Strawberry Alarm Clock

Strawberry Alarm Clock was a psychedelic rock band from Los Angeles, known for their 1967 hit "Incense and Peppermints". They are often More

Strawberry Alarm Clock was a psychedelic rock band from Los Angeles, known for their 1967 hit "Incense and Peppermints". They are often thought of as a "one-hit wonder", although they charted two Top 40 songs. The group originally consisted of Ed King (lead guitar), Mark Weitz (keyboards), Lee Freeman (rhythm guitar), Gary Lovetro (bass), and Randy Seol (drums). On their first and most famous single, "Incense and Peppermints", none of the band wanted to sing songwriter John Carter's lyrics, so lead vocals were sung by Greg Munford, a 16-year-old friend of the band. The song reached #1 on the Billboard pop singles chart in late 1967. Ed King was denied songwriting credit by the band's producer because he did not write the melody line or the lyrics, which were by John Carter and did not appeal to the band. After that success the band added George Bunnell (bass and rhythm guitar) before making their first LP in 1967, also titled Incense and Peppermints, which hit #11 on the alum charts. Bunnell would also become their main songwriter. Some early Strawberry Alarm Clock songs were penned by George Bunnell and Steve Bartek (who would much later join Oingo Boingo). Bartek played flute on the first two albums, but could not join the band because of school. During the band's short life, it saw many lineup changes. Gary Lovetro left the band before the second album, Wake Up... It's Tomorrow, (also 1967). The single "Tomorrow" from this album was a minor hit and their only other top 40 appearance, reaching #23 in early 1968. "Sit with the Guru" charted at #65 and "Barefoot in Baltimore" charted at #67, but both had lyrics that were written for them, the latter song being particularly annoying to the band, turning what they considered a challenging rock instrumental into an embarrassing pop song. "Tomorrow" was the only hit that was fully the band's. George and Randy left the band in 1968 and original "Incense and Peppermints" drummer, Gene Gunnels, rejoined along with new lead singer, Jim Pitman. In 1969, Pitman left, and was replaced by Paul Marshall. For a short time Jeremy Levine, after his departure from the Seeds, briefly replaced Lee Freeman on rhythm guitar during the summer of 1968. Although the group followed up with more LPs in 1968 (The World in a Seashell, with two songs Carole King was hired to write by the band's producer) and 1969 (Good Morning Starshine, a bluesier album with its title track derived from Hair) the band had begun to fall apart and the audience was mostly gone. In various forms the group managed to keep performing until 1971, when it finally broke up. Strawberry Alarm Clock made two notable appearances in films, first in the 1968 Jack Nicholson movie Psych-Out, where they played several songs, including "Incense and Peppermints", "Rainy Day Mushroom Pillow", and "The Pretty Song From Psych-Out", and then in the 1970 Russ Meyer camp classic Beyond the Valley of the Dolls. Ed King went on to join Lynyrd Skynyrd. Several members of Strawberry Alarm Clock reunited in the 1980s to perform on oldies concert tours. The first reunion occurred when guitarist Lee Freeman spotted a newspaper ad promoting an appearance by the Strawberry Alarm Clock at a Los Angeles music club. Original member Freeman knew nothing about this gig, and went to the club to investigate. There, he discovered that the advertisement had actually been a plot by the club's owners, to get the real band to reunite. The original band lineup reunited to perform an approximately one-hour set at the Virginia Theatre in Champaign, IL, on April 29, 2007. The event was part of the last day of Roger Ebert's ninth annual Overlooked Film Festival and was preceded by a screening of Beyond the Valley of the Dolls. The band has gone on to play several other gigs in 2007.
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