- November 1, 2001 - The ultra-lame "alternative" Denver weekly magazine, Westword, has been covering bubblegum lately with the same vigor they usually reserve for miss-leading, false, and lame (did I already use that?) local stories. Anyway -- I won't hold back -- I'll link to the articles. Just don't tell 'em I sent you! The first is a "review" of the new Buddha releases and the second is a nice piece about our good friend Les Fradkin. The magazine still sucks and they can sue me. I'd love to see those jerks in court.
- November 20, 2001 - Check out the cool documentary "I Created Lancelot Link" by Jeff Krulik on his Planet Krulik web-site. Quoting from the site:
"After nearly a decade without seeing each other, Diane Bernard and I reunite the 25-year comedy writing team of Stan Burns and Michael Marmer, creators of the 1970 Saturday morning TV show Lancelot Link, Secret Chimp. Won best documentary awards at the New York, Chicago, Baltimore and DC underground film fests."
This may be the only bubblegum-related documentary out there, so be a chimp and not a chump and check it out! It's 15-minutes long and well worth the wait to download. Gee, what could you listen to while you wait . . . ? Thanks Eric Meltzer for the tip!
(Update 6-2-06: This site is no longer available)
- October, 2001 - The Terry Gilliam soon-to-be-a-cult-classic 1998 movie Fear & Loathing In Las Vegas uses Yummy, Yummy, Yummy to great effect in the trail-end of the "Lucy's Gotta Go" scene.
- September 16, 2001 - In "Not-Breaking-News-To-You" news, I just now discovered that on Traci Lords muchley underrated 1995 CD, 1,000 Fires, the song Okey Dokey has the following "gumelectronica"* lyrics: "Okey dokey doggy daddy/Yummy yummy sugar mummy." Now do you see why I had to break in with this news?
- August 30, 2001 - Did I just hear a Partridge Family song used in a Burger King commercial and then the "close-enough-for-gum" Gimme Dat Ding song used in a Petsmart commercial?
- Discollector -- "Your Blast To The Musical Past" headquartered in sleepy little Parker, CO -- is offering Australian CD import "twofers" of 1910 Fruitgum Co.'s Indian Giver/Goody Goody Gumdrops and the Ohio Express Chewy Chewy/Mercy for $19.95 each! The CDs include extra tracks! Go to the Discollector site and click on new arrivals (Oct/Nov 2000, near the bottom).
- April 3, 2001 - Buddha Records releases 'Best Of' CDs for 1910 Fruitgum Co., Ohio Express, and The Lemon Pipers. No doubt the pressure from all of us Classic gummers was too much for them!
- The February 16, 2001 cover of Entertainment Weekly features Josie And The Pussycats! The magazine's Spring Movie Preview highlights Universal's April 6th release of a live-action version of the 1970 CBS Cartoon starring Tara Reid as the feline drummer Melody, Rosario Dawson as the cat-like bassist Valerie, and "purr"-fect Rachael Leigh Cook as the guitar playing Josie. No mention of their bubblegum roots and a gentleman named "Babyface" and his wife Tracey Edmonds will produce all the music. No comment from Joey Levine, Andy Kim, Jeff Barry, or Cheryl Ladd!
- 3-23-01 - The first televised trailer for Blow -- another (yawn) drug movie -- featured the song Black Betty. (Update: October 2001. Saw the movie. Hey, truth in advertising works!)
- 3-01 - Robert Goulet sings Green Tambourine in Disney's new movie, Recess, School's Out. A music video is in heavy rotation on the Disney channel. (Personal anecdote: I went to the movie expressly to hear this song and the power went out five minutes before the end where the song finally appears under the credits!)
- 1-2-01 - AT&T is at it again using Magic by Pilot to encourage callers to use their operators. "O-O-it's magic" is how they use it this time. Lame no doubt, but when it comes to exposing bubblegum music, it's all-all good.
- The September 2000 issue of Stuff magazine contains an article called "Spinal Rap - As This Is Spinal Tap encores on DVD, bandleader David St. Hubbins gives us a backstage tour of their biggest influences." Besides the obvious Alice Cooper, Elvis Presley, Tex Ritter and Barbara Streisand, St. Hubbins mentions the 1910 Fruitgum Company's Simon Says:
"Basic bubblegum. Accessible lyrics and a tune you think you've heard already. The flavor doesn't last, and your jaws get tired after awhile. We loved it."
Solid proof that some of the biggest groups of all time were influenced by bubblegum music. Sad about the drummers though.
- 8/1/00 - The new national Pet Fresh commercial has a jingle that features the voice of . . . Joey Levine!
- Pravda Records released two Mega Smash Hits compilation cover song sets. The first, 20 More Explosive Fantastic Rockin' Mega Smash Hit Explosions! was released in 1992 and includes The Rapper performed by Dash Rip Rock and Magic by the group J. Levine (what a cool name for a band!). The second, Super Fantastic Mega Smash Hits! was released in 1995 and includes Venus by Southern Culture On The Skids. Look for these CDs in your favorite used store under Compilation. They have those cheesy K-Tel covers so you can't miss 'em.
- Looking through the April 7, 2000 issue of Goldmine, I came across an ad that featured a rare Surf album from Hanna Barbera. Called Surfin' Safari, it featured the multi-talents and legs of one of my favorite cartoon characters, Squiddly Diddly. The "Squid" was featured on The Banana Splits show but, sadly, he never performed any songs from this album. According to the ad, it's worth $100 clams in Mint condition. Octopus in mint sauce? Yummy.
- According to the Ron Dante Online site, the BubbleMania tour starts June 24, 2000 in Trumbull, CT at the county fair. Featured with Ron will be The Ohio Express!
- 5/15/00 - Commercial Federal Bank is currently appropriating the music of Sugar, Sugar substituting the sugary lyrics that open the song with "Ah, Checking . . . free money money."
- Someone at Intel's ad agency obviously listens to Bubblegum music. The first television commercial I saw for their new Pentium III chip featured The Banana Splits theme song (but, sadly, a cover version). And now ATT, another titan of industry, is using Magic by Pilot (cover again) to sell one of their many fine products. The Madison Avenue verdict is in: use Bubblegum Music to soften potential customers and your sales will stretch right off the charts!
- Recent cover: Teenage Fanclub's Goody Gumdrops. Haven't heard it yet. Have you?
- This news goes back a couple of years but when the NBA (that's the National Basketball Association, not National Bubblegum Association) introduced the women's pro league, the WNBA, the first commercial featured three potential stars -- Lisa Leslie, Sheryl Swoops and Rebecca Lobo -- walking slowly down a gym corridor with a definite attitude, to a new instrumental version of . . . Green Tambourine by the George Baker Selection. I've heard that this is an homage to a famous scene out of Quinten Tarintino's Reservoir Dogs using the original song, but I've watched more than my "queasy quota" of his films to bother researching this.
- An added note: the ABL (that's the competing women's American Basketball League) folded in 1999. To the best of my knowledge, they did not use a Bubblegum song in any of their promos. Were they tempting fate by not chewing gum and playing basketball at the same time?
- 7/30/99 - Just saw a Quaker commercial for their new "Quaker Chewy" snack bar. Any guesses what song was re-recorded to ply viewers to buy? I smell a sponsor for this website!
- 8/1/99 - Flipping through the channels, I heard Tommy Roe's re-recorded Dizzy propelling a promo for Indy Racing on TNN (the Nashville Network). (I saw it the next day on NBC!)
- Dave Marsh, Rolling Stone and Newsday contributor, author of the Bruce Springsteen books Born To Run and Glory Days and Baby, I Was Born To Have My Lips Attached to Bruce Sprinsteen's Ass (coming out next Spring), co-wrote The New Book of Rock Lists and offered a list of 10 Famous Bubblegum Groups. He proceeds to list ten groups and songs (the usual suspects, not worth reprinting). But he had to get his shot in at the genre:
"Buddah Records kicked off the bubblegum rock craze in 1968 with a batch of synthetic groups (floating collections of sessionmen). The result was some of the most ludicrous, if occasionally transcendent, trash produced in the rock and roll age. Kasenetz-Katz is the cream of the crop, but that doesn't mean a lot."
His book can be not bought at all fine book sellers.
A few fans of this site have been pressuring me to add links and publish stories about bubblegum, the candy. I would no more do that for Bubblegum Music than I would add links and publish stories about rocks if this were a Rock Music site. Get real people!
Geffen recording artist Beck sang this Spanish lyric on the song Hotwax from his 1996 album, Odelay:
"Yo soy un disco cabrado
You tengo chicle en cerabo"Translated, that's:
"I'm a broken record
I have bubblegum in my brain"The rumor that Beck will follow up his soul-tinged 1999 release, Midnight Vultures, with a bubblegum-laced CD called Morning Beagle started here.
