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Vanilla Fudge

 
Artist: Vanilla Fudge
Home > Library > Entertainment & Arts > Pop Artists

Group Members:

Mark Stein, Vince Martell, Tim Bogert, Carmine Appice

Similar Artists:

Fever Tree, Iron Butterfly, Beck, Bogert & Appice, Leaf Hound, Power of Zeus, The Vagrants, Fuzzy Duck, Zephyr, Blue Cheer, Big Brother & the Holding Company, The Chambers Brothers

Influenced By:

The Supremes, The Kinks, The Beatles

Followers:

D.O.A. (Dead on Arrival), Ted Nugent, Van Halen, Dust, Steve Walsh

Performed Songs By:

Vionnie Martell, Mark Stein, Vince Martell, Brian Holland, Eddie Holland, Lamont Dozier, Tim Bogert, HollAnd, Carmine Appice, Paul McCartney, John Lennon

Formal Connection With:

Cactus, Jon Bare
See Vanilla Fudge Lyrics
  • Formed: 1966, New York, NY
  • Disbanded: 1969
  • Genres: Rock
  • Representative Albums: "Psychedelic Sundae: The Best of Vanilla Fudge," "Star Collection," "The Best of Vanilla Fudge" Representative Song: "You Keep Me Hangin' On"

Biography

Vanilla Fudge was one of the few American links between psychedelia and what soon became heavy metal. While the band did record original material, they were best known for their loud, heavy, slowed-down arrangements of contemporary pop songs, blowing them up to epic proportions and bathing them in a trippy, distorted haze. Originally, Vanilla Fudge was a blue-eyed soul cover band called the Electric Pigeons, who formed on Long Island, NY, in 1965. Organist Mark Stein, bassist Tim Bogert, and drummer Joey Brennan soon shortened their name to the Pigeons and added guitarist Vince Martell. They built a following by gigging extensively up and down the East Coast, and earned extra money by providing freelance in-concert backing for girl groups. In early 1966, the group recorded a set of eight demos that were released several years later as While the Whole World Was Eating Vanilla Fudge, credited to Mark Stein & the Pigeons.

Inspired by the Vagrants, another band on the club circuit led by future Mountain guitarist Leslie West, the Pigeons began to put more effort into reimagining the arrangements of their cover songs. They got so elaborate that by the end of the year, drummer Brennan was replaced by the more technically skilled Carmine Appice. In early 1967, their manager convinced producer George "Shadow" Morton (who'd handled the girl group the Shangri-Las and had since moved into protest folk) to catch their live act. Impressed by their heavy, hard rocking recasting of the Supremes' "You Keep Me Hangin' On," Morton offered to record the song as a single; the results landed the group a deal with the Atlantic subsidiary Atco, which requested a name change. The band settled on Vanilla Fudge, after a favorite ice cream flavor. "You Keep Me Hangin' On" didn't perform as well as hoped, but the band toured extensively behind its covers-heavy, jam-oriented debut album Vanilla Fudge, which gradually expanded their fan base. Things started to pick up for the band in 1968: early in the year, they headlined the Fillmore West with the Steve Miller Band, performed "You Keep Me Hangin' On" on The Ed Sullivan Show, and released their second album, The Beat Goes On. Despite its somewhat arty, indulgent qualities, the LP was a hit, climbing into the Top 20. That summer, Atco reissued "You Keep Me Hangin' On," and the second time around it climbed into the Top Ten. It was followed by Renaissance, one of Vanilla Fudge's best albums, which also hit the Top 20. The band supported it by touring with Jimi Hendrix, opening several dates on Cream's farewell tour, and late in the year touring again with the fledgling Led Zeppelin as their opening act.

In 1969, the band kept touring and released their first album without Morton, the expansive, symphonic-tinged Near the Beginning. After part of the band recorded a radio commercial with guitarist Jeff Beck, the idea was hatched to form a Cream-styled power trio with plenty of individual solo spotlights. Exhausted by the constant touring, the band decided that their late-1969 European tour would be their last. Following the release of their final album, Rock & Roll, Vanilla Fudge played a few U.S. farewell dates and disbanded in early 1970. Bogert and Appice first formed the hard rock group Cactus, then later joined up with Jeff Beck in the aptly named Beck, Bogert & Appice. Appice went on to become an active session and touring musician, working with a variety of rock and hard rock artists. Vanilla Fudge reunited in 1984 for the poorly received Mystery album, and have since reunited several more times, though only for tours. Their most recent incarnation features keyboardist Bill Pascali in place of Mark Stein. ~ Steve Huey, All Music Guide
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Wikipedia: Vanilla Fudge
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Home > Library > Miscellaneous > Wikipedia
Vanilla Fudge
Origin Long Island, New York
Genres Hard rock
Blues
Psychedelic rock
Heavy metal[1]
Years active 1967 - 1970; 1982 - 1984; 1987 - 1988; 1991; 1999 - present
Labels Atco, Rhino, WorldSound, Escapi
Website http://www.vanillafudge.com
Members
Carmine Appice
Tim Bogert
Vince Martell
Mark Stein
Former members
Lanny Cordola
Paul Hanson
Bill Pascali
Pete Bremy
Teddy Rondinelli
Derek St. Holmes
T.M. Stevens

Vanilla Fudge is an American rock band. The band's original lineup - vocalist/organist Mark Stein, bassist/vocalist Tim Bogert, lead guitarist/vocalist Vince Martell, and drummer/vocalist Carmine Appice - recorded five albums during the years 1967-69, before disbanding in 1970. The band has reunited in various configurations over the years, and is currently operating with its four original members. The band has been cited as, "one of the few American links between psychedelia and what soon became heavy metal."[2].

Contents

History

Stein and Bogert played in a local band called Rick Martin & The Snowmen and were so impressed by the sound of The Rascals (swinging and floods of organ) that they decided to form their own band with Martell and Rick Martin's drummer, Joey Brennan. Originally calling themselves The Pigeons, they changed the name to Vanilla Fudge in 1967, after the replacement of Brennan by Appice. The group was then "discovered" and managed by reputed Luchese crime-family member, Phillip Basile, who operated several famous L.I. clubs — the Action House, Speaks, Channel 80, Industry — three of which were the same club (on Austin Boulevard, in Island Park, NY) with different names.

They had a number of popular songs, their biggest being their hit cover of "You Keep Me Hangin' On," a slowed-down, hard rocking, version of a song originally recorded by The Supremes. This version also featured Appice's energetic drumming. One follow-up to this hit, "Take Me For A Little While", had a quite different lyric message from the former.

The members of Vanilla Fudge were great admirers of The Beatles, and covered several of their songs including "Ticket to Ride", as well as "Eleanor Rigby", of which The Beatles were quite fond.

Their rendition of "Bang Bang (My Baby Shot Me Down)" was featured in the 2007 film Zodiac.

On March 14, 1970, Vanilla Fudge played a farewell concert at the Phil Basille's Action House. After that, Bogert & Appice departed to form another group, Cactus (In 1972, they left Cactus and formed Beck, Bogert & Appice with guitarist Jeff Beck). Stein, left on his own, tried to keep the group going with two new players, Sal D'Nofrio (bass) and Jimmy Galuzzi (drums) (both of whom had been members of a Poughkeepsie, New York group known as "Dino & The Cavemen"). But when nothing came from this, Stein ended up forming a new group, Boomerang, instead with Galuzzi.

Following the band's breakup in 1970, the band has reunited several times. In 1982, they reunited in support of the Atco release, Best of Vanilla Fudge. This resulted in another album of fresh material in 1984 called Mystery. Martell was not included in this initial reunion and Ron Mancuso played guitar on Mystery instead, along with Jeff Beck, who guested under the moniker "J. Toad". Two reunion tours followed in 1987/1988.[3] with Paul Hanson on guitar. Lanny Cordola was guitarist when the band took the stage on May 14, 1988 for the Atlantic Records' 40th Anniversary Celebration. After that, the individual members went their separate ways once again to pursue other projects.

In 1991 Appice revived the Vanilla Fudge name for a tour with former Ted Nugent's player Derek St. Holmes (guitar, vocals), Martin Gerschwitz (keyboards, vocals) and Tom Croucier (bass, vocals), which resulted in the album The Best Of Vanilla Fudge - Live.

Then, in 1999, three of the originals (Appice, Bogert & Martell) reunited with vocalist/organist Bill Pascali replacing Mark Stein to record a "greatest hits" album, Vanilla Fudge 2001/ The Return / Then And Now, with all new recordings of previous songs and three new songs.[4] 2002 had bassists Pete Bremy and T.M. Stevens subbing on bass for an ill Bogert and 2003 saw a release of Vanilla Fudge's live album, The Real Deal - Vanilla Fudge Live, recorded on tour in 1987 with Paul Hanson on guitar. Martell overdubbed his guitar and vocals later. That same year (2003) the group toured with Teddy Rondinelli standing in on guitar for Martell. In 2005, Vanilla Fudge reformed with all the original members for a tour with members of The Doors (now touring as Riders On The Storm) and Steppenwolf. Pascali returned in place of Stein for some 2006 shows before leaving to join the New Rascals. In the summer of 2007 HBO's final episode of The Sopranos featured "You Keep Me Hangin On" (this version includes Bill Pascali's lead vocals) as a theme for their cliff hanger, it was a featured sound track on 3 places of the episode.

They were inducted into the Long Island Music Hall of Fame on October 15, 2006,[5] along with Billy Joel and Joan Jett. Fellow Long Islander Felix Cavaliere inducted them into the hall.

The band then went back into the studio to record Out Through the in Door, a Led Zeppelin cover album released in 2007 only in Europe. Led Zeppelin had opened for the band in 1969. The band performed "You Keep Me Hanging On" for the PBS fundraising program My Music: My Generation - The '60s for the March 2008 pledge drive. In March 2008, the original lineup of Vanilla Fudge embarked on a tour of the United States (mostly in New England). But in the summer of that year, Bogert & Appice left to concentrate on Cactus (which they had reformed in 2006). Stein & Martell continued on as Mark Stein & Vince Martell of Vanilla Fudge with a brief summer/fall tour that was called Let's Pray For Peace[6]. Out Through the in Door is scheduled for a stateside release later this year.[7]

Personnel

Current members

Former Members

  • Lanny Cordola - guitar, vocals
  • Paul Hanson - guitar, vocals
  • Bill Pascali - lead vocals, keyboards
  • Pete Bremy - bass, vocals
  • Teddy Rondinelli - guitar, vocals
  • Mark Dolfen - drums
  • Derek St. Holmes - guitar, vocals
  • T.M. Stevens - bass

Discography w/Billboard (BB) and Cashbox (CB) chart peak positions

Singles

  • You Keep Me Hangin' On (2:50 edit) (BB #67, CB #87) / Take Me For A Little While—Atco 6495—1967
  • Where Is My Mind (BB #73, CB #92) / The Look Of Love—Atco 6554—1968
  • You Keep Me Hangin' On (2:50 edit) (BB #6, CB #7) / Come By Day, Come By Night—Atco 6590—1968
  • Take Me For A Little While (BB #38, CB #46) / Thoughts—Atco 6616—1968
  • Season Of The Witch (Part 1) (BB #65, CB #72) / Season Of The Witch (Part 2) -- Atco 6632—1968
  • Shotgun (BB #68, CB #74) / Good, Good Lovin' -- Atco 6655—1969
  • Some Velvet Morning (BB #103, CB #81) / People—Atco 6679—1969
  • Need Love (BB #111) / I Can't Make It Alone—Atco 6703—1969
  • Windmills Of Your Mind / Lord In The Country—Atco 6728—1970
  • Mystery / The Stranger—Atco 99729—1984

Studio albums

Collections and live albums

1. Best of Vanilla Fudge (1982)
2. The Best Of Vanilla Fudge - Live (1991)
3. Psychedelic Sundae - The Best of Vanilla Fudge (1993)
4. The Return - Live In Germany Part 1 (2003)
5. The Real Deal - Vanilla Fudge Live (2003)
6. Rocks The Universe - Live In Germany Part 2 (2003)
7. Good Good Rockin' - Live At Rockpalast (2007)
8. Orchestral Fudge (Live) (03/2008)
9. When Two Worlds Collide (Live) (05/2008)


==Novel References.

  • Borthwick, Stuart; Moy, Ron (2004). Popular Music Genres: an Introduction. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University. ISBN 0748617450. 

Other References

  1. ^ Borthwick & Moy 2001, p. 138 "In the main, the earliest manifestation of metal in the mid to late 1960s (and known at the time as 'rock' or 'hard rock') can be found in the work of groups such as The Yardbirds, Cream and the Jimi Hendrix Experience in Britain, and Blue Cheer, Steppenwolf and Vanilla Fudge in the US."
  2. ^ http://allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&sql=11:hifrxqr5ldde
  3. ^ The Vanilla Fudge Chronicles
  4. ^ allmusic ((( Then and Now > Overview )))
  5. ^ Home of the L.I. Music Hall of Fame
  6. ^ Tour Dates
  7. ^ Vanilla Fudge at Blender Theater at Gramercy Newsday March 13, 2008


External links


This entry is from Wikipedia, the leading user-contributed encyclopedia. It may not have been reviewed by professional editors (see full disclaimer)

 
 

 

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