Joey Levine

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Joey Levine in concert. Taken on May 17th, 2008.

Joey Levine is a prolific songwriter, producer and performer of pop music starting around 1966. He sang lead vocals on several charted Top-40 pop singles, including "Run Run Run" by The Third Rail (1966), "Yummy Yummy Yummy" by The Ohio Express (1968), "Quick Joey Small" by Kasenetz Katz Singing Orchestral Circus (1968) and "Life Is a Rock (But the Radio Rolled Me)" by Reunion (1974). He specialized in what was known as "bubblegum pop" music.

Levine produced records for Super K Productions, run by Jerry Kasenetz and Jeffrey Katz (Kasenetz-Katz), who released many charting single records in the late-1960s for the likes of The Ohio Express, The 1910 Fruitgum Company, and The Music Explosion. Levine sang lead for various groups of studio musicians whose songs were released under the name of actual groups of musicians, or sometimes the groups did not exist at all outside the studio.

Starting in the early 1970s, Levine began working on jingles for TV commercials, as well as singing on them, with one of his most well-remembered jingles being "Sometimes You Feel Like A Nut" for Mounds/Almond Joy candy bars.

He founded Crushing Enterprises in New York City in 1969 and continues to write music for commercials and television. Popular campaigns from the past include: “Pepsi- The Joy Of Cola”, “Gentlemen Prefer Hanes”, “Just For the Taste of It- Diet Coke”, “Orange you smart, (for drinking Orange Juice)”, “Come See the Softer Side of Sears”, “Heartbeat of America-Chevy”, “Dr Pepper- You Make the World Taste Better”, “You Asked For It, You Got It, Toyota” and "Who's that Kid With the Oreo Cookie". Most recently he wrote the current Budweiser anthem, "This Is Budweiser, This Is Beer." In addition, Levine has also contributed songs, some of them with his bubblegum pop sound, to the PBS series Dragon Tales.

Punk pioneer and vocalist Joey Ramone took his stage name in honor of Levine.