Cheers HG. I'd forgotten about these guys. What an excellent band. Great great songs, and what an amazing vocal. Shame they're dismissed as Bubblegum.
Wonder if they would have done better without such a retro name. Something more contempory might have helped.
Hi Kevin,
They stayed with that name in an era of such names as Electric Prune, Strawberry Alarm Clock, Vanilla Fudge, Purple Haze, Jefferson Airplane, Buffalo Springfield, etc. They couldn't break away from the "Bubblegum" tag with their early hits like Hanky Panky, I Think We're Alone Now and Mony Mony despite their turn to psychedelic rock.
It was fun listening to young adolescents singing Crimson And Clover, Sweet Cherry Wine and Crystal Blue Persuasion at the time. They would soon graduate to more advanced psychedelic rock. They filled a niche. Hey, these all wound up Gold Records for Tommy James And The Shondells!