The+lemon+pipers

The Lemon Pipers were somewhat of an anomaly in the 1960s bubblegum community because the group actually had creative aspirations. Unfortunately, their high-water mark came with their first single, the infectious "Green Tambourine" (written by the team of Paul Leka and Shelley Pinz), which hit the number one spot on the pop charts in 1968. The follow-up singles (also written by Leka and Pinz) "Rice Is Nice" and "Jelly Jungle" added in interesting orchestrated Baroque pop elements, but ultimately failed to attract much attention. This compilation from Camden Records includes the Lemon Pipers' only two albums, Green Tambourine and Jungle Marmalade, and is the most complete single-disc collection of the group available (the Lemon Pipers recorded 26 tracks in their short history, and 20 of them are here).

The Lemon Pipers' Golden Classics is a mid-priced collection spotlighting several of the bubblegum band's late-'60 tracks, including "Rice Is Nice," "Jelly Jungle (Of Orange Marmalade)," and their number one hit from 1967, "Green Tambourine." This Collectables compilation alongside Buddah's Best of the Lemon Pipers: Green Tambourine are just about equal in sound quality and definitive track listing.

Unlike the majority of bubblegum bands, the Lemon Pipers' albums are actually quite good, not least because they were one of the few bubblegum bands who were a proper band with their own songwriters (although outside writer/producers did provide the two hits, the inescapable "Green Tambourine" and the actually even better "Rice Is Nice," a sweet, harp-laden depiction of a wedding day). Even the album tracks are pretty groovy, like the Cat Stevens-like character sketches "Shoeshine Boy" and "The Shoemaker of Leatherwood Square," which effectively use trippy string sections and playful harmonies. The snottier folk-rock of "Ask Me if I Care" and the far-out "Fifty Year Void," to say nothing of the nine-minute freakout "Through With You," give Green Tambourine a harder edge than most bubblegum albums, though it's still closer to, say, the Cyrkle than Cream. Seek it out, bubblegum snobs: you'll find yourself pleasantly surprised.

Collection features 4 CDs of the greatest artists, the biggest songs and the harder-to-find hits all uniquely themed to a genre… One could argue whether every track collected in this four-disc set is actually psychedelic or not, however one defines the term when it is applied to pop music, but everything here originally appeared at the close of the 1960s or the start of the 1970s, a time when pop music, and rock in particular, was expanding and playing with the notion of time, space, drugs, and a planet-wide pop culture. All that aside, there are some classic decked-out sides here, psychedelic or not, like the Lovin' Spoonful's "Summer in the City," the Amboy Dukes' "Journey to the Center of the Mind," Santana's "Soul Sacrifice," Moby Grape's "Omaha," the Byrds' "Eight Miles High," and Argent's "Hold Your Head Up," among dozens of other slightly tilted hits from the era.

Well, it does exactly what it says on the box. The 57 tracks on this 'Magic Bus' compilation run from the late 1960s to the early 1970s, but, with remarkable perspicacity, the compiler has mixed them up very cleverly. The CDs are called 'Turn On', 'Tune In' and 'Drop Out' and the songs on each one reflect, more or less, their monikers. Thus, on CD1 Scott McKenzie rubs shoulders with Barry McGuire, CD2 is full of singer-songwriters; Dylan, Cat Stevens and the like; whilst CD3 rocks it up with Steppenwolf and Cream. What this collection is selling is nostalgia and it does it very, very well. Anyone who grew up through the years in question will remember every one of these songs and probably sing along with them too. It has to be said that there are two major omissions though, there is nothing by either The Beatles or The Rolling Stones. Down to licensing presumably. That said, this is an absolutely classic collection that has been selected with extreme care and, dare it be said, love.