Before there was Bubblegum Music, there were other forms of music. There was Jazz, Folk, Blues, Rock 'N' Roll, Country and three others. All important I imagine but -- for this article -- we are most interested in those songs that pre-dated Bubblegum and were precursors to our favorite genre. There were bits of gum sticking to the pop charts dating back to the mid-50's in a great number of songs and here I attempt to present a few of them. This is meaningful to the classic bubblegum era to come because where there was a style that stuck to gold you can bet there were talented singers, songwriters, musicians, and producers ready to scrape a bit off, reshape it and wrap it in a 45 or LP sleeve for future use. I've listed 12 songs that should give you the idea that by 1966 something was about to bubble.
Although it is usually foolhardy to "type" a style of music, the genesis of gum may be separated into three areas:
1) Children/Nursery Rhyme Songs
2) Novelty or "Candy" based Songs
3) Pop Songs with a Bubblegum Flavor
A solid example of a "pre-history" song would cover -- at least -- a couple of these areas. With the criteria set, the following is a list of songs that were not classic Bubblegum songs but -- without them -- Bubblegum may never have popped. Close, but no gum, these are the songs that shaped bubblegum (number represents highest placement on the Billboard chart):
Tutti Frutti - Little Richard (#17, 1956)
Silly and catchy and sung by a man with a name made for bubblegum music.
Lollipop - The Chordettes (#2, 1958)
From the "pop" that shows up later in seemingly every other
1910 Fruitgum Co. song to the subject matter itself, this children's song was certainly in the back of someone's mind when bubblegum came into being.Da Doo Ron Ron - The Crystals (#3, 1963)
There is no question that doo-wop is linked to bubblegum and this song provides that bridge. It is not a long journey from "Da Doo Ron Ron" to Steam's "Na Na Hey Hey" and Reunion's "Life is a rock, but the radio rolled me."
Bread And Butter - Newbeats (#2, 1964)
The lead singer missed his calling as a utility bubblegum lead-singer by sticking to this novelty pop group. Darn shame. He should've traveled to New York and audition for Kasenetz & Katz like I did!
I Want Candy - The Strangeloves (#11, 1965)
There's no hard or fast rule that songs with the word "Candy" in the title are automatically either precursors or bone fide bubblegum songs, but the Strangeloves come close but no bubblegum cigar with this song. The native drums are there but they are not the local natives represented in nearly every other 1910 Fruitgum Co. song and the production is too dense and guitar-frilly to qualify. A wonder it was never re-made by a K&K group and that it took Adam Ant to bring back this distinctive beat.
Ring Dang Doo - Sam The Sham And The Pharaohs (#33, 1965)
Add a pumping organ to a world-wide search through thousands of girls looking for that elusive, and quite possibly sexual object. Brings that whole Wooly Booly thing into perspective, doesn't it?
Devil With The Blue Dress - Mitch Ryder & The Detroit Wheels (#4, 1966)
Fe Fi Fo Fum indeed. Forget who it is. Think: if Joey Levine does a Favorites CD, he must cover this song.
Hanky Panky - Tommy James And The Shondells (#1, 1966)
If Louie, Louie by the Kingsmen was a precursor for punk then Hanky Panky accepted a similar position for bubblegum. Dance-craze garage gum at it's finest.
Peter Rabbit - Dee Jay And The Runaways (1966)
Obviously a lost audition tape of a group destined to appear on The Munsters, this nursery barely-rhyming ditty so inspired the K&K Singing Orchestral Circus to record Quick Joey Small and the similarity did not escape K-Tel and a certain liner note writer by the name of Bill Pitzonka.
Sweet Pea - Tommy Roe (#8, 1966)
Bubblegum lyrics with a definite "feel" for bubblegum, Sweet Pea sounds like a lost gem from the Buddy Holly catalog and makes one wonder if the day the music died never happened, would Buddy become the first Bubblegum King?
Beg, Borrow And Steal - The Rare Breed (#29, 1967)
Borrowing heavily from the Louie, Louie riff and firmly cemented in the garage, this was the song that linked those struggling Midwestern "punk" groups to the New York-based "producer" groups. That the Breed was "transformed" into the Ohio Express tells us that someone felt that to kick off the Bubblegum craze, a taste of the Garage Band Element (GBE) would have to be tapped into.
Gimme Some Lovin' - Spencer Davis Group (#7, 1967)
Maybe the biggest influence on bubblegum from a musical standpoint. Bits and pieces of this song are found in every other classic bubblegum song or at least that's what my gifted musical friends say.
Want some real history? Get your reading glasses and check out:
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