Rant #2,280: Bubblegum Music Is the Naked Truth (Part 3)

There is a followup to yesterday's Rant about the nonsense that goes on with job search engines.

I was told at my work that the job site in question also picked up an old employment ad we had for a salesman, and between that old ad and the one that I told you about related to an editorial position, the company had received a few resumes in the mail from people unwittingly looking for employment with a company that is, at the very best, not doing too well right now.

I was told that what will happen is that the search engine will then contact my employer, and ask if they received any interest in their ads. When my company tells them that they did receive some resumes related to the ads, the search engine will basically say, "See, our service does work. How about signing up for a program where we can help you fill all your open spots in your roster?"

Yes, a truly classic underhanded way to do business, but this is how these job sites operate and make money. A company signs a contract to be represented by them, and they take it from there. When you go on these job sites and see certain jobs that are labeled as "sponsored," that is what you are seeing.

Well, at least bubblegum music is the naked truth, because these job sites are certainly not, and are, in fact, far from it.

That leads us directly into the third installment of our Top 25 Bubblegum Songs listing, looking at the top songs mainly of the bubblegum era, which peaked in 1968, exactly 50 years ago. Some of the songs straddle that era both before and after, but generally, these songs influenced that type of music during that period of time, and probably influenced a lot of music afterward, too.

Just as a review, here are the top 10 bubblegum songs that we have already reviewed:

1) Archies - "Sugar Sugar"

2) Monkees - "I'm a Believer"

3) Ohio Express - "Yummy Yummy Yummy"

4) 1910 Fruitgum Co. - "1, 2, 3 Red Light"

5) Beatles - "I Want To Hold Your Hand"

6) Tommy James and the Shondells - "I Think We're Alone Now"

7) Tommy Roe - "Dizzy"

8) 1910 Fruitgum Co. - "Simon Says"

9) Ohio Express - "Chewy Chewy"

10) Beatles - "She Loves You"

And here are numbers 11 through 15, ironically, all No. 1 records on the Billboard Hot 100 charts.

11) Lemon Pipers - "Green Tambourine": Certainly setting the pace as one of the first--and probably most successful--bubblegum/psychedelic tunes, this song paints maybe the best picture of any bubblegum song--it is about begging or its nicer name, busking, done in a double entendre way--and it does it using what was then the new psychedelic bent. And this was a real band, from Ohio, that pretty much wanted to do their own, heavier material, but this song, written by Paul Leka, one of the main architects of bubblegum music, put them on the bubblegum map, along with a couple of soundalike followups. The Pipers, or at least one or two members, later morphed into Ram Jam, and had the neo-bubblegum hit "Black Betty" in the later 1970s.

12) Herman's Hermits - "I'm Henry the Eighth, I Am": Like the Beatles placements on this chart, this one by their British counterparts really creates the template for what was to follow in the world of bubblegum music. Basic arrangement, repeated lyrics ("second verse, same as the first") and atonal singing by Peter Noone helped bring this old British music hall tune to No. 1 in 1965. Written by Fred Murray and R.P. Weston, the song is a less than two minute splurge of premium bubblegum that kids five to 105 can sing together to.

13) Jackson 5 - ABC: The only reason that this song did not place higher was that it came a full two years after the prime year of 1968, but it is a song that has influenced subsequent teenybopper acts forever, so it has to have its place on this chart. Written by Motown's "The Corporation," the tune exploits Michael Jackson's lead vocals as good as any song this family group ever did, and was certainly one of the foundations of his long career. And it was also the first direct contribution by people of color to this genre--there were many others, but this one was the one that showed that people other than white people can do bubblegum music--and that certainly made this type of music popular to people of all ethnicities and backgrounds.

14) Jackson 5 - "I Want You Back": Well, pretty much ditto from the above entry, this song introduced Michael Jackson and his brothers/group mates to the world in 1969, and they have never looked back. They expanded out of bubblegum pretty early on, so they certainly can't be considered the biggest bubblegum act ever--who that is is anyone's guess, to be honest with you--but with this song, Michael Jackson became one the first non-white teenybopper heartthrobs--Sajid Khan actually was the first--and he also jumped out of that role later on as he got older and left his brothers to become one of the top pop acts ever.

15) Partridge Family - "I Think I Love You": And to think David Cassidy wasn't even considered to be a singer when this TV sitcom concoction was created! Yes, very true, this concept had so many attributes of bubblegum music that it simply cannot be ignored when making up a list like this. Shirley Jones, David's stepmom, was going to be the only real singer in this completely made up group, which used backup singers throughout its history. When David proved that he could actually sing, the bubblegum world was thrown on its ear in 1970 when this tune, written and produced by Wes Farrell, rose to the top of the charts. So now, a genre that used phony groups and unknown musicians had its actual three pop superstars in Davy Jones, Michael Jackson and David Cassidy, soon to be joined by one more heavyweight.

... but that is for nest week's look into the world of bubblegum music.

After yesterday's Rant, I think we could all use some real bubblegum music to chill out.