The Lemon Pipers
The Lemon Pipers in 1968. Top, from left: Ivan Browne, Bill Bartlett, Bill Albaugh. Bottom, from left: Steve Walmsley, Robert G. Nave.
Background information
Origin	Oxford,Ohio, United States
Genres	Bubblegum[1] psychedelic[2]
Years active	1966–1969
Labels	Buddah
Past members	Bill Albaugh Bill Bartlett Dale "Ivan" Browne Bob "Reg" Nave Bob "Dude" Dudek Steve Walmsley

The Lemon Pipers were a 1960s U.S.rock band fromOxford,Ohio, United States,^[3] known chiefly for their song "Green Tambourine", which reachedNo. 1 in theUnited States in 1968. The song has been credited as being the firstbubblegum pop chart-topper.^[3]

The Lemon Pipers comprised drummer William (Bill) E. Albaugh (1946–1999), guitarist Bill Bartlett (born 1946), vocalist Dale "Ivan" Browne (born 1947), keyboardist Robert G. Nave (1944–2020), and bassist Steve Walmsley (born 1948), who replaced the original bass guitarist Bob "Dude" Dudek.^[4][5]

The band was formed in 1966 by student musicians from Oxford, Ohio, who had played the college bars with their previous groups that included The Wombats (Nave), Ivan and the Sabres (Browne),^[3] and Tony and the Bandits (Bartlett, Albaugh and Dudek).^[6] The band played a mixture ofblues,hard rock andfolk rock, with a few covers fromThe Byrds andThe Who. They gigged regularly in an Oxford bar called The Boar's Head, andCincinnati underground rock venues, The Mug Club and later The Ludlow Garage,^[6] before releasing a single on the Carol Recordslabel, "Quiet Please". The original band existed as a quartet, and then gained notoriety by reaching the finals in the Ohio Battle of the Bands at theCleveland Public Auditorium in 1967, losing out to theJames Gang.

The band then recruitedMiami University student Browne asfrontman, and also engaged Ohio music industry impresario Mark Barger, who steered the Lemon Pipers toBuddah Records, then run byNeil Bogart. The Lemon Pipers, relying in part on advice from Barger, agreed to enter into arecording contract andmusic publishing deal with Buddah.^[3] The group began playing larger auditorium and concert hall venues around the US, including an appearance atBill Graham'sFillmore West in San Francisco on the same bill withTraffic,Moby Grape andSpirit on March 21, 1968.^[7] Buddah's plans for the group focused onbubblegum pop rather thanrock music, and the Lemon Pipers joined a stable already containingOhio Express and the aptly named1910 Fruitgum Company.Paul Leka was assigned to be theirrecord producer.

The group's debut on Buddah was a Bartlett composition, "Turn Around and Take a Look". When the song failed to make the charts,^[8] the label asked Leka and his songwriting partner, Shelley Pinz, who were working out of aBrill Building office onBroadway,^[9] to come up with a song. The pair wrote "Green Tambourine" and the band reluctantly recorded it. The song entered theBillboard Hot 100 at the end of 1967 and reached No. 1 in February 1968 on the Billboard and Cashbox charts.^[4] The song peaked at No. 7 in theUK Singles Chart,^[10] and was also a hit worldwide. It sold over two million copies, and was awarded agold disc by theRecording Industry Association of America (R.I.A.A.) in February 1968.^[4]

The success of "Green Tambourine" caused the label to put pressure on the group to stay in the same genre, and in March 1968 the band released another Leka/Pinz song, "Rice Is Nice", which peaked at No. 46 on the US Billboard charts, No.42 on the US Cashbox charts and No. 41 in theUK in May.^[10] The band had little enthusiasm for either song, however, dubbing them "funny-money music" and recording them only because they knew they would be dropped by Buddah if they refused.^[3] "Ordinary Point of View", written byEric Ehrmann and featuring a Bartlettcountry solo, was recorded, but rejected by Buddah. Disenchanted with Buddah and themusic industry, Ehrmann stopped writing songs and went on to become one of the early contributors toRolling Stone magazine. As is common with the music associated with the 1960s,^{[citation needed]} a fewcopyright androyalties issues connected with the previous owner of Buddah Records inherited by current owners of the Kama Sutra music publishing catalog and Lemon Pipers songs remain unresolved.

The Lemon Pipers' evolution from 1960s rock music into a gold-record pop group created what Nave has described as "the duality of the Lemon Pipers": "We were a stand-up rock 'n' roll band, and then all of a sudden, we're in a studio, being told how to play and what to play."^[6]

The chasm between the label's aspirations and the band's own musical tastes became apparent on the Lemon Pipers’ debutalbum,Green Tambourine. Produced by Leka, the album contained five Leka/Pinz songs, as well as two extended tracks written by the band, "Fifty Year Void" and "Through With You" (the latter, written by Bartlett, bearing influences ofThe Byrds and, according to the original LP label, running 8:31 in length). "Ask Me If I Care" written by Ehrmann, was also included. Like Lemon Pipers' members Nave and Albaugh, Ehrmann was a member of the Kappa chapter ofDelta Kappa Epsilon fraternity.^[3] Writing inBubblegum is the Naked Truth,Gary Pig Gold commented: "It was the Pipers’ way with a tough-pop gem in the under-four-minute category which was most impressive by far: "Rainbow Tree", "Shoeshine Boy" and especially "Blueberry Blue" each sported a taut, musical sophistication worthy ofThe Move and, dare I say it, even theMagical MysteryBeatles."^[3]

The band recorded a second album for Buddah,Jungle Marmalade, which again showed both sides of the band – another Leka/Pinz song, "Jelly Jungle (of Orange Marmalade)", (released as a single and peaking at No. 51 on Billboard and No. 30 on Cashbox in the US),^{[citation needed]} aversion of theCarole King/Gerry Goffin penned song "I Was Not Born to Follow," and an 11-minute, 43 second epic, "Dead End Street"/"Half Light".

The band left the Buddah label in 1969 and later dissolved.^[5] Bartlett, Walmsley and Nave formed Starstruck, whose recording of aLead Belly song, "Black Betty", was reworked bySuper K Productions producersJerry Kasenetz andJeffry Katz, and released in 1977 under the name ofRam Jam, featuring Bartlett.^[5] Browne moved to California to continue playing music, Walmsley played bass around Oxford. Bartlett became despondent and reclusive following the death of his wife Dee Dee. Nave became a jazzdisc jockey onWVXU in Cincinnati and played organ occasionally with The Blues Merchants in southwestern Ohio venues.

Drummer Bill Albaugh died on January 20, 1999, at the age of 53.^[11]

Keyboardist Bob Nave (born Robert Gordon Nave on November 3, 1944 inDayton, Ohio) died on January 28, 2020, at the age of 75.^[12][13][14]

Timeline

• Best of the Lemon Pipers (Camden/BMG, 1998)
• Green Tambourine: The Best of the Lemon Pipers (Buddha 99798, 2001)^[18]

• List of artists who reached number one in the United States
• List of 1960s one-hit wonders in the United States

• Allmusic overview
• The Lemon Pipers discography atDiscogs
• Rick Kennedy, "Off the Charts",Cincinnati Magazine, May 11, 2012, including interviews with band members.
• Classicwebs (archive)

• American pop music groups
• Bubblegum pop groups
• Psychedelic musical groups
• Musical groups established in 1966
• Musical groups disestablished in 1969
• 1966 establishments in Ohio
• Musical groups from Ohio

• Pages using the EasyTimeline extension
• Articles with short description
• Short description is different from Wikidata
• Use mdy dates from January 2022
• Articles with hCards
• All articles with unsourced statements
• Articles with unsourced statements from August 2018
• Articles with unsourced statements from January 2022