music.wikisort.org - Composition

"Green Tambourine" is a song written and composed by Paul Leka (who also produced it) and Shelley Pinz. It was the biggest hit by the 1960s Ohio-based rock group the Lemon Pipers, as well as the title track of their debut album, Green Tambourine. The song was one of the first psychedelic pop chart-toppers and became a gold record.

"Green Tambourine"
A-side label of the US single
Single by the Lemon Pipers
from the album Green Tambourine
B-side	"No Help from Me"
Released	November 1967 (1967-11)
Recorded	1967
Studio	Cleveland Recording Company, Cleveland[1]
Genre	Psychedelic rock[2] psychedelic pop[3] bubblegum pop[4]
Length	2:23
Label	Buddah
Songwriter(s)	Paul Leka Shelley Pinz
Producer(s)	Paul Leka
The Lemon Pipers singles chronology
"Turn Around and Take a Look" (1967) "Green Tambourine" (1967) "Rice Is Nice" (1968)
International releases
Artwork for the Dutch single
Alternative cover
A-side label of the UK single
Music video
"Green Tambourine" (1968 television performance) on YouTube

Released toward the end of 1967, it spent 13 weeks on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100, peaking at No. 1 on February 3, 1968,[5] and sold over a million copies. The record remained on the chart for three months.[6] It was also the first U.S. No. 1 hit for the Buddah label. The Lemon Pipers never repeated this success, though their "Rice Is Nice" and "Jelly Jungle", both also written by Leka and Pinz, made the charts in 1968.[6]

Song and recording

The song's lyricist, Rochelle "Shelley" Pinz (1943–2004) was a writer at the Brill Building, working with Leka. She said:

In early Spring, 1966, while standing in front of the Brill Building I watched a man holding a tambourine begging for money. I wrote a poem about him and called the poem 'Green Tambourine.' I added it to my lyric collection ... Sometimes I wonder what happened to the man in front of the Brill Building, holding a tambourine begging for money. I remember writing the lyric, 'watch the jingle jangle start to shine, reflections of the music that is mine. When you toss a coin you'll hear it sing. Now listen while I play my Green Tambourine' as if it were yesterday..; in the 60s, on the streets between Seventh Avenue and Broadway there was a magic one could only imagine.[7]

The song tells the story of a street musician pleading for someone to give him money. In exchange he offers to play his green tambourine. The song's instrumentation contains the titular tambourine as well as an electric sitar,[8] a frequent signature of the so-called "psychedelic sound". Another hook is the heavy, psychedelic tape echo applied to the word "play" in each chorus and at the end, fading into a drumroll ("Listen while I play play play play play play play my green tambourine"). The echo is noticeably different in the mono and stereo mixes. The mono version also starts fading out slightly earlier than in the stereo version.^{[citation needed]} The musical arrangement also features sweeping orchestrated strings and the distinctive vibraslap percussion instrument. While the Lemon Pipers played on the record, producer and joint author-composer Leka hired a string section to accompany the band, to add extra depth to the already psychedelic arrangement.^{[citation needed]} The string section consisted of Elliot Rosoff, David Sackson, Irving Spice, Louise Stone, Louis Gaborwitz, and Deborah Idol on violins; Seymour Berman on viola; and Seymour Barab and Sally Rosoff on cellos.^{[citation needed]}

The single's B-side, "No Help from Me," featured lead vocal by keyboardist Bob Nave and did not appear on either of the group's two albums.

Chart performance

Weekly charts

Chart (1967–68)	Peak position
Australia (Go-Set)[9]	3
Belgium (Wallonia)[10]	30
Canada RPM 100[11]	1
Germany[10]	10
Netherlands[12]	9
New Zealand (Listener)[13]	3
South Africa (Springbok)[14]	6
Switzerland (Swiss Hitparade)[15]	7
UK Record Retailer[16]	7
U.S. Billboard Hot 100[5]	1
U.S. Cash Box Top 100[17]	1
U.S. Record World 100 Top Pops[18]	1

Year-end charts

Chart (1968)	Rank
Canada RPM 100[19]	6
U.S. Billboard Hot 100[20]	47
U.S. Cash Box Top 100[21]	8

Personnel

• Ivan Browne – lead vocals, rhythm guitar
• Bill Bartlett – lead guitar
• R. G. Nave – organ, tambourine, fog horn, toys
• Steve Walmsley – bass
• Bill Albaugh – drums

Additional personnel

• Irv Spice Strings – string section
• Ken Hamann (incorrectly credited on original album pressings as "Kenny Hammond")[22] – engineer (Cleveland Recording Company)
• Bill Radice – engineer (New York)

Cover versions

In 1968, an instrumental version was released by Lawrence Welk and His Orchestra on the album Love Is Blue,[23] and as a single.[24] Welk's version reached No. 27 on Billboard's Easy Listening chart,[25][26] No. 21 on Record World's "Top Non-Rock" chart,[27] and No. 11 on Record World's chart of "Singles Coming Up".[28]

Mrs. Miller covered the song on her 1968 album Mrs. Miller Does Her Thing.[29]

The Status Quo covered the song on their 1968 debut album Picturesque Matchstickable Messages from the Status Quo.[30]

UK band Sun Dragon recorded a very similar version in 1968 for the MGM label.[31]

The Peppermint Rainbow covered the song on their 1969 album Will You Be Staying After Sunday.[32] Leka used the backing track of the Lemon Pipers' hit on this recording.[32]

In 1990, the Associates released a cover version as the B-side of their "Fire to Ice" single.[33]

Tripping Daisy covered the song on their 1992 debut album, Bill (The Dragon Street release).

Robert Goulet covered the song for the 2001 film Recess: School's Out, providing the singing voice for the character Mikey, releasing it as a single from the film soundtrack of the same name.[34]

In popular culture

This section does not cite any sources. (January 2020)

• The song was featured in a TV commercial for the Plymouth Road Runner in 1970.
• Actor Billy Bob Thornton's character of Lorne Malvo plays the song at the beginning of Episode 9, "A Fox, a Rabbit, and a Cabbage," of Fargo, adapted from the Coen Brothers' 1996 movie.
• The song is featured in the end credits of the Disney animated film Recess: School's Out, sung by Robert Goulet.

See also

• List of 1960s one-hit wonders in the United States

References

External links

• Lyrics of this song
• Lemon Pipers - Green Tambourine on YouTube

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