Is there a better late sixties bubblesoul song than "Build Me up, Buttercup?"

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― Tim Ellison (Tim Ellison), Friday, 17 February 2006 03:07 (twenty years ago)

that 'oogum boogum' buildup (geddit) in it is pretty great

― j blount (papa la bas), Friday, 17 February 2006 03:19 (twenty years ago)

does "time won't let me" count as bubblesoul? (prbly not)

― j blount (papa la bas), Friday, 17 February 2006 03:22 (twenty years ago)

Ooh. I think I'd go same band, different song: "Baby, Now That I've Found You." But thanks for instantly earworming this for me.

― Joseph McCombs (Joseph McCombs), Friday, 17 February 2006 04:10 (twenty years ago)

Does Arthur Conley's Sweet Soul Music count?

― kornrulez6969 (TCBeing), Friday, 17 February 2006 04:12 (twenty years ago)

I prefer "I Love You More Today Than Yesterday."

― Jeff Reguilon (Talent Explosion), Friday, 17 February 2006 04:27 (twenty years ago)

I don't really like "Build Me Up, Buttercup"

― Abbadavid Berman (Hurting), Friday, 17 February 2006 05:04 (twenty years ago)

I prefer "I Love You More Today Than Yesterday."

Totally gonna say this. God bless you, Spiral Starecase.

― The Good Dr. Bill (The Good Dr. Bill), Friday, 17 February 2006 05:35 (twenty years ago)

ysi?

― Jena (JenaP), Friday, 17 February 2006 06:23 (twenty years ago)

"bubblesoul"

― hstencil (hstencil), Friday, 17 February 2006 06:24 (twenty years ago)

"Girl Watcher" by the O'Kaysions.

"Too Late to Turn Back Now" by the Cornelius Brothers is great too.

BTW, anyone know if there's any soul comps with these two songs on them????

― utter joob (smittish yout fawb dill), Friday, 17 February 2006 07:39 (twenty years ago)

If "Midnight Confessions" by the Grass Roots counts, I like that one better.

― phil d. (Phil D.), Friday, 17 February 2006 13:27 (twenty years ago)

I'm partial to "Oogum Boogum Song" myself, and that Brenton Wood album is a scream. I have a 24-track comp of the Foundations one of my buddies made for me, and it's really consistent. In his book on disco, Peter Shapiro singles out the Foundations as the roots of europop/eurodisco, which I think is really accurate. their records sound phoned-in but I like that about them.

― edd s hurt (ddduncan), Friday, 17 February 2006 14:59 (twenty years ago)

Yeah, "Oogum Boogum". But also "Expressway to Your Heart" by the Soul Survivors (white guys from Philly), and uh, "I Want You Back" by the Jackson Five (hit the charts December 1969!; "ABC" wasn't til March 1970, "One Bad Apple" by the Osmonds in January 1971.)

― xhuxk, Friday, 17 February 2006 15:03 (twenty years ago)

Spookilly that's just been on the radio here.

― leigh (leigh), Friday, 17 February 2006 15:07 (twenty years ago)

Len Barry, 1-2-3

... even tho it's too early I just thought I mentioned it 'cos I love it

― Dadaismus (Dada), Friday, 17 February 2006 15:13 (twenty years ago)

the Equals did a ton of euro-glam-soul-bubblegum songs.

― Fritz Wollner (Fritz), Friday, 17 February 2006 15:16 (twenty years ago)

Yeah, "Baby Come Back" definitely occurred to me too (being non-Brit, I don't know any other Equals songs, though I probably heard "Black Skinned Blue Eyed Boys" once or twice I guess. That was them, right?)

Shirley Ellis's "The Name Game" and "The Clapping Song (Clap Pat Clap Song)" came out in early 1965, so technically if you split the decade in two those would qualify, right? I'm sure there are many others.

― xhuxk, Friday, 17 February 2006 15:23 (twenty years ago)

clap pat clap slap, i mean.

― xhuxk, Friday, 17 February 2006 15:24 (twenty years ago)

Today I can't decide whether I prefer "Soul Deep" or "Cry Like a Baby"

― Dadaismus (Dada), Friday, 17 February 2006 15:27 (twenty years ago)

Also "Little Latin Lupe Lu" by Mitch Ryder, 1966, probably. (I mean, you could stretch "soul" around a few 1910 Fruitgum and Ohio Expess songs without too much difficulty, but I don't want to get obnoxious about this. I really have nothing against "Build Me Up Buttercup." But then again, the Foundations were West Indie-born Brits just like the Equals, right? So you have to stretch "soul" around them a little too! What year was "Shake" by the Shadows of Knight, though?) (And how about "Judy in Disguise" by John Fred and his Playboy Band, 1967?)

― xhuxk, Friday, 17 February 2006 15:31 (twenty years ago)

Man, the Equals were great. If you like "Baby Come Back" or "Police On My Back" there's a lot more where that came from. There's a 2-CD import called First Among Equals which collects 40 of their best. I picked it up here (Memphis) for $10.

xpost - Chuck, "Shake" was '68, I believe. The Ohio Express version (same backing track, Joey Levine singing) is actually better.

― JAS, Friday, 17 February 2006 15:32 (twenty years ago)

xpost

chuck, you should check out an Equals greatest hits record. I think you'd like it. There's lots of soul-bubblegum stuff, but also some freakbeat Seger System-style riff-rock like "I Can See But You Don't Know" and "Red Light", some rocked-up rocksteady, some stuff that starts to sound like early Sweet, some campy dreck.

― Fritz Wollner (Fritz), Friday, 17 February 2006 15:33 (twenty years ago)

I much prefer the Shadows of Knight version (xpost)

― Dadaismus (Dada), Friday, 17 February 2006 15:34 (twenty years ago)

What about "Tears of a Clown"? If that counts it gets my vote.

― o. nate (onate), Friday, 17 February 2006 15:37 (twenty years ago)

not technically, since it came out in 1970 (though "going to a go go" from '66 might count)

and obviously i HAVE heard "police in my back"; i just keep thinking that was an eddy grant solo track. and yeah, i've been meaning to buy an equals compilation for decades now.

― xhuxk, Friday, 17 February 2006 15:42 (twenty years ago)

not technically, since it came out in 1970

It came out in 1967. It was on the album Make it Happen of that year. However, it didn't hit the charts until it was re-released as a single in the UK in 1970 (and from there spread to the US charts).

― o. nate (onate), Friday, 17 February 2006 15:43 (twenty years ago)

there are a couple of good equals comps floating around these days, it took me until a couple of years ago to finally get one. i think they were kind of hard to find over here for awhile.

"Shake" is also on the Kasenetz-Katz Singing Orchestral Circus album (the one with the crazy cartoon cover) but I think that's just the Shadows of Knight version. There's definitely one version that's better than the other, but I don't know if the backing track is any different.

― Fritz Wollner (Fritz), Friday, 17 February 2006 15:44 (twenty years ago)

The Four Seasons, Beggin'

... and a few of their other songs from that era

― Dadaismus (Dada), Friday, 17 February 2006 15:44 (twenty years ago)

oh yeah! i forgot that, thanks!

"dizzy" by tommy roe? (not soul per se, maybe, but it sure is funky).

― xhuxk, Friday, 17 February 2006 15:44 (twenty years ago)

i get sick of hearing build me up buttercup on the oldies station. same with the apples peaches pumpkin pie song.they both get really annoying if you hear them a lot. all-time most annoying to me though is the chairmen of the board's give me just a little more time. something about the way he says the word time on that chorus. "Give me just a little more...TIME!" gets on my last nerve. i think what bugs me about buttercup is that "WHY DO YOU!" that comes before all the build me ups. dude spazzes out.

― scott seward (scott seward), Friday, 17 February 2006 15:45 (twenty years ago)

my "oh yeah" referred to "tears of a clown" coming out in '67 btw

― xhuxk, Friday, 17 February 2006 15:45 (twenty years ago)

that first soul survivors album is great.

― scott seward (scott seward), Friday, 17 February 2006 15:46 (twenty years ago)

"Shake" is also on the Kasenetz-Katz Singing Orchestral Circus album (the one with the crazy cartoon cover) but I think that's just the Shadows of Knight version

There's about three versions of "Shake". The Shadows of Knight version is much rougher and more garage band-y plus it doesn't have Joey Levine on vocals. The Ohio Express and Kasenetz-Katz Singing Orchestral Circus versions sound pretty much identical to me. Then there's "Latin Skate", which is a great faux-Latin version

― Dadaismus (Dada), Friday, 17 February 2006 15:47 (twenty years ago)

wow, I gotta hear Latin Skate now. makes me think of "Skate It Out" by Eddie Bo, another great soul stomper - not as gummy as the stuff on this thread though.

for the bubblegum-soul question how about "Crimson & Clover"? Too whitebread? how about "Draggin' The Line" by Tommy James, post-Shondells? or was that '70?

― Fritz Wollner (Fritz), Friday, 17 February 2006 15:50 (twenty years ago)

OTM about the boxtops.

i don't suppose that edison lighthouse's love grows wld. count?

― Sterling Clover (s_clover), Friday, 17 February 2006 15:51 (twenty years ago)

"Draggin' the Line" is terrible. "Mony Mony" isn't a bad answer for this though.

― The Good Dr. Bill (The Good Dr. Bill), Friday, 17 February 2006 15:55 (twenty years ago)

wouldn't gimme some lovin' be ground zero for bubblesoul? it's not late-60's though.

― scott seward (scott seward), Friday, 17 February 2006 15:56 (twenty years ago)

last nite i was listening to the album that two of the dudes from the soul survivors put out on T Neck. fun and funny white-boy hard-rock fuzzpop soul. produced by the Isley's.

― scott seward (scott seward), Friday, 17 February 2006 15:58 (twenty years ago)

draggin' the line is incredible!

― Fritz Wollner (Fritz), Friday, 17 February 2006 16:00 (twenty years ago)

Jackie Wilson's 'Sweetest Feeling' is my favourite

― i am not a nugget (stevie), Friday, 17 February 2006 16:17 (twenty years ago)

"Draggin' the Line" is terrible."

No it isn't!

― Dadaismus (Dada), Friday, 17 February 2006 16:19 (twenty years ago)

Sam Cooke's "(What a) Wonderful World" would be a good choice, but it's way too early (recorded in '58).

― o. nate (onate), Friday, 17 February 2006 16:26 (twenty years ago)

a lot of Invictus stuff could fit here too - Chairmen of the Board's 'Give Me Just A Little More Time' or 'Since the Days of Pigtails (and Fairytales)', Freda Payne's 'Band Of Gold', 8th Wonder's '(She's Not) Just Another Woman' - some early Parliament has a certain gumminess/novelty song charm like 'Automobile' or 'I Call My Baby Pussycat'... and The Five Stairsteps' 'Oooh Child' is a total contender for the bubble-soul crown. or is it too melancholy? If we're going for party tunes, how about Shocking Blue's "Venus" or "Hot Sand"?

― Fritz Wollner (Fritz), Friday, 17 February 2006 16:56 (twenty years ago)

I had a Soul Survivors 45 that had this really comical rewrite of "Expressway to Your Heart" - must've been an attempt to cash in with a soundalike hit.

― Tim Ellison (Tim Ellison), Friday, 17 February 2006 18:49 (twenty years ago)

"Cowboys to Girls" and "Give Me Just a Little More Time" are great. Altho it was not a hit, I think the Parliaments' "Look At What I Almost Missed" is a real classic bubblesoul song--Marshall Crenshaw used to do it live. I always thought the Marmalade's "Reflections of My Life" which might be '70 but what the hell, that's a good fake-soul song. And it's probably '70 too but what about "Love Me or Let Me Be Lonely"? And as far as the Foundations go, "Baby, Now That I've Found You" (1967) was their other hit, as Joseph says upthread, and I much prefer it to "Build Me Up."

― edd s hurt (ddduncan), Friday, 17 February 2006 19:36 (twenty years ago)

Oh, "Explosion in Your Soul"? Almost as horrible as "Gimme Gimme Good Lovin'."

How about Jay & the Technique's "Keep the Ball Rollin'" (lousy lyrics, but one of the all-time great horn charts, and more fun if you change the lyric so they roll in the mouth instead of the heart) and the Box Tops' "Neon Rainbow"?

― Joseph McCombs (Joseph McCombs), Friday, 17 February 2006 19:41 (twenty years ago)

Errrr, I hope you're being ironic because "Gimme Gimme Good Lovin'" is probably the greatest moment in human history in the last 40 years

― Adidadaismus (Dada), Friday, 17 February 2006 19:45 (twenty years ago)

>Oh, "Explosion in Your Soul"?<

Haha, yeah, that was it.

I just listened to "Sugar Sugar" on headphones and it is total Tommy James grandiosity.

― Tim Ellison (Tim Ellison), Friday, 17 February 2006 20:01 (twenty years ago)

1910 Fruitgum Co. -- Yummy, Yummy, Yummy

― Sterling Clover (s_clover), Friday, 17 February 2006 20:07 (twenty years ago)

That's Ohio Express. This seems to have turned into a bubblegum thread.

― Adidadaismus (Dada), Friday, 17 February 2006 20:10 (twenty years ago)

"Sugar Sugar" has that loping "Mony Mony" pulse, though (plus some vaguely call and response type stuff near the end).

― Tim Ellison (Tim Ellison), Friday, 17 February 2006 22:03 (twenty years ago)

Another vote in favour of "Baby, Now That I Found You" over "Build Me..." but "Buttercup"'s pretty great in its own right.

Surely there's been a thread devoted to Afro-English soul, right? Like the Foundations and the Equals and Hot Chocolate and etc.?

― Myonga Von Bontee (Myonga Von Bontee), Saturday, 18 February 2006 00:13 (twenty years ago)

Foundations were from D.C., I thought.

― Tim Ellison (Tim Ellison), Saturday, 18 February 2006 00:28 (twenty years ago)

the Foundations were based in London. recorded for Pye.

― edd s hurt (ddduncan), Saturday, 18 February 2006 00:53 (twenty years ago)

8th Wonder's '(She's Not) Just Another Woman'

THE best of this style, imo. "Build Me Up Buttercup" is a nostalgic favorite and in hindsight it seems like a huge influence on Dexy's Midnight Runners.

― brettino's bounce, Sunday, 19 February 2006 04:26 (twenty years ago)

Wow, I'd thought for so long that they were a Washington D.C. band because Lester Bangs once said something about Ivan Kral (guitarist in Richard Hell and the Voidoids) having played for them (Kral was from D.C.).

The song totally makes more sense to me stylistically now that I know it was a "Britgum" thing.

― Tim Ellison (Tim Ellison), Sunday, 19 February 2006 05:10 (twenty years ago)

Think you mean Ivan Julian.

― Redd Harvest (Ken L), Sunday, 19 February 2006 08:34 (twenty years ago)

Yes there is. It is called "(If Paradise Is) Half As Nice".

― Geir Hongro (GeirHong), Sunday, 19 February 2006 09:29 (twenty years ago)

Oh yeah. Sorry, Ivan.

― Tim Ellison (Tim Ellison), Sunday, 19 February 2006 18:43 (twenty years ago)

If only Love Grows Where My Rosemary Goes wasn't from 1970...

― Jimmy Mod: The Prettiest Flower In The Pond (The Famous Jimmy Mod), Sunday, 19 February 2006 18:48 (twenty years ago)

As a particular fan of this genre I'd loike to nominate Now is the Time by Jimmy James and the Vagabonds (was that a 70s tune?) and Give Me Just A Little More Time, by (if memory serves) Chairmen of the Board

― dr x o'skeleton, Monday, 20 February 2006 11:59 (twenty years ago)

three months pass...

I love most of the songs that have already been mentioned. But I'd also put forward "123 Red Light" as a contender. The vocal is amazingly soulful (for bubblegum)! I wonder who sang it. By the way, I don't actually detect any 'soul' in any of other 1910 Fruitgum Company hits.

Oh, I just remembered. What about 'Everlasting Love'????

― James Paterson, Wednesday, 31 May 2006 12:43 (twenty years ago)

one year passes...

Where are they now?

― Dom Passantino, Friday, 14 March 2008 19:17 (eighteen years ago)

Reponse to the original header: Yes there is: "The Letter" by Box Tops.

― Geir Hongro, Saturday, 15 March 2008 02:34 (eighteen years ago)

Didn't some crappy 90's alt.rock band cover this? Like the Muffs or somebody?

― Alex in NYC, Saturday, 15 March 2008 18:27 (eighteen years ago)

I think I recall a shitty 90s cover of this used over some movie credits at some point. I'm totally sick of this song, although I know it's great.. drunken frat kids singing this song kareoke does not make me happy.

― billstevejim, Monday, 17 March 2008 04:05 (eighteen years ago)

^^/^ The Goops, and some Kevin Smith movie. Probably Mallrats. The 7" sleeve was an eight-page comic by Pat Moriarty and Jim Blanchard inside the card cover.

― energy flash gordon, Monday, 17 March 2008 06:12 (eighteen years ago)

five years pass...

Wikipedia page on The Foundations does not mention Ivan Julian, although I feel like I've seen that pretty often.

― Wild Mountain Armagideon Thyme (James Redd and the Blecchs), Thursday, 16 January 2014 17:13 (twelve years ago)

I assume there were two different Foundations then? Actually there were probably about 140 bands called the Foundations...

― Eats like Elvis, shits like De Niro (Tom D.), Thursday, 16 January 2014 17:20 (twelve years ago)

three months pass...

http://www.theonion.com/articles/wedding-dj-assures-anxious-man-he-hasnt-forgotten,35977/

― Bo Diddley Is A Threadkiller (James Redd and the Blecchs), Saturday, 10 May 2014 15:02 (twelve years ago)

Reponse to the original header: Yes there is: "The Letter" by Box Tops.

― Geir Hongro, Friday, March 14, 2008

No...too much soul, not nearly enough bubble.

"Build Me Up Buttercup" would probably be my first choice too. "Baby, Now That I've Found You"'s close. A few others, most probably already mentioned: Barbara Mason's "Love Makes a Woman," Brenton Wood's "Gimme Little Sign," the Chairmen of the Board's "Give Me Just a Little More Time" (early early 1970), Friends of Distinction's "Grazing in the Grass," J.J. Jackson's "But It's Alright" ('66...they all sound like 1969 to me), Jackie Wilson's "I Get the Sweetest Feeling." And yes, "Dizzy."

― clemenza, Saturday, 10 May 2014 16:44 (twelve years ago)

assumed i'd be on this thread already, anybody who doesn't love the Foundations shd go and find another planet to mope on right now

― Hastings Banter (Noodle Vague), Saturday, 10 May 2014 16:52 (twelve years ago)

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