The Lemon Pipers

Lore & Background

The Lemon Pipers formed in 1966 from student musicians who had played in earlier groups such as The Wombats, Ivan and the Sabres, and Tony and the Bandits. They performed a mix of blues, hard rock, and folk rock at venues including The Boar's Head in Oxford and Cincinnati's The Mug Club and The Ludlow Garage. After releasing a single, 'Quiet Please,' on Carol Records, they gained notoriety by reaching the finals of the Ohio Battle of the Bands in 1967.

The band recruited Bill Bartlett as lead vocalist and engaged impresario Mark Barger, who helped them sign with Buddah Records. Dale Browne played guitar and sang backing vocals. Despite the band's rock background, Buddah focused on bubblegum pop, assigning producer Paul Leka. Their debut single for Buddah, 'Turn Around and Take a Look,' failed to chart, leading Leka and Shelley Pinz to write 'Green Tambourine.' The band reluctantly recorded it, and the song reached No. 1 in the United States in February 1968, selling over one million copies and earning a gold disc.

Pressure from the label to continue in the bubblegum genre led to the release of 'Rice Is Nice,' which peaked at No. 46 on the Billboard chart. The band's lack of enthusiasm for such songs, which they called 'funny-money music,' and the rejection of their own material like 'Ordinary Point of View' caused disenchantment. The Lemon Pipers left Buddah in 1969 and dissolved. Members later formed other groups, including Starstruck and Ram Jam, while others pursued different careers in music and journalism.

Reader's Guide

The Lemon Pipers are significant primarily as the artists behind 'Green Tambourine,' a song widely recognized as the first bubblegum pop number-one hit in the United States. Their career illustrates the tension between artistic integrity and commercial pressures in the late 1960s music industry. The band, rooted in rock and blues, was steered by their label toward a lighter, more commercial sound, a conflict that ultimately led to their dissolution after only two albums. Their legacy is that of a one-hit wonder, but their story reflects broader trends in pop music production, including the role of Brill Building songwriters and the rise of bubblegum pop as a distinct genre. The unresolved copyright and royalties issues connected to their catalog also highlight ongoing complexities in music publishing.

Did You Know?

• 'Green Tambourine' has been credited as the first bubblegum pop chart-topper.
• The band reluctantly recorded 'Green Tambourine' and called such songs 'funny-money music.'
• Keyboardist Bob Nave died on January 28, 2020, at age 75.

From College Bars to the Battle of the Bands

The Lemon Pipers emerged in 1966 from the college-bar circuit of Oxford, Ohio, where a cluster of student musicians had already cut their teeth in earlier outfits. Keyboardist Bob Nave had played with The Wombats, vocalist Dale Browne with Ivan and the Sabres, and guitarist Bill Bartlett alongside drummer Bill Albaugh and a member named Dudek in Tony and the Bandits. Together they forged a live sound blending blues, hard rock, and folk rock, occasionally covering material from The Byrds and The Who. Their regular haunts included the local Boar's Head bar and, a short drive away, Cincinnati's underground venues The Mug Club and The Ludlow Garage. The quartet pressed a single, "Quiet Please," onto the small Carol Records label, but their real breakthrough came in 1967 when they advanced to the finals of the Ohio Battle of the Bands at the Cleveland Public Auditorium. There they fell just short, losing out to the James Gang—a near-miss that nonetheless put the young band on the radar of the Ohio music community.

The Making of a Number One

With Browne now fronting the group and Ohio impresario Mark Barger guiding their career, the Pipers landed a recording and publishing contract with Buddah Records, the label then helmed by Neil Bogart. Buddah's vision for the band was squarely bubblegum pop, slotting them alongside Ohio Express and the 1910 Fruitgum Company, and producer Paul Leka was assigned to the project. The group's first Buddah single, Bartlett's "Turn Around and Take a Look," failed to crack the charts. Faced with that stumble, the label turned to Leka and his writing partner Shelley Pinz, who worked out of a Brill Building office on Broadway, and asked them to craft a hit. The result was "Green Tambourine," a song the band recorded with visible reluctance. It slipped onto the Billboard Hot 100 in late 1967 and stormed to the top spot in February 1968 on both Billboard and Cashbox. The track also peaked at number seven in the United Kingdom, sold more than two million copies, and earned a gold disc from the RIAA. It is widely credited as the first bubblegum pop song to top the American charts.

Funny-Money Music and the Duality of the Pipers

The overnight success of "Green Tambourine" immediately locked the band into a commercial template they did not want. Buddah pushed them to keep delivering in the same vein, and in March 1968 they recorded "Rice Is Nice," another Leka/Pinz composition that managed only the mid-40s on American charts and number 41 in the UK. The members privately dismissed these tracks as "funny-money music," recording them solely because refusing meant being dropped by the label. A more personal song, "Ordinary Point of View," written by Eric Ehrmann and featuring a country solo from Bartlett, was rejected by Buddah outright. Ehrmann, who shared a Delta Kappa Epsilon fraternity bond with Nave and Albaugh, abandoned songwriting and went on to contribute to the early pages of Rolling Stone. Nave later captured the band's split identity, calling it "the duality of the Lemon Pipers"—a genuine rock group suddenly told in a studio exactly how and what to play. Their two Buddah albums, Green Tambourine and Jungle Marmalade, bore both sides: slick pop singles alongside extended, Byrds-influenced tracks like the eight-and-a-half-minute "Through With You" and the towering eleven-minute "Dead End Street"/"Half Light."

Scattered Lives and a Lasting Footprint

The Lemon Pipers parted ways with Buddah in 1969 and soon dissolved as a unit. Bartlett, Walmsley, and Nave regrouped as Starstruck, and their recording of the Lead Belly classic "Black Betty" would be reworked by Super K Productions' Jerry Kasenetz and Jeffry Katz, eventually released in 1977 under the Ram Jam name, featuring Bartlett. Browne headed to California to keep playing, while Walmsley settled back into bass gigs around Oxford. Bartlett, however, grew increasingly withdrawn after the death of his wife Dee Dee. Nave found a quieter life as a jazz disc jockey on Cincinnati's WVXU, occasionally sitting in on organ with The Blues Merchants at southwestern Ohio venues. The band's members have since been claimed by time: drummer Bill Albaugh passed in January 1999 at age 53, and keyboardist Bob Nave died in January 2020 at 75. Copyright and royalty disputes tied to the old Buddah catalog, now held by Kama Sutra music publishing, remain unresolved. Yet "Green Tambourine" endures as the song most often cited as the first bubblegum pop number-one in the United States, a distinction that keeps the Pipers' brief story in the public memory.

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