The Lemon Pipers

The Lemon Pipers was formed by a group of high school musicians in Oxford, Ohio, in 1966. They became well known on the Ohio bar and club circuit, and eventually landed a contract with Buddah Records. They played a mixture of blues, rock and folk, but when they signed with Buddah they were contracted to play what was known as "bubblegum music"--light, airy, simple songs aimed at pre-teen and young teenagers, which the band did not care for. They recorded a few songs for Buddah that went nowhere. In 1967 Buddah gave them a song to record which wasn't quite "bubblegum" but had more of a "psychedelic" touch to it. The band still wasn't happy with it, but recorded it anyway. It was "Green Tambourine", which turned out to be their biggest hit, reaching #1 on the Billboard charts in February of 1968 and eventually selling over 2,000,000 copies. "Green Tambourine"'s success caused their label to put pressure on them to keep recording "bubblegum" music, which the band didn't want to do, but they had to because if they didn't they'd be dropped. They didn't have any more major hits for the label, and left it in 1969. Shortly afterward they disbanded. Two of its members later recorded, as "Starstruck", an old Leadbelly song called "Black Betty". It was later reworked by producers Jerry Kasanetz and Jeff Katz and released under the same title but attributed to Ram Jam.