60's/early 70's. I could not avoid it and frankly, it was hard to resist, which is exactly what all these record producers and labels wanted.

I bought the singles by acts who were merely fictitious vehicles for these music executives to sell their acts. I thought they were real like everybody else!

How do I define bubblegum music? Under three minutes, "teenage subject matter" (usually girls), an element of silliness, simple chord structure, repetitive to the point of surrender. The song could be highly produced with horns or strings (Spanky and Our Gang's "Sunday Will Never Be The Same"), or garage-type rock (Any song by the 1910 Fruitgum Compnay or Ohio Express).

What is all the boy band music and Hanna Montana but modern variations on bubblegum music?

Sixties bubblegum was particularly unique in that the group names were ridiculous, especially the ones tied in with Saturday morning cartoon shows (The Wombles? The Cattanooga Cats?). Even the "boy detectives" The Hardy Boys had a bubblegum band (Frank Hardy on guitar, Joe Hardy on bass!). You also had the same producers coming out with different songs under different names, often with the same lead singer (Ron Dante sang lead on all The Archies songs, and then did the same on The Cuff Links "Tracy").

For further reading, the book on the topic is absolutely "Bubblegum Music Is The Naked Truth," still in print, with contributions from my west coast friend Becky Ebenkamp (check out her radio show here). For a modern appreciation of the genre, you must buy the fantastic power pop tribute Right To Chews.

I make no apologies for being a big fan of bubblegum music, especially when one consider The Ramones based a lot of their songs on the same catchy simple chord patterns, and even covered "Indian Giver" on their Ramonesmania compilation? You're telling me that the Cars didn't consciously rip off the beginning of "Yummy Yummy Yummy" for their first hit "Just What I Needed?"

So here is my list of the 10 greatest bubblegum songs of the 60's with some nifty videos below them (in no particular order):

1) Ohio Express -- "Chewy Chewy" (1968): This is the first bubblegum single that I had to buy. I was at a sixth grade party at some kid's house, the boys on one side of the room and the girls on the other, and somebody put this single on the phonograph. That was it, it was all over for me. The singer had this nasal quality to his voice, almost like he was holding his nose while singing the song. And for a sixth grader standing on the other side of the room from the girls, it was easy to dance to, as bad as my floor moves may have been. The Swedish power pop group The Yum Yums (how's that for a name?) did a heavy electrified cover of the song in the late 90's.

2) Crazy Elephant -- "Gimme Gimme Good Lovin'" (1969): I always thought they were called the Crazy Elephants, but their name turned out to be similar to Iron Butterfly. What is this song, two minutes? Driving beat, the trademark cheesy Farfisa organ, three chords! One of my absolute favorites, the first song I ever did in my home recording studio, and covered with drum machines and samples by cult producer Mitch Easter on the aforementioned Right To Chews record.

3) The Archies -- "Sugar Sugar" (1969): Let me quote Wikipedia's entry on the band... "The Archies are a garage band founded by Archie Andrews, Reggie Mantle, and Jughead Jones, a group of adolescent fictional characters of the Archie universe, in the context of the animated TV series, The Archie Show." I'm surprised they didn't refer to him as "Reginald Mantle." This first big hit by The Archies stayed at #1 for what seemed to be an eternity. Another song with just a few chords, a nicely distorted electric piano playing the chords, and what seems like a black soul singer's voice coming out of Betty's or Veronica's mouth!

4) Tommy Roe -- "Dizzy" (1969): Probably the most complex bubblegum hit of the era. The song changes key seamlessly about three or four times for each verse and chorus, and because of that, has this sort of "merry go round" feeling. Certainly memorable for that shuffle-beat drumming throughout the song, including a couple of solo breaks. Another great cover on Right to Chews, the one by Cliff Hillis, who uses distorted samples, synthesizers and a toy piano.

5) The Cowsills -- "The Rain, The Park and Other Things" (1967): Discussed at length on a previous post. A three-minute "teenage hippie symphony."




6) The Cuff Links -- "Tracy" (1969): Gee, why does Archie Andrews from the Archies sound remarkably similar to the singer of this single? Ron Dante overdubbing himself many times over for a ridiculously catchy song that also pushed the bubblegum envelope by changing keys several times. If there is any song that is a tribute to Dante's brilliant vocal skills, this is it.


7) Steam -- "Na Na, Hey, Hey (Kiss Him Goodbye)" (1969): Strangely, the one hit wonder that has had the longest-lived life, thanks to modern day sports. The song also marks one of the first successful uses of drum loops. Word has it that this song was made as a goof and the lyrics were never meant to be what they were. Yet, when you combine repetitiveness, catchiness and a good gimmick at the break (repeating the chorus over and over at low volume, building it until it's normal again), and oh yes that awesome drum loop, flukes do happen.

8) The Monkees -- "I'm A Believer" (1966): The ultimate real life bubblegum rock group, where auditions were held to create this group from scratch and go on to do a successful TV show, concert tours, albums and singles. The group members rebelled at one point because they wanted to play their own instruments and write their own songs. But this early hit written by Neil Diamond cemented their fame with another great fuzzy electric piano line, a country-type guitar lick, and Micky Dolenz' fun vocals. Smash Mouth's cover has nothing on the original.


9) The 1910 Fruitgum Company -- "Simon Says" (1968): Not exactly the most threatening sounding band name. I can picture the production team sitting in their offices coming up with the brainstorm of taking the kids' party game and turning it into a silly simple song. They took it all the way to the bank. At a time when there was the Watusi, the Twist and the Pony, it doesn't get anymore blatant than: Put your hands in the air, Shake them all about, Do it when Simon says, And you will never be out.


10) The Lemon Pipers -- "Green Tambourine" (1968): This is the biggest bubblegum hit which delved into psychedelia. Scratchy violins going up and down, prominent sitar playing, and weirdly echoed and altered vocals on the "Now listen while I play-y-y-y-yy."


THE OHIO EXPRESS -- "CHEWY, CHEWY"

The Archies - Sugar Sugar
Uploaded by scootaway

TOMMY ROE -- "DIZZY"


THE CUFF LINKS - "TRACY"


THE MONKEES -- "I"M A BELIEVER"


THE LEMON PIPERS -- "GREEN TAMBOURINE"

Crazy Elephant - Gimme Gimme Good Lovin'
Uploaded by phgabin

STEAM -- "NA NA HEY HEY (KISS HIM GOODBYE)

Tribute to Tony Burrows and the Cook/Dunaway song factory

Manufactured pop bands like The Archies and The Monkees were not the exclusive domain in the United States. At the same time, the British mimicked what the bubblegum songwriting/producing factories were cranking out, bestselling one hit wonders and then throwing together a good looking bunch of lads to perform those songs on TV and make live appearances.

In America, there was Ron Dante, who sang lead on many bubblegum songs, like the Archies hits or The Cufflinks' memorable "Tracy." In the UK, there was Tony Burrows, who sang on several huge hits produced by the team of Roger Cook and Roger Dunaway.

Like all good bubblegum, you can not get their songs out of your head. While the American hits seemed to have a garage-rock fixation in a lot of early bubblegum (i.e. 1910 Fruitgum Company, Ohio Express), Cook and Dunaway were nothing but slick, slick, slick. Nothing sappy, just very upbeat tunes sung by the amazing Burrows, lots of strings and horns, but not enough to smother the melody.

You can really appreciate Burrows' singing skills and the immense talents of Cook and Dunaway when you remember all these smashes they did together:

• White Plains - "My Baby Loves Lovin'" (1970)
• Edison Lighthouse - "Love Grows Where My Rosemary Goes"(1970)
• The Brotherhood of Man - "United We Stand" (1970)
• The Pipkins - "Gimme Dat Ding" (1970)
• The First Class - "Beach Baby" (1974)

According to Wikipedia, "In February 1970 he [Tony Burrows] became the first (and still the only) person to appear on BBC Television's Top Of The Pops fronting three different acts in one show: Edison Lighthouse (who were number one that week), White Plains, and Brotherhood of Man."

So in honor of all of this great English bubblegum music, we present these videos: