Music
The Banana Splits' bubblegum pop rock and roll was provided by studio professionals, including Joey Levine ("I Enjoy Being a Boy", "It's a Good Day for a Parade"); Al Kooper ("You're the Lovin' End"); Barry White ("Doin' the Banana Split"); Gene Pitney ("Two Ton Tessie") and Jimmy Radcliffe provided his songs ("I'm Gonna Find A Cave", "Soul", "Don't Go Away Go-Go Girl", "Adam Had 'Em" and "The Show Must Go On") but did not contribute vocals to Splits recordings. The music director was music publisher Aaron Schroeder while production duties were mainly handled by David Mook. When a heavier R&B vocal was needed, the music producers usually turned to singer Ricky Lancelotti (billed in the show credits under his stage name Rick Lancelot). Lancelotti went on to become one of Frank Zappa's many lead vocalists in late 1972.
In 1968, The Banana Splits released an album on Decca Records titled We're the Banana Splits. The show’s theme song, titled "The Tra La La Song (One Banana, Two Banana)", released as a single, peaked at number 97 on Billboard's Top 100 in February 1969. Written by Tony Powers. Powers, later wrote Oddissey, song featured in the 1981 MUSIC FROM THE ELDER, by shock rock outfit KISS. The version included on the We're The Banana Splits album is the same recording heard at the beginning of the show, while the single version is an entirely different arrangement and recording of the song, featuring an additional verse. The song was written by Nelson Brock Winkless, Jr., however, owing to contractual arrangements, on all record releases (as well as the TV show's closing credits), credit given to Ritchie Adams and Steve Kincannon ( Formerly of Cream and the Allman Brothers ). Winkless is credited as co-writer, along with Hoyt Curtin, of "The Beautiful Calliope" (also called "My Beautiful Calliopesaxaviatrumparimbaclaribassotrombaphone"), which was featured several times in the television series and also issued on record.
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Famous quotes containing the word music:
“Taylor, the Shakespeare of divines.
His words are music in my ear,”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)
“Thy remembrance, and repentance, and deep musings are not free
From the music of two voices and the light of one sweet smile.”
—Percy Bysshe Shelley (1792–1822)
“I fear I agree with your friend in not liking all sermons. Some of them, one has to confess, are rubbish: but then I release my attention from the preacher, and go ahead in any line of thought he may have started: and his after-eloquence acts as a kind of accompaniment—like music while one is reading poetry, which often, to me, adds to the effect.”
—Lewis Carroll [Charles Lutwidge Dodgson] (1832–1898)