Vanilla Fudge (album)

Vanilla Fudge (Atco 33-224/mono, SD 33-224/stereo) is the first album by the American psychedelic rock band Vanilla Fudge. Released in summer 1967, it consists entirely of half-speed covers and three short original instrumental compositions.

The album was Vanilla Fudge's most successful, peaking at #6 on the Billboard album charts in September 1967. Parts of the original stereo LP were actually mixed in mono, including the entire track "You Keep Me Hangin' On". An edited version of "You Keep Me Hangin' On" was released as a single and also charted.

Track listing

Side 1 of the album ends with: "The following is a series of high-frequency tones..."

The letters in STRAWBERRY FIELDS only appear on the CD cover and not the original album release.

Reception

Allmusic's Paul Collins rated Vanilla Fudge four out of five stars. He stated that "nobody could accuse Vanilla Fudge of bad taste in their repertoire" and that most of the tracks "share a common structure of a disjointed warm-up jam, a Hammond-heavy dirge of harmonized vocals at the center, and a final flat-out jam." However, he also said that "each song still works as a time capsule of American psychedelia."

Vanilla Fudge

Vanilla Fudge is an American rock band known predominantly for their extended rock renderings of contemporary hit songs, most notably "You Keep Me Hangin' On" and "Some Velvet Morning". 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 1966–69, before disbanding in 1970. The band has reunited in various configurations over the years, and is currently operating with three of the four original members, Mark Stein, Vince Martell, and Carmine Appice with Pete Bremy on bass for Tim Bogert, who has retired from touring. The band has been cited as "one of the few American links between psychedelia and what soon became heavy metal."

History

Stein and Bogert played in a local band called Rick Martin & The Showmen. The pair were so impressed by the swinging sound and floods of organ of The Rascals 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 1966, after the replacement of Brennan by Appice. The group was then "discovered" and managed by reputed Lucchese crime family member Phillip Basile, who operated several popular clubs in New York. Their first three albums (Vanilla Fudge, The Beat Goes On, and Renaissance) were produced by Shadow Morton, whom the band met through The Rascals. When Led Zeppelin first toured the USA in early 1969, they opened for Vanilla Fudge on some shows.