Hot Butter

Hot Butter was an instrumental cover band fronted by the keyboard player Stan Free. The other band members were Dave Mullaney, John Abbott, Bill Jerome, Steve Jerome, and Danny Jordan. They are best known for their 1972 cover of the Moog synthpop instrumental, "Popcorn", originally recorded by its composer, Gershon Kingsley in 1969.^[1] The track became an international hit, selling a million copies in France, 250,000 in the United Kingdom, and over two million globally.^[1]

Career

The liner notes to the CD indicate that Free played the Moog synthesizer. Based upon the photograph and the sound of the album, the group had two additional keyboardists, two percussionists, and a guitarist.

The group released two albums, Hot Butter (Musicor MS-3242; 1972) and More Hot Butter (Musicor MS-3254; 1973), primarily of covers, on LP issued by Hallmark Records. The two albums were compiled on CD as Popcorn on the Castle Music label in 2000 (with an album cover from the 1974 Australian release of More Hot Butter titled Moog Hits, depicting the five other band members immersed in melted butter produced by Free's synthesizer), though several tracks, including Roger Whittaker's "Mexican Whistler", were deleted.

The only tracks written by members of the band were "At the Movies" (the B-side of "Popcorn") and "Tristana", by all the band members except Free, and "Space Walk", by Dave Mullaney and his brother. "The Silent Screen (Hot Butter)" is credited to all the members except for Free, but it is actually an arrangement of the main theme of the first movement of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's Symphony No. 40. Among the other artists covered by the band were Stephen Schwartz, Jerry Lordan and The Shadows, Neil Diamond, Joe Meek and The Tornados, Neal Hefti, Serge Gainsbourg, Robert Maxwell, Piero Umiliani, Jean-Joseph Mouret, Billy Joe & the Checkmates, Joe Buffalo's Band, Teo Macero, Leroy Anderson, Chuck Rio, and Norman Petty and The String-A-Longs. Mullaney and Abbott did most of the arranging. The Jeromes, Jordan, and Richard E. Talmadge produced the albums with MTL Productions for Musicor.

In addition to "Popcorn", another well known track is August Musarurwa's "Skokiaan", which was included on RE/Search's compilation album, Incredibly Strange Music. Follow-up singles included The Shadows' "Apache", Chuck Rio's (Danny Flores) "Tequila", Billy Joe and the Checkmates' "Percolator", Joe Buffalo's Band's "Slag Solution", and Gene Farrow With G.F. Band's "You Should Be Dancing".

Discography

Albums

Hot Butter

• Musicor MS-3242 (U.S.); Pye International NSPL.28169 (UK), 1972

Side One

1. "Popcorn" (Gershon Kingsley) (2:30)
2. "Day by Day" (Stephen Schwartz) (3:44)
3. "Apache" (Jerry Lordan) (2:50
4. "At the Movies" (Abbott, Mullaney, Jerome, Jerome, Jordan) (2:31)
5. "Tristana" (Abbott, Mullaney, Jerome, Jerome, Jordan) (3:29)
6. "Song Sung Blue" (Neil Diamond) (3:54)

Side Two

1. "Telstar" (Joe Meek) (2:34)
2. "Tomatoes" (Neal Hefti) 2:27
3. "Amazing Grace" (Trad. Arr. Abbott, Mullaney) (2:37)
4. "Love at First Sight" (S. Gainsbourg) (2:38)
5. "Song of the Narobi Trio" (R. Maxwell) (2:13)
6. "Hot Butter (The Silent Screen)" (Abbott, Mullaney, Jerome, Jerome, Jordan) (2:04)

More Hot Butter

• Musicor MS-3254; 1973

Side One

1. "Percolator"
2. "Slag Solution"
3. "Sounds"
4. "Wheels"
5. "Skokiaan"
6. "Pipeline"

Side Two

1. "Space Walk"
2. "The Masterpiece"
3. "Tequila"
4. "Syncopated Clock"
5. "Kappa Maki"
6. "Mah-Na, Mah-Na"

Popcorn with Hot Butter

Side One

1. "Popcorn"
2. "Day by Day"
3. "Apache"
4. "At the Movies"
5. "Tomatoes"

Side Two

1. "Pipeline"
2. "Hot Butter"
3. "Telstar"
4. "Tristana"
5. "Song of the Nairobi Trio"
6. "Amazing Grace"

Moog Hits

• Musicor Records, L34954, 1974 (Australia)

Side One

1. "Slag Solution"
2. "Sounds Simple"
3. "Wheels"
4. "Skokiaan"
5. "Russian Whistler"

Side Two

1. "Space Walk"
2. "The Masterpiece"
3. "Tequila"
4. "Syncopated Clock"
5. "Mah-Na, Mah-Na"
6. "Mexican Whistler"

Popcorn (CD)

• Castle Music ESMCD907 (UK), 2000

1. "Popcorn" (Gershon Kingsley) Bourne Music
2. "Day by Day" (Stephen Schwartz) Valando Music
3. "Apache" (Lordan) Francis Day & Hunter
4. "At the Movies" (Abbott, Mullaney, Jerome, Jerome, Jordan) AMRA
5. "Tristana" (Abbott, Mullaney, Jerome, Jerome, Jordan) AMRA
6. "Song Sung Blue" (Diamond) Ardmore & Beechwood
7. "Telstar" (Meek) Ivy Music Ltd
8. "Tomatoes" (Hefti) Famous Chappell
9. "Amazing Grace" (Trad. Arr. Abbott, Mullaney) ARTAL
10. "Love at First Sight" (Gainsbourg) Shapiro Bernstein/Britico
11. "Song of the Narobi Trio" (Maxwell)
12. "Hot Butter (The Silent Screen)" (Abbott, Mullaney, Jerome, Jerome, Jordan) ARTAL
13. "Mah-Na-Mah-Na" (Umiliani) Carlin Music Corp
14. "Masterpiece" (Mouret, Parnes) September Music Corp
15. "Percolator" (Bideu, Freeman)
16. "Skokiaan" (Kusarurgwa) Peter Maurice Music Co Ltd
17. "Slag Solution" (Morgan, Ranzzano) Copyright Control
18. "Sounds" (Macero) Warner Chappell Music Ltd
19. "Space Walk" (Mullaney, Mullaney) Copyright Control
20. "Syncopated Clock" (Anderson, Parish) EMI Harmonies Ltd
21. "Tequila" (Rio) MCA Music Ltd
22. "Wheels" (Petty) Campbell Connelly & Co Ltd

Singles

Popcorn

• Musicor MUS 1458 (U.S.); Pye International 7N.25583 (UK), July 1972

Side One

1. "Popcorn" (Gershon Kingsley) (2:30)

Side Two

1. "At the Movies" (Abbott, Mullaney, Jerome, Jerome, Jordan) (2:31)

Apache

• Pye International (UK) 7N.25598, 20 Oct 1972 ;Musicor (GDR)12 348 AT, Oct 1972

Side One

1. "Apache"

Side Two

1. "Hot Butter"

Tequila

• Musicor 12 469 AT, 1972

Side One

1. "Tequila" (1:47)

Side Two

1. "Tomatoes" (2:21)

Percolator

• Musicor SMU-88678 (Mus 1473 U.S.); Pye 7N.25609, 1973

Side One

1. "Percolator"

Side Two

1. "Tristana"

Slag Solution

• Musicor 1481, 1973

Side One

1. "Slag Solution"

Side Two

1. "Kappa Maki"

You Should Be Dancing

• 12" 45 Dynamo DS 12-DS-603-8, 1977

Side One

1. "You Should Be Dancing" (Warren/Farrow) (5:13) Hye Fye Music Ltd

Side Two

1. "You Should Be Dancing" (track without lead vocal) (Warren/Farrow) (4:42) Hye Fye Music Ltd

Arranged by B.K. Bowie; Produced by Jerry "Swamp Dog" Williams, Jr.

References

External links

• Allmusic.com biography