The Lemon Pipers: Green Tambourine 1968 + Jungle Marmalade 1968

 

The Lemon Pipers were a short-lived 1960s American rock band from Oxford, Ohio, United States,

known chiefly for their song "Green Tambourine", which reached No. 1 in the United States in 1968. The song has been credited as being the first bubblegum pop chart-topper. The Lemon Pipers comprised drummer William (Bill) E. Albaugh (1946–1999), guitarist Bill Bartlett (born 1946), vocalist Dale "Ivan" Browne (born 1947), keyboardist Robert G. Nave (1944–2020), and bassist Steve Walmsley (born 1948), who replaced the original bass guitarist Bob "Dude" Dudek.
                

The band played a mixture of blues, hard rock and folk rock, with a few covers from The Byrds and

The Who. They gigged regularly in an Oxford bar called The Boar's Head, and Cincinnati underground rock venues, The Mug Club and later The Ludlow Garage,[6] before releasing a single on the Carol Records label, "Quiet Please". The original band existed as a quartet, and then gained notoriety by reaching the finals in the Ohio Battle of the Bands at the Cleveland Public Auditorium in 1967, losing out to the James Gang.
                     

The band then recruited Miami University student Browne as frontman, and also engaged Ohio music industry impresario Mark Barger, who steered the Lemon Pipers to Buddah Records, then run by Neil

Bogart. The group began playing larger auditorium and concert hall venues around the US, including an appearance at Bill Graham's Fillmore West in San Francisco on the same bill with Traffic, Moby Grape and Spirit on March 21, 1968. They wrote "Green Tambourine" and the band reluctantly recorded it. The song entered the Billboard Hot 100 at the end of 1967 and reached No. 1 in February 1968 on the Billboard and Cashbox charts.
                   

The success of "Green Tambourine" caused the label to put pressure on the group to stay in the same

genre, and in March 1968 the band released another Leka/Pinz song, "Rice Is Nice", which peaked at No. 46 on the US Billboard charts, No.42 on the US Cashbox charts and No. 41 in the UK in May. The band had little enthusiasm for either song, however, dubbing them "funny-money music" and recording them only because they knew they would be dropped by Buddah if they refused.
                        

The band left the Buddah label in 1969 and later dissolved. Bartlett, Walmsley and Nave formed

Starstruck, whose recording of a Lead Belly song, "Black Betty", was reworked by Super K Productions producers Jerry Kasenetz and Jeffry Katz, and released in 1977 under the name of Ram Jam, featuring Bartlett. Browne moved to California to continue playing music, Walmsley played bass around Oxford.
                     

Bartlett became despondent and reclusive following the death of his wife Dee Dee. Nave became a jazz disc jockey on WVXU in Cincinnati and played organ occasionally with The Blues Merchants in

southwestern Ohio venues. The Lemon Pipers actually wanted to play more psychedelic music; they only recorded "Green Tambourine" because their label would have dropped them had they refused. They eventually got the artistic control they wanted and ended up dropping off the charts for good with their first self-produced album. They broke up in 1969, with Bartlett joining Ram Jam.  
                         

THE LEMON PIPERS - GREEN TAMBOURINE (FEBRUARY 1968)

                                         

Unlike the majority of bubblegum bands, the Lemon Pipers' albums are actually quite good, not least

because they were one of the few bubblegum bands who were a proper band with their own songwriters (although outside writer/producers did provide the two hits). Distancing themselves from the bubblegum with which they're most associated, on their second and final album - originally issued in the summer of 1968 - this chart-topping Ohio quintet incorporated elements of psychedelia, garage rock, and sunshine pop to create a rich, satisfying brew.

                               

The Lemon Pipers – Green Tambourine
Label: Buddah Records – 75517-49514-2, RCA – 75517-49514-2, BMG Direct
Format: CD, Album, Reissue   1996
Country: US
Released: 1968
Genre: Rock
Style: Psychedelic Rock

TRACKS

                           

01. Rice Is Nice    2:16
02. Shoeshine Boy    3:19
03. Turn Around Take A Look    2:42
04. Rainbow Tree    2:16
05. Ask Me If I Care    3:03
06. Stragglin' Behind    2:32
07. Green Tambourine    2:22
08. Blueberry Blue    2:19
09. The Shoemaker Of Leatherwear Square    2:00
10. Fifty Year Void    5:41
11. Through With You    8:31
12. You Don't Need No Help From Me (Bonus Track)    2:26

LINE - UP

Ivan Browne – lead vocals, rhythm guitar
Bill Bartlett – lead guitar
R. G. Nave – organ, tambourine, fog horn, toys
Steve Walmsley – bass
Bill Albaugh – drums

Flac Size: 271 MB

THE LEMON PIPERS - JUNGLE MARMALADE 1968

                

They really should've dropped their label and punched the producer, who practically forced them to record this bubblegum bilge. The band was cannibalized by the Buddah record label, previous external

songwriters were flushed out and members were forced to write a "true" bubblegum record: the result was 1969's Jungle Marmalade, which features less creative arrangements and more sticky melodies, yet still features a final Krautrock/Motorik Rock suite that may interest the curious ("Dead End Street/Half Light"). The band then left the label and disbanded: two of its members died in 1999 and 2020 so far.
                   

The Lemon Pipers – Jungle Marmalade
Label: Aurora – AUCD5056
Format: CD, Album 2015
Released: 1968    
Genre: Rock
Style: Psychedelic Rock

TRACKS

            

01. Jelly Jungle   2:23
02. Wasn't Born To Follow   2:31
03. Everything Is You   2:43
04. Catch Me Falling   5:16
05. Hard Core   2:54
06. Love Beads & Meditation   2:48
07. I Need Someone (The Painter)   2:40
08. Lonely Atmosphere   2:52
09. Wine & Violet   3:06
10. Dead End Street / Half Light   11:42

Flac Size: 275 MB