1960s BUDDAH RECORDS 45 RPM Record Sleeve
Image by RetroLand U.S.A.
Founded in 1967 as an offshoot of Kama Sutra Records (home to the Lovin’ Spoonful, among others), Buddah initially started as a boutique label featuring unique acts. Rock surrealist Captain Beefheart was one of it’s first signings.
When former Cameo-Parkway marketing director Neil Bogart took the helm as it’s general manager, Buddah’s roster went from avant garde rock to hooky Top 40 pop. Thanks to (mostly studio) artists such as the 1910 Fruitgum Co., the Ohio Express, and the Lemon Pipers, within a year Buddah became the "house of Bubblegum music" selling millions of 45s with songs like ‘Yummy Yummy Yummy,’ ‘Simon Says,’ ‘Chewy Chewy,’ and ‘Green Tambourine.’
From 1967-1969, a time when pop music was becoming increasingly complex and mature, Buddah’s simple, catchy tunes filled the void craved by teens and pre-teens who found Pink Floyd and Jimi Hendrix to be a little too "far-out."
By 1970, the bubble had burst and Buddah shifted gears once again adding (real) artists like Melanie, the Five Stairsteps, and Gladys Knight and the Pips to it’s roster. In fact, Buddah’s two biggest hits were from the Seventies: Knight’s ‘Midnight Train To Georgia’ and the disco classic ‘More, More, More (Pt. 1)’ by former porn actress Andrea True. Eventually the hits stopped and Buddah folded for good in 1983.
Yet, despite these later hits, Buddah will mostly be known for it’s bubblegum sound-a sound that people either REALLY love (like I do) or REALLY despise.
Bogart summed it up best in his liner notes on the 1968 compilation album ‘Bubble Gum Music is the Naked Truth’: "It’s about sunshine and going places and falling in love and trusting love and dancing for the fun of it. It’s not about war and poverty and disease and rioting and broken hearts and frustration and making money and lying and all the things that really matter, and that’s why it’s so popular."
When it comes to music, sometimes that’s all you need.