Strawberry Alarm Clock

Strawberry Alarm Clock is an American psychedelic band formed in 1967, originating in Glendale, California, a city about ten miles north of downtown Los Angeles. The band is best known for its 1967 hit single "Incense and Peppermints." Their music is categorized as acid rock, psychedelic pop, and sunshine pop, and they charted five songs in the United States and Canada, including two Top 40 hits.A history of the band written by George Bunnell states that "The Strawberry Alarm Clock came about by parts of two bands, Thee Sixpence and Waterfyrd Traene, morphing into one." The group, originally named Thee Sixpence, initially consisted of Ed King (lead guitar, vocals), Michael Luciano (vocals), Lee Freeman (rhythm guitar, harmonica, vocals), Gary Lovetro (bass), Steve Rabe (guitar, vocals), and Gene Gunnels (drums). Randy Seol (drums, vibes, percussion, vocals) and Mark Weitz (keyboards, vocals) joined to replace the departing Gunnels, Rabe, and Luciano just as the name change to Strawberry Alarm Clock was occurring. Seol eventually brought in songwriters Bunnell and Steve Bartek, who participated in the writing and recording of Strawberry Alarm Clock's first album.The inception of Strawberry Alarm Clock, aside from Thee Sixpence, is not well documented, largely because none of the latter band's recordings (subsequently lost) were released. However, according to Bunnell, many Strawberry Alarm Clock songs came from the band he had formed previously with Seol, Bartek, Randy Zacuto, Fred Schwartz, and Criss Jay, which performed under the names Waterfyrd Traene (pre-Strawberry Alarm Clock), Public Bubble (during Strawberry Alarm Clock), and Buffington Rhodes (post-Strawberry Alarm Clock). There were two recording sessions with some of these personnel: one with Dave Hassinger at the Recording Factory and one with Bill Lazarus at Sunset Sound. There were probably ten songs in all that were recorded, but Bunnell stated that both masters were stolen. The post-Strawberry Alarm Clock incarnation broke up before any success was realized.The fourth and most famous single by Strawberry Alarm Clock was "Incense and Peppermints", produced by Frank Slay. The song was initially released as a B-side by Thee Sixpence on All American Records, which was owned by Bill Holmes, the band's manager and producer. The band was not impressed by the vocals of songwriter John Carter, so Slay chose Greg Munford, a 16-year-old friend of the band from another group called Shapes of Sound, to sing lead on the track. The Uni Records subsidiary of MCA picked up the record for national distribution, and the single was re-released in May 1967 with "Incense and Peppermints" as the A-side. The song reached No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 during the week ending November 25, 1967. The band made a cameo appearance performing the song in the Richard Rush film Psych-Out.Slay refused to give Weitz and King (also a member of Hunger) credit for writing the song, stating that they did not write either the melody line or lyrics, even though the song was built on an instrumental by Weitz with a bridge by King. This instrumental was originally intended as a B-side to "The Birdman of Alkatrash", which ultimately became the B-side to "Incense and Peppermints". The single spent one week at No. 1 and remained on the charts for a total of 16 weeks. A gold disc was awarded for sales of one million copies by the Recording Industry Association of America on December 19, 1967.

Biography summary from English Wikipedia, photograph via Wikimedia Commons.