Music Blog, Sixties

Fade To Green

The Sicilian Storyteller

Written for Glyn’s Mixed Music Bag week #24 where we are
asked to write about a song by a group or solo singer
beginning with the letters K or L. Here’s my piece.

While many of you will likely be familiar with the song, I think most of you will be hard-pressed to name the group who performed it.

The Lemon Pipers was a 1960s bubblegum/psychedelic pop band from Oxford, Ohio known chiefly for their song “Green Tambourine“, which reached #1 in the US in 1968.

The band was made up of singer Ivan Browne, guitarist William Bartlett, keyboardist R.G. Nave, drummer William Albaugh and bassist Steve Walmsley. Most of the group’s songs were written by Shelley Pinz and Paul Leka.

Though they produced primarily bubblegum pop, the Lemon Pipers actually wanted to play more psychedelic, drug influenced music. Their recording label did not agree and threatened to fire them unless they played more mainstream, commercially viable pop. Several of the tracks on their Green Tambourine album show strong influences of folk rock, among other things, showing that the band wasn’t completely the pop outfit it appeared to be.

The Lemon Pipers eventually did gain artistic control over their work, but by that time they had all but faded into obscurity.

This very psychedelic song tells the story of a busker who plays for change. Throw some coins in his green tambourine and he’ll play you a tune. Lyricist Shelley Pinz wrote the words after seeing a street musician in front of the Brill Building in Manhattan who used a tambourine to collect money as he performed.

The music to this song was written by Paul Leka whose other claim to fame is “Na Na Hey Hey, Kiss Him Goodbye”. In addition to the titular tambourine, the arrangement features an electric sitar, orchestral strings and a vibraslap …. an unusual percussion instrument similar to a jawbone that produces a rattling sound when struck. Another hook is the heavy, psychedelic tape echo applied to the word “play” in each chorus and at the end, fading into a drumroll (“Listen while I play play play play play play play my green tambourine“).

Released toward the end of 1967, “Green Tambourine” spent 13 weeks on the US Billboard Hot 100, peaking at #1 on February 3, 1968, and sold over a million copies. The record remained on the chart for three months. It was also the first US #1 hit for the Buddah label. It was the only substantial hit for the Lemon Pipers.

This is “Green Tambourine” by the Lemon Pipers

Mixed Music Bag 2024 – week 24 – No Joke

Big thanks to Glyn for hosting Mixed Music Bag every week.

Thanks for joining me today and spinning some tunes.

See you on the flip side. 😎

NAR©2024

All text, graphics and videos are copyright for The Sicilian Storyteller, The Elephant’s Trunk and The Rhythm Section and are not to be used without permission. NAR©2017-present.

31 thoughts on “Fade To Green”

      1. That is a really good question, and I found a list of 60 over a 50-year period.

        The Teddy Bears ’To Know Him Is to Love Him’  December 1958.
        Mark Dinning ’Teen Angel’  February 1960
        The Hollywood Argyles ’Alley-Oop’  July 1960
        Larry Verne ’Mr. Custer’  October 1960
        Maurice Williams and the Zodiacs ’Stay’  November 1960
        Ernie K-Doe ’Mother-in-Law’  May 1961
        Bruce Channel ’Hey! Baby’  March 1962
        Mr. Acker Bilk ’Stranger on the Shore’  May 1962
        David Rose  ‘The Stripper’  July 1962
        The Tornados ’Telstar’  December 1962
        Kyu Sakamoto ’Sukiyaki’  June 1963
        The Singing Nun ’Dominique’  December 1963
        Lorne Greene ’Ringo’  December 1964
        The New Vaudeville Band ’Winchester Cathedral’  December 1966
        John Fred and His Playboy Band  ‘Judy in Disguise (With Glasses)’  January 1968
        The Lemon Pipers ’Green Tambourine’  February 1968
        Paul Mauriat ’Love Is Blue’  February 1968
        Hugh Masekela ’Grazing in the Grass’  July 1968
        Jeannie C. Riley ’Harper Valley P.T.A.’  September 1968
        Zager & Evans ’In the Year 2525 (Exordium & Terminus)’  July 1969
        Steam ’Na Na Hey Hey Kiss Him Goodbye’  December 1969
        The Shocking Blue ’Venus’  February 1970
        Vicki Lawrence ’The Night the Lights Went Out in Georgia’  April 1973
        Stories ’Brother Louie’  August 1973
        Terry Jacks ’Seasons in the Sun’  March 1974
        MFSB featuring the Three Degrees ’TSOP (The Sound of Philadelphia)’  April 1974
        Paper Lace ’The Night Chicago Died’  August 1974
        Billy Swan ’I Can Help’  November 1974
        Carl Douglas ’Kung Fu Fighting’  December 1974
        Minnie Riperton ’Lovin’ You’  April 1975
        Van McCoy ’The Hustle’  July 1975
        Starland Vocal Band ’Afternoon Delight’  July 1976
        Wild Cherry ’Play That Funky Music’  September 1976
        Walter Murphy and the Big Apple Band ’A Fifth of Beethoven’  October 1976
        Rick Dees and His Cast of Idiots ’Disco Duck’  October 1976
        David Soul ’Don’t Give Up on Us’  April 1977
        Bill Conti ’Gonna Fly Now’  July 1977
        Alan O’Day ’Undercover Angel’  July 1977
        Nick Gilder ’Hot Child in the City’  October 1978
        Amii Stewart ’Knock on Wood’  April 1979
        Anita Ward ’Ring My Bell’  June 1979
        M ’Pop Muzik’  November 1979
        Lipps, Inc. ’Funkytown’  May 1980
        Vangelis ’Chariots of Fire’  May 1982
        Toni Basil ’Mickey’  December 1982
        Dexy’s Midnight Runners ’Come On Eileen’  April 1983
        Jan Hammer ’Miami Vice Theme’  November 1985
        Gregory Abbott ’Shake You Down’  January 1987
        Bobby McFerrin ’Don’t Worry Be Happy’  September 1988
        Sheriff ’When I’m With You’  February 1989
        Right Said Fred ’I’m Too Sexy’  February 1992
        Sir Mix-a-Lot ’Baby Got Back’  July 1992
        The Heights ’How Do You Talk to an Angel’  November 1992
        Peabo Bryson & Regina Belle ’A Whole New World (Aladdin’s Theme)’ March 1993
        Ini Kamoze ’Here Comes the Hotstepper’  December 1994
        Crazy Town ’Butterfly’  March 2001
        Terror Squad ’Lean Back’  August 2004
        D4L ’Laffy Taffy’  January 2006
        Daniel Powter ’Bad Day’  April 2006
        Taylor Hicks ’Do I Make You Proud’  July 2006

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  6. Well, I never knew any of this and I had the record so I’m sure at some point in my youth I knew who the band was!
    Won’t ever forget the words though. I was singing along to a song on the oldies channel this morning when I was bringing my granddaughter to school and she commented that I knew all the words to all the songs. I told her that through her life, she’ll always remember the words to her favorite Taylor Swift songs!

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      1. I guess it depends where on Wikipedia you look! They are often inconsistent between their pages for individual songs and albums and the full discography – I’ve been caught by that.

        Judging by what Wikipedia says about them, they seem to have broken up after a battle with their record company over what style of music they should play. Not the first to go that route!

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  9. i remember the Lemon Pipers well they got to number 7 I the charts over here ….great group shame they only made two Albums… To my mind it was always about drugs … I suppose it’s all on the interpretation…. Their message was there in most of their tracks

    Drop your silver in my tambourine
    Help a poor man build a pretty dream
    Give me pennies, I’ll take anything
    Now listen while I play
    My green tambourine

    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

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    1. Oh, they were definitely into the psychedelic drug scene at the time; that’s where they ran into disagreements with their record label who wanted them to be more mainstream. Usually lyrics don’t offend me so their implied drug reference wasn’t a turn-off. The only lyrics that I can’t tolerate are the explicitly raunchy sexual ones; there’s no need for that.

      Thanks for a great comment and vid share, Willow. 🩶

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  10. Great song with many memories attached! Love the psychedelic image too. 🙂 The Lemon Pipers were supposed to be a <em>bubblegum pop</em> band? I certainly never thought of them that way.

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