There is absolutely no excuse for this.
Yummy Yummy Yummy by
the Ohio Express is one of the most diabolical bubblegum hits ever inflicted on
the world – a truly wretched record (although, to be fair, it’s not quite as
abominable as the follow up Chewy Chewy). So why on earth would the wonderful Julie London – the angel who
crooned the definitive version of Cry
me A River – decide to cover it?
You can’t really blame the members of Ohio Express, as the
band didn’t really exist. ‘They’ were a studio project put together by Jerry
Kasenetz's and Jeffrey Katz's Super K Productions with an ever-changing
line-up: at one time Ohio Express featured the four men who would go on to form
10CC. Miss London, however, should have known better.
Born Julie Peck on September 26, 1926 in Santa Rosa,
California, Julie London began acting in movies in 1944. Ten years later the sultry
singer signed to Liberty Records and issued her first album, Julie Is her Name, in December 1955. Here first four albums were all
top 20 hits in the US. She died in 2000, having never fully recovered from a
stroke suffered some five years earlier.
Released in 1969 – as her 29th and last LP for
Liberty - London’s album Yummy Yummy Yummy is
a misguided hotch-potch of contemporary covers, including Light My Fire,
And I Love Her (as And I Love Him),
garage band favourite Louie Louie and
Bob Dylan’s Quinn the Eskimo (The Mighty Quinn).
It’s beyond ridiculous. And that’s why I’m including it
three of the tracks from this awful album here, for your delectation.
Enjoy!
11/6/15
ReplyDeleteRobGems.ca Wrote:
Even composer Joey Levine dismissed "Yummy Yummy Yummy" in interviews when he co-composed the song with Artie Resnick. Levine stated that Buddah Records producers Jerry Katzenez, Jeff Katz, and label A&R Neil Bogart wnted quick, two and a half minute juvenille-based songs with plenty of playground titles and lyrics, but with a hint of teenaged sexual innuendo in the lyric's meanings. Levine and Resnick looked around for what he called "stupid" lyrics with a dumb title, and found inspiration one afternoon when he went out on a lunch break at a New York-based Chinese restaurant called King Yum's" , and from there they had their title of a juvenile song. The original Ohio Express were a Ohio-based group called "The New Breed" who did the original version of Ohio Express' first chart hit "Beg Borrow and Steal" for Cameo Records. Since the New Breed's version flopped, Katzenez & Katz tried again with another Ohio band led by Doug Grassel and recorded their vocals over the New Breed's old instrumental backing. This time, the re-recording worked, and "Beg Borrow, And Steal" under the new name of The Ohio Express charted at #29 in Billboard's hot 100. After their contract with Cameo/Parkway ended with the bankruptcy of the labels and subsequent buy-out by Allen Klien and Abkco Records in early 1968, Neil Bogart, a former employee with Cameo-Parkway joined Artie Resnick and Art Kass, along with producers Katzenez and Katz at Buddah Records and had an unknown studio group record the instrumental backing to "Yummy Yummy Yummy" while the group was away on tour, and asked the band just to loan their vocals to the already-recorded track, with lead vocals led by non-touring member Joey Levine. The group was annoyed with the task, but dutifully did the job, and were surprised when the record became a million-seller in The Us, Canada, and the UK. Julie London was going through a dry spell in 1968, and wanted to try out contemporary material for her fans, and some younger listeners in addition to her usual jazz-lounge pop she normally sung. Julie was especially popular in the Detroit, Michigan area (she had a local TV show aired on Channel 4 WWJ-TV, an NBC outlet, and her albums sold particularly well in The Detroit area.) Unfortunately, her cover of "Yummy" was not a big hit (it bubbled under Billboard's Top 100, topping out at 125 in November 1968, although the song did get a fair amount of airplay in Detroit's jazz radio stations.) Julie was known for being married at one time to TV actor Jack Webb, and later jazz musician Bobby Troup (composer of "Get Your Kicks On Route 66", which the Rolling Stones covered in 1964.) Bobby Troup was considered Julie's true soulmate in the last 40 years of her life, and when he died in 1996 of lung cancer, she never really recovered from his death, living her last five years as a widow. A heavy smoker most of her life, she finally died in 2000, like you stated above. Today, many of Julie's original Liberty albums issued from 1955-69 are collector's items for fans of bachelor pad music, space-age lounge fans, and admirers of cheesecake album covers, of which she made many. Ironically, Her "Yummy Yummy Yummy" album is strangely a collector's item among the fans of kitschy album covers and songs, not to mention fans of celebrities trying to sing rock and pop songs in a attempt to sound contemporary by their record labels for tying to "not appear to old" to their audiences. Julie was nearly 44 when she recorded "Yummy", so that was considered kitschy enough to younger listeners.
Julie and Bobby starred in the TV series "Emergency!" - which was produced by Jack Webb.
DeleteBut, they are breathy...sexy renditions..wouldn't you agree?
ReplyDeleteOh absolutely! I love her voice, it's just the choice of material that makes me cringe here.
DeleteI dunno, I think London transforms it into something wonderful, like she could do with any piece of dreck. Unlike Baccara...
Deletehttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=susPNsg3AKs
I dunno, I think London transforms it into something wonderful, like she could do with any piece of dreck. Unlike Baccara...
Deletehttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=susPNsg3AKs