THE GREATEST SONGS OF THE 1960s THAT NO ONE HAS EVER HEARD
899) 1910 Fruitgum Company* — “Mr. Cupid”
Not bubblegum — power pop — from 1910 Fruitgum Company, who would rather have been playing Vanilla Fudge anyway!
Jason Ankeny tells us:
The prototypical bubblegum group, the 1910 Fruitgum Company was the brainchild of Buddah Records house producers Jerry Kasenetz and Jeff Katz, also the masterminds behind such phenoms as the Ohio Express and the Music Explosion. The . . . formula was a simple one: they enlisted anonymous studio musicians . . . and prolifically recorded lightweight, fluffy pop songs which found an eager audience in fans looking for an alternative to the edgier rock music of the late ’60s. With the 1910 Fruitgum Company, the[y] . . . scored their first major hit, the 1968 Top Five smash “Simon Says,” launching the bubblegum craze; that same year they also scored with the singles “1, 2, 3 Red Light” and “Goody Goody Gumdrops,” all three issued as title tracks from the group’s first trio of LPs. 1969’s “Indian Giver,” the title cut from the Fruitgum Company’s fourth album, was their last Top Five hit, and after one last LP . . . the group disbanded; some of its members later resurfaced in the Kasenetz-Katz Singing Orchestral Circus.
https://www.allmusic.com/artist/1910-fruitgum-company-mn0000501692/biography
But 1910 Fruitgum was not a collection of anonymous studio musicians! As band member Frank Jeckell explained in a conversation with Gary James:
Frank Jeckell – We formed in the Winter of 1966 – 1967. . . . I had a band with four pieces and the drummer left the band. I approached two other guys and the five of us became the original 1910 Fruitgum Company.
Gary James – Where were you playing? Clubs?
Jeckell – We were mostly a high school, garage band. We didn’t do much in the way of clubs. (laughs) Swim clubs, teen dances, things like that.
James – Swim clubs? I never heard that one before.
Jeckell – Well, we would have these in the area of New Jersey where we lived, which was Linden, not too far from Newark airport. There were suburban areas and one of the things that people would do for Summer entertainment was join a swim club. Basically it was a big pool and you could go in there and have lunch. You paid your money and your kids would spend some quality time there, and you knew where they were.
James – And the band would play while the kids were splashing around in the pool?
Jeckell – Exactly. . . . Geoff and Jerry Katz, the producers we ultimately signed with, who produced the hits for us, first came to hear us at a swim club. (laughs)
. . . .
James – According to Rolling Stone’s Encyclopedia Of Rock ‘n’ Roll, The 1910 Fruitgum Company was…
Jeckell – A studio band. What a lie.
James – “A faceless studio assemblage formed by the Kasnette-Katz production team for Buddah Records to record Bubblegum Pop.” Is that accurate?
Jeckell – (laughs) No, no.
. . . .
James – Did you write any of your material?
Jeckell – We wrote quite a few of the albums cuts, though we did not pen any of the hits.
. . . .
Jeckell – We were doing covers of some of the more heavier stuff. We used to do “You Keep Me Hangin’ On” by Vanilla Fudge. And stuff by Hendrix and stuff by Cream. We were much closer to a Hard Rock band than anything. We did some lighter stuff. We did some Beatles stuff, Rolling Stones stuff. But we didn’t play Bubblegum music and we didn’t intend to play Bubblegum music. Suddenly we made this song they gave us into a hit and we were Bubblegum superstars, so to speak. (laughs) The first of the genre.
http://www.classicbands.com/1910FruitgumCompanyInterview.html
* Frank Jeckell: “[T]he name of the group came from an old gum wrapper that I found in a jacket pocket when I was looking for some retro clothes to wear. I tried this suit on and I found this gum wrapper in the pocket and that kind of led to the name.” (http://www.classicbands.com/1910FruitgumCompanyInterview.html)
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