King of Bubblegum: Joey Levine
Listen – I Enjoy Being a Boy (In Love With You) – MP3
Greetings all.
Welcome to the second collaborative post (is it still a collaboration if I’m responsible for both halves???) between Funky16Corners and Iron Leg.
You can check out Funky16Corners for the explanation about how this particular dual post got started, but the Iron Leg half of things came to be thusly.
After spinning ‘Doin’ the Banana Split’ a few times, I let the record go (both 7” records are 4-song EPs) and listened to the other song on that side, ‘I Enjoy Being a Boy (In Love With You)’
I recall back in the heady garage revival days of the mid-80’s that a friend of mine used to sing this song with a Sky Saxon-ish inflection, which these 20 years hence (as I’m hearing the record for the first time) turns out to have been not too far from the mark.
As I mention in the Funky16Corners post, the Banana Splits musical catalog has several contributions from artists that one might reasonably assume would never have had anything to do with such a prefab enterprise (like Barry White, Gene Pitney and Al Kooper*).
On the flipside of that particular coin is ‘I Enjoy Being a Boy (In Love With You)’ which was composed by the man who might be considered to be one of the godfathers of the bubblegum pop era, Mr. Joey Levine.
You may not know his name, but you have surely heard his voice. In the mid-60’s Levine was a key member of the Kasenetz-Katz bubblegum pop factory, writing, producing and singing (that’s his voice on ‘Yummy Yummy Yummy’ by the Ohio Express and ‘Run Run Run’ by the Third Rail) a grip of chart hits. Levine would record lead vocals for a number of Kasenetz-Katz projects, and would go on to create and voice some of the most memorable advertising jingles of the 70’s, including “Sometimes You Feel Like A Nut” for Mounds/Almond Joy candy bars and “Just for the Taste of It” for Coca-Cola. If that wasn’t enough, Levine also gets a bit of rock credibility for writing ‘Try It’ which was recorded by the Standells in the US and the Attack in the UK.
The tune you are downloading today, ‘I Enjoy Being a Boy (in Love With You)’ is a great slice of vaguely fuzzy bubble-garage-psyche that’s just potent enough to stand up proudly next to much of what was on the charts when it came out. While it’s not going to win any gold medals at the garage punk Olympics, it’s evidence that even in the world of (almost literally) disposable pop, there were gems to be found.
As far as I know there has never been a legitimate reissue of the Banana Splits “catalog”. Initially there were three 45s and a full length LP on Decca, and the two EP’s issued by Kelloggs. There were also several songs that appeared only on the TV show, including alternate versions of some the tracks that were released on vinyl. There was a bootleg CD reissue in the 90’s that included all of the LP, 45 and EP tracks but I’ve heard that the tracks were mastered from vinyl, so the sound quality left something to be desired. The original vinyl is findable with varying degrees of difficulty, with the Kelloggs EPs being the easiest and the LP the most difficult (and expensive).
Dig it.
Peace
Larry
*Though Kooper got his start playing on the Royal Teens ‘Short Shorts’ so this may be a what goes around comes around moment…
Remember to head over to Funky16Corners for the soulful side of the Splits!
8 Comments
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Amazing what tidbits of info you can dig up when you look hard; I had no clue that none other than Barry White was involved with this troupe.
I vividly recall those glory years when the Banana Splits were on my TV set, right alongside reruns of The Monkees. Talk about psychedelics leaving bad influences on otherwise wholsome (?) kids such as myself. And let’s not forget the mighty Kroft brothers (what was that stuff H.R. was puffin’ anyway – ha ha)…
Vincent
I don’t know if you’ve ever seen ‘Mr. Show’ which ran on HBO a few years back. They did a great parody of HR Pufnstuf called the “Altered State of Drugachusetts”, where they took the figurative drug vibe from Pufnstuf (and all the other Krofft shows) and made them literal (i.e. a character named Dr. Ellis D Trails)
Larry
Mr. Show is feckin’ awe-inspiring. Funnily i only happened upon the ‘Show a couple of weeks back (unfortunately it was never shown this side of the Big Water as far as i know). But really blew my mind. Definitely the bastard child of Monty Python &…. well Monty Python. IF there ever was a comedic series that could be self-incestuous well that’d be it (ok… maybe the Beverly HillBillies too)
That skit with the couple going on honeymoon with the “third wheel” is priceless especially the whole wild Gospel tangent. How on Earth did they get away with some of that material on mid 90′s TV!? And what about Mr Pit-Pat: the magical, non-threatening, pansexual spokesthing for Globo-Chem the evil multinational corporation!
I seriously back up Larry’s recommendation Soulie!
For whatever reason, the two Splits ep’s seem to turn up quite often, while I never see the 45′s or album. Anyway, I love ‘em both and “I Enjoy Being A Boy” is the absolute pinnacle for me.
Larry,
OK, the Banana Splits, well from this side of the pond (yes, it is England calling) I recall the Bannna Splits very well on re-runs, a weekly highpoint iback in the day. I have a strange but useless fact to add, the 8 wheeled amphibious carts the guys used (surely the coolest part of the show?) called ‘Argocats’ were produced in my home town by one of my mates Dad’s. They were fibreglass and actually designed for the military. No mention of the original theme, nicely reworked by the Dickies. But this Kelloggs find is a monster. Keep Diggin’, we’re listening!
Vic
Enjoyed this one as a kid, nice to see it return. Almost analogous with a Strawberry Alarm Clock/Lemon Pipers feel.
Just discovered your blog so a lot of my comments will be well out of time order. Great that you are getting this stuff out there.
Does anyone know if there are any vinyl releases of the musical breaks that are in the early Scooby Doo cartoons. I recall some wonderfully blissed out pop playing while the gang (sorry “peky kids”) went through doors chasing the ghost, janitor or evil uncle. I also seem to remember an episode of Johnny Bravo where he meets the gang and a perfect homage is played including the obligatory chase scene.
[...] IL Meets F16C #2: The Banana Splits – I Enjoy Being a Boy (in Love …Feb 4, 2010 … Wow! this Bannna Split is very appeticious, you should try some. buy appeticious mugs & shirts · delicious appetitizing appetitive strong desire … [...]