One of my favorite sub-genres of rock n roll is the bubblegum music pumped out by Buddah Records (among others) in the late 60's - The Ohio Express, The Grass Roots, the Music explosion and on and on, including (in my mind) Tommy James and the Shondells. Bubblegum has been smeared over the years because any "lightweight" song is dismissed as bubblegum, as if "bubblegum" was a synonym for "sucks", which it certainly did NOT back in the day when Joey Levine was anonymously pumping out hit after hit:
Even though Levine wrote and sang the Ohio Express' hits, he never performed -- or actually met -- the members of the band sent out by their record company, Buddah Records.
"Nope, never did," Levine admitted to The Huffington Post. "I wrote the songs and sang them."
Legend has it that songs would be released without the knowledge of the touring band who would have no clue they had a new hit until the crowd was yelling for it.
Levine said he was in the music business to make a living and have fun and never worried about getting credit (or apparently meeting the guys who were performing his songs in concert).
"We were cutting everything to be hits, not to be an artist," he said.Seriousness does not equal greatness. I love The Beatles, but would I rather rather listen to Because off Abbey Road or Sugar Sugar? Please. It's not even close.
I recommend Bubblegum Classics 1 and 2, long in my own library, for a primer.
Here's a little Boyce & Hart SUPER superslice.
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