THE GREATEST SONGS OF THE 1960s THAT NO ONE HAS EVER HEARD
1,277) The Third Rail — “Invisible Man”
Sometimes you feel like an invisible man, sometimes you don’t! Future barons and baronesses of bubblegum, and a future jinglemeister to boot, gave us “Run, Run, Run” of Nuggets fame and an LP whose “songcraft is both clever and extremely pleasurable, especially on [today’s] baroque pop” (Mark Deming, https://www.allmusic.com/album/id-music-mw0000600392) gem.
Of the album — Id Music — Uncut enthuses:
If John Barry scored a movie about HR Pufnstuf, it would sound something like this: swirly strings, booming timps, multi-part vocals, garage guitars. All in the service of some tooth-rottingly saccharine whimsy . . . but also some heart-stopping pop hooks . . . . A reminder of that sunlit, post-Sgt Pepper plateau when optimistic dissent became as mainstream a money machine as Coca-Cola. Not quite Spanky And Our Gang, but still a wonderful, garish, Lolly Gobble Choc Bomb of an album.
Of the album and the Rail, Grahame Bent writes:
Comprising husband and wife songwriting team Kris and Artie Resnick (Artie a veteran of the Brill Building, having co-written The Drifters’ “Under The Boardwalk”), and future bubblegum kingpin Joey Levine, the short-lived Third Rail only released one album, this fascinating and stylistically diverse pop-psych curio. . . . Though awash with sugary sweet harmonies, ID Music’s thick and sticky brew of all things pop, psych and garage hints at something darker and not quite so innocent bubbling away underneath. Post-ID Music, all three members of The Third Rail would find themselves major players in the candy coloured world of bubblegum . . . . Nothing would match the sheer inventiveness and sophisticated out-thereness of this memorable long player, though.
As to the Rail, Mark Deming writes:
Group founder Artie Resnick was a seasoned pro in the music biz, having written “Under the Boardwalk” and “Good Lovin’,” and vocalist and co-writer Joey Levine was a teenaged pop prodigy who (like Resnick) would later become a major player in Buddah Records’ mighty bubblegum empire a few years down the line. But in 1967, Levine was just a bit too clever for his own good, which is a big part of the pleasure of the Third Rail’s sole album, Id Music. . . . [It] is filled with witty social commentary that is surprisingly enjoyable despite the fact it’s more than a bit dated all these years later . . . . While Id Music‘s songs, production, and performances are all buffed to a high gloss, the craft and the intelligence of the music is a delight throughout, and its attempts at lyrical subversion only add to the fun, especially when one knows Levine would eventually go over to the other side and enjoy a very successful career writing commercial jingles. A very amusing product of its times.
Richie Unterberger:
The Third Rail are mostly known for their small 1967 hit single “Run, Run, Run,” which reached #53 . . . . The Third Rail were a studio-only group . . . comprised of the unlikely trio of Artie Resnick, his wife Kris Resnick, and Joey Levine. . . . [producing an] odd and oft-awkward blend of late Brill Building-period pop-rock, early bubblegum, psychedelia, and trendily socially relevant lyrics, usually featuring Levine’s high youthful vocals. After the Third Rail dissolved following their last single in 1968 . . . . Joey Levine had a hit with “Yummy Yummy Yummy,” on which he sang, though it was credited to the Ohio Express, and all of them became staff songwriter/producers for Kasenetz & Katz Associates.
https://www.allmusic.com/artist/third-rail-mn0000926297#biography
Dawn Eden reported in 1997 that Levine headed “his own company . . . one of the most successful jingle houses in the world.” He was responsible for the Mounds/Almond Joy classic “Sometimes you feel like a nut . . .”! (liner notes to the CD reissue of Id Music)
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