(The Hit Hammer is where I'm reviewing each #1 song on the Billboard Hot 100. Starting from when the chart started in 1958 and eventually working my way to the present. To see my inspiration and more information about this blog, please CLICK HERE)
The Lemon Pipers - "Green Tambourine"
Hit Number 1: February 3, 1968
Stay at Number 1: 1 Week
Rochelle "Shelley" Pinz was a writer who worked at the Brill Building in Manhattan. One day when she was standing outside the building, she took notice of a man who was holding a tambourine, and begging for money. She was inspired to write a poem about the man, and named the poem, "Green Tambourine". Before she died in 2004, she said that she sometimes thought about the man who was begging for money, and whatever happened to him. She said in that part of Manhattan, between Seventh Avenue and Broadway, there was "a magic one could only imagine". That magic she spoke of sparked a poem that would later become a #1 hit. Then there's me who wonders if the man ever heard "Green Tambourine" on the radio a couple years after Pinz' encounter with him, and thought "Hey, this sounds a lot like the stuff I've done before!" I guess we'll never know.
The Lemon Pipers, the group who took Pinz's song to #1, were a group of college-aged dudes out of Oxford, Ohio. They, just like everyone else at that time, were big on the psychedelic movement, but got their start covering songs by the Who and the Byrds. They eventually became more well-known, and agreed to sign a record deal with Buddah Records. Their first single out of Buddah Records, however, was a major flop and didn't chart. That was one of the group members, Bill Bartlett's, songs. So instead Buddah asked Paul Leka, the Lemon Pipers' assigned record producer, if he and his songwriting partner, who was Pinz, if they could come up with a song. That's how the Lemon Pipers and "Green Tambourine" were married.
Something that I don't agree with is that "Green Tambourine" is often dubbed as the first bubblegum record to hit #1 on the U.S. charts. To me, bubblegum is stupid lyrics surrounded by gleamy, child-like musical production. That description doesn't fit what's going on in "Green Tambourine". This song is 100% psychedelia, though its lyrics make sense. "Watch the jingle jangle start to shine/Reflections of the music that is mine/When you toss a coin you'll hear it sing/Now listen while I play my green tambourine" is the best evidence of what's going on here. It's exactly like Pinz's encounter with the man begging for money. That's all "Green Tambourine" is, is a song about a guy who begs for people to give him money and in return, he'll play a song of their choice on his "green tambourine". It's innocent sure, but not bubblegum in my eyes. The Jackson 5 will eventually appear in this blog, and when they do, that's bubblegum.
There's also some cool production work in the song. The song is noted for its electric sitar, a psychedelic staple, as well as featuring a cool vibraslap percussion instrument. And no shocker, it features a, you guessed it, tambourine. All of the instrumentation together sounds like your typical late-60s psychedelic song. There's lots of cool, weird noises going on in the song, and it's hard to keep your focus on just one thing. But it's also a little bit cluttered, and is almost too weird. It can best be summed up like this: It's a good enough song, and I can see why it might be a #1 hit. But I'd never go out my way to listen to it. It's a piece of late-60s psychedelia that can be easily enjoyed to an extent, but it might be too much for any given person. It's understandable in both regards.
The Lemon Pipers, just like many other bands around their time, fell off a cliff after their brief run of success. Though they had a couple other songs chart, nothing even came close to #1, and they weren't built to last. A couple of the original members are still alive today, one being the lead singer, so if you see a guy in his early 70s playing a green tambourine on a street corner begging for money, there's a good chance it's one of the Lemon Pipers. Go ahead and give them something.
GRADE: 6/10
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