The Ohio Express
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The Ohio Express was a Bubblegum pop/garage band that fronted for Kasenetz and Katz's Super K Productions studio musicians working out of New York, including singer/songwriter Joey Levine ("Yummy Yummy Yummy").
The band is strongly associated with the bubblegum group 1910 Fruitgum Company. Both groups were partially faceless studio assemblages, and partially a real group.
The real band behind The Ohio Express was originally named Sir Timothy & The Royals and hailed from Mansfield, Ohio. They hooked up with the men of Super K in 1966 and were renamed The Ohio Express. They released their first single and LP on Cameo-Parkway Records of Philadelphia in the autumn of 1967. Unfortunately, the record label went into bankruptcy shortly after that and was purchased by music business mogul Allen Klein, who still owns the masters to this day.
( It has been rumoured that a young Joe Walsh, later of the James Gang & The Eagles, was part of this band but left after the "Beg Borrow & Steal" LP was recorded . A photograph on the cover of the sole Cameo-Parkway shows a photo that bears a striking resemblence to Walsh )
The group then moved to the home label of bubblegum pop, Buddah Records (purposely misspelled so as not to be sacrilegious), where they released four LPs and a multitude of singles. They charted several singles in the Top 40, most featuring the vocals of Levine, though their albums sold less well and none ever charted above #100 on the Billboard charts.
The New York studio musicians were mostly heard on the tracks released as singles, while the five lads from Ohio could be heard on some of the album tracks, as well as appearing at various concerts and making several television appearances.
By the end of Ohio Express' career at Buddah, recordings made by various groups of musicians were released as singles under the Ohio Express name, including "Sausalito," recorded in England by future members of 10cc.
The song "Yummy Yummy Yummy" was featured in several popular television shows, including Monty Python's Flying Circus, The Simpsons, and Six Feet Under.
Several Ohio Express songs have been used in television commercials in the ensuing years, most recently "Chewy Chewy" in an ad for Quaker Oats Granola bars.
