Vanilla Fudge - Then And Now
Vanilla Fudge - Then And Now
A lot of rock bands covered soul hits during the 1960s. Some of them did it well. Very few of them recast a song entirely in their own image the way Vanilla Fudge did with the Supremes’ “You Keep Me Hangin’ On.” The powerhouse rock quartet’s inspired remake of the Holland-Dozier-Holland-penned anthem slowed the tempo down radically, with one creative foot planted in the era’s psychedelic movement and the other pointing to the advent of heavy metal hovering just around the corner.
Lead vocalist and keyboardist Mark Stein, born March 11, 1947 in Bayonne, New Jersey, had plenty of professional musical experience despite barely being out of his teens when the band burst onto the national scene in 1967. Stein started playing piano when he was a wee lad of four, tried his hand at squeezing the accordion for a brief minute, and made a doo-wop 45 as Mark Stevens & The Charmers before settling in behind the organ and joining a local outfit, Rick Martin & The Showmen, that gigged regularly on the bustling New York club scene.
When the band’s bassist was drafted, Tim Bogert, born August 27, 1944 in New York City, came into the equation. Finding inspiration in the dynamic organ-based soul-rock of The Young Rascals (their Felix Cavaliere was Stein’s musical hero), the hottest band on the New York circuit, Stein and Bogert gave the Showmen their notice and put together their own band, drummer Joey Brennan also switching allegiances. Lead guitarist Vince Martell, a Navy vet born November 11, 1945 in the Bronx and recently returned from a stint in Key West with a band known as Ricky T & The Satans Three, was recruited through a local agent.
That cemented the first lineup of The Pigeons, who tightened their attack by rehearsing on the Bogert family’s front porch in New Jersey. Further reinforcing the family ties, Mark’s father was their booking agent. The Pigeons’ set list mostly consisted of R&B covers, and they sometimes backed stars such as The Shangri-Las and Patti LaBelle & The Blue Belles. By early ‘66, The Pigeons had built an audience base up and down the East Coast without benefit of recording, although eight songs they laid on tape mid-year eventually saw light of day on a Wand LP, While the Whole World Was Eating Vanilla Fudge, credited to Mark Stein & The Pigeons.
While sharing a bill at The Eye on Long Island, the band was blown away by guitarist Leslie West’s band, The Vagrants, which specialized in expanding the songs of other artists into gargantuan productions. Stein cites The Vagrants as a primary influence on his own group’s approach. That grandiose concept would be put to the test on “You Keep Me Hangin’ On;” it was one in a string of pop/R&B chart-toppers by Diana Ross and her Supremes under the direction of Motown’s prolific creative trio Brian and Eddie Holland and Lamont Dozier. Stein and his cohorts heard the song as a slow, majestic ballad with plenty of drama. Their spectacular rearrangement of “You Keep Me Hangin’ On” was worked out onstage the night they heard it.
The Pigeons made their final personnel adjustment near year’s end, bidding Brennan adieu in favor of drummer Carmine Appice, born December 15, 1946 in Staten Island, N.Y. Appice was playing with another outfit, and the band must have been impressed with his thundering beat because he was drafted into the ranks straightaway.
Phil Basille, their manager and owner of a Long Island nightspot, The Action House, where the band often headlined, knew George “Shadow” Morton, the mastermind behind The Shangri-Las’ rise to fame. Basille invited Morton to The Action House to check The Pigeons out. “You Keep Me Hangin’ On” grabbed Shadow’s attention, and he checked the band into a recording studio and produced the master in one take. Morton was a persuasive presence; he had several labels bidding on the band, and Atco Records–the same Atlantic imprint that had made stars of everyone from The Coasters and Bobby Darin to Ben E. King and Sonny & Cher–won. But The Pigeons name itself would be flying the coop.
Apt though the allusion may be, rechristening the band Vanilla Fudge in early ‘67 had nothing to do with the band’s skill at revamping R&B material. It really was named after a scrumptious flavor of ice cream that the female lead singer of a Long Island group called The Unspoken Word loved. Atco pressed up “You Keep Me Hangin’ On,” and it cracked the pop hit parade in July of 1967, though it only climbed to #67. The band’s eponymous debut album, also produced by Morton, was a different story. Out that fall, it went gold as it sailed to #6 on Billboard’s pop album listings, sticking around for an amazing 80 weeks.
The band’s followup single, “Where Is My Mind,” was written by Stein and made a mild chart impression during the opening weeks of 1968. Their encore album was nothing short of gargantuan in scope: producer Morton intended The Beat Goes On to summarize the history of modern music within the grooves of a solitary LP, its contents ranging from classical to jazz to rock, all done Vanilla Fudge’s singular way. The concept may have been overreaching, yet the band’s growing legion of fans pushed it to #17 on the charts.
As you might expect, there weren’t any likely candidates for the Top 40 on such a unique piece of work, so Atco tried releasing “You Keep Me Hangin’ On” anew. This time it hit like a sonic boom, soaring to #6 on the pop charts during the summer of 1968 (the previous January, Vanilla Fudge had performed it during their first appearance on The Ed Sullivan Show, CBS-TV thus introducing psychedelia to the masses). Its profile was so high that when Wilson Pickett scored a ‘69 hit with the anthem, it wasn’t The Supremes that he referenced--it was the Fudge’s.
The band’s reworked treatment of Patti LaBelle & The Blue Belles’ “Take Me For A Little While,” pulled from their debut LP (it also served as the flip of “You Keep Me Hangin’ On” its first time around), proved a #38 hit when repressed as an A-side that fall. Renaissance, the band’s third Atco LP (and the last produced by Morton), came out only four months after The Beat Goes On and vaulted to #20. This time the Fudge concentrated mostly on originals, though it was a revamp of Donovan’s “Season Of The Witch” that made some chart noise.
Wasting no time, Vanilla Fudge released their fourth Atco long-player, Near the Beginning, in February of 1969. This time they produced it themselves. Each of its four songs stretched to at least six minutes, though when their radically redefined version of Jr. Walker & The All Stars’ “Shotgun” hit the streets as a single (it was the last time they’d crack the Hot 100), it clocked in at just over two-and-a-half minutes in length. The Fudge’s rendition of Lee Hazlewood’s “Some Velvet Morning” from the same set just missed that same chart.
Adrian Barber took over the production helm for Vanilla Fudge’s final musical statement on Atco, Rock & Roll, out that fall. It made it to #34 on the pop LP lists even as the band was nearing the end of the line. Along the way, they’d shared concert stages with Jimi Hendrix, Led Zeppelin, Janis Joplin, Cream, Jethro Tull, Canned Heat, and The Doors. The Fudge made its farewell performance at The Action House on March 14, 1970.
Stein briefly tried a solo career before joining The Tommy Bolin Band and later those of Alice Cooper and Dave Mason. Bogert and Appice immediately formed Cactus with ex-Detroit Wheels guitarist Jim McCarty and singer Rusty Day, cutting several solid-selling early ‘70s LPs for Atco. When that broke up, the high-energy duo joined forces with legendary guitarist Jeff Beck in Beck, Bogert, Appice (their self-named 1973 Epic album was a huge hit).
The Vanilla Fudge reunion that fans had long clamored for came together when all four original members reunited for the 1983 Atco album Mystery, and they toured together for three months in ‘87. 2005 brought another gala reunion of the four Fudge founders. And just this past August, Mark, Tim, Vinny, and Carmine hit the stage of New York’s historic Radio City Music Hall when the Fudge co-starred on a bill with Deep Purple.
Four decades after they rebuilt “You Keep Me Hangin’ On” into something all their own, Vanilla Fudge still rocks.
–Bill Dahl
SOURCES
Official Vanilla Fudge website: http://www.vanillafudge.com/contents.htm
Official Mark Stein website: www.mark-stein.com
Official Tim Bogert website: www.timbogert.com
Official Vince Martell website: http://www.rockersusa.com/vincemartell/main.htm
Official Carmine Appice website: http://www.carmineappice.net/home.html
All Music Guide website: www.allmusic.com
BACK COVER:
The Hits
1. You Keep Me Hangin' On (Lamont Dozier, Brian Holland, Edward Jr. Holland)
2. Tearin' Up My Heart (Kristian Lundin, Max Martin)
3. Shotgun (Autry Dewalt)
4. People Get Ready (Curtis Mayfield)
5. Take Me For A Little While (Trade Martin)
6. Good Good Livin' (Carmine Appice, Tim Bogert, Bill Pascali, Vince Martell)
7. I Want It That Way (Max Martin, Andreas Carlsson)
8. Need Love (Carmine Appice, Tim Bogert, Bill Pascali, Vince Martell)
9. Eleanor Rigby (Lennon-McCartney)
10. She's Not There (Rod Argent)
11. Season Of The Witch (Donovan Leitch)
12. Do Ya Think I'm Sexy? (Rod Stewart, Carmine Appice, Duane S. Hitchings)
Vanilla Fudge With The San Fernando Valley Symphony Orchestra
1. Good Good Livin' (Carmine Appice, Tim Bogert, Bill Pascali, Vince Martell)
2. Take Me For A Little While (Trade Martin)
3. Ain't That Peculiar? (Warren Moore, Smokey Robinson, William Robinson Jr., Robert Rogers, Marvin Tarplin)
4. People Get Ready (Curtis Mayfield)
5. Shotgun (Autry Dewalt)
6. Tearin' Up My Heart (Kristian Lundin, Max Martin)
7. She's Not There (Rod Argent)
8. You Keep Me Hangin' On (Lamont Dozier, Brian Holland, Edward Jr. Holland)
9. Season Of The Witch (Donovan Leitch)
10. Do Ya Think I'm Sexy? (Rod Stewart, Carmine Appice, Duane S. Hitchings)
Under license from Vanilla Fudge Partnership ℗ & © Great American Music Company. Sunset Blvd Records is a subsidiary of GAMC. All rights reserved. Unauthorized use is prohibited. Made in the USA.
CREDITS:
LONG LIVE DA FUDGE! ROCK ‘N’ ROLL!!
Disc 1:
Carmine Appice: Drums, Vocals
Tim Bogert: Bass, Vocals
Bill Pascali: Organ, Vocals
Vince Martell: Guitar, Vocals
Tim Stevens: Bass on “Do Ya Think I’m Sexy?”
Produced by Carmine Appice/Bianic Music
Executive Producer: Randy Pratt
Musical Director: Scott Treibitz
Recorded by: Joe Warda & Patrick Klein at Electric Randyland, Manhasset, NY
Mixed by: Pat Regan at Sea Sound Studio, North Hollywood, CA
Disc 2:
Carmine Appice: Drums
Tim Bogert: Bass
Tony Rondinelli: Guitar
Bill Pascali: Organ, Vocals
With the San Fernando Valley Symphony Orchestra
James Domaine: Conductor/Orchestral Arrangements
Record live September 9th, 2004 at Glendale Studios, CA
Mastered by: Brad Vance at Red Mastering, Hollywood, CA
Copyright: Da Fudge
Project Coordinator: Eric Carlson
Design: Miles Wintner
Artwork: Stacie Heyen, Carl Lundgren, Miles Wintner
Thanks to:
Randy & Terry Pratt, Dave Libert, Scott Treibitz, Joe Warda, Patrick Klein, Peg Pearl And Pete Bremy (Hand Claps), Howard Weller, Christine Lepera, Niels Estrup, Leslie Gold (The Radio Chick), George Fedden, Glenn Boster, Chris Morrison, Jim Domaine
Endorsements:
Carmine: Slingerland Drums, Vic Firth Signature Sticks, Sabian Signature Cymbals, Aquarian Signature Drumheads, DW Pedals, Protector Cases, Shure Mics, and Calzone Cases
Tim: Michael Tobias of MTD, SWR Amplification
Vince: George Fedden and Foreda Vince Martell Model Guitars
This album is dedicated to the memories of Tim Bogert and Scott Muni.