The Balloon Farm

Last updated
The Balloon Farm
Origin New Jersey, United States
Genres Garage rock, psychedelic rock
Labels Laurie
Past members Mike Appel
Don Henny
Ed Schnug
Jay Saks

The Balloon Farm, an American musical act from New Jersey, took its name from a New York City nightclub. [1] It is best known for its sole hit song, "A Question of Temperature," which made the Billboard charts in February 1968, peaking in the top 40.

Contents

Two members of the band, Don Henny and Ed Schnug first played together in a band called Adam, [2] which made one single for the Mala label entitled "Eve" in 1966. [1] [3] Adam's gimmick was that all four members of the group adopted the first name "Adam". [1] They were probably not the first to use this idea, but they were far from the last; a similar ruse would be used by other bands, including The Donnas.

After Adam disbanded, Henny and Schnug were joined by Mike Appel and Jay Saks and adopted the name "The Balloon Farm". [2] The band's first single was "A Question of Temperature", which was released in October 1967. [1] First pressings of the 45 rpm single contained a typographical error that rendered the title as "A Question of Tempature". Another typo, which was never fixed, was the name of the song's producer, Peter Schekeryk, which was spelled "Shekeryk", even after the title of the song was fixed.[ citation needed ] The single reached a peak of #37 on the Billboard Hot 100, [3] and in the years since has become something of a garage-psych classic. It has appeared on numerous thematic compilations, including the Rhino box set Nuggets and Acid Dreams.

The follow-up single "Hurry Up Sundown" flopped, and the Balloon Farm was dropped by Laurie before it was able to record an entire album. However, one of the band's unreleased songs, "Sunshine Rides on a Trolley" (also known as "Sunshine Rides on a Trolley Car"), was recorded in Australia by Robbie Snowden, who had a moderate hit with it in 1967. [1]

Later in 1968, the Balloon Farm resurfaced with yet another new name, Huck Finn, and one single on the Kapp label, "Two of a Kind". [1] After that, the band broke up.

Three people involved with the hit "A Question of Temperature" gained greater fame in the 1970s. Schekeryk would become Melanie's manager and husband. Arranger, Charlie Morrow would become internationally known for jingles including Hefty Wimpy, large scale art events like TootN Blink and New Wilderness International Solstice celebrations and, in the new millennium, the invention of MorrowSound True3D 3D audio effect. Appel, after cowriting "Doesn't Somebody Want to Be Wanted" and several LP cuts for The Partridge Family, would become the first manager of Bruce Springsteen.

Band members

Notable covers

"A Question of Temperature" was recorded by Brownsville Station on its 1973 album Yeah! , the same LP on which "Smokin' in the Boy's Room" appears. It was recorded in 1974 by TNT, a Harrisburg PA area garage band led by Erik Lindgren, and appears on their CD "Mod Psych Power Pop from Central PA." It was recorded by several artists in the 1980s, including The Lords of the New Church on their debut album, Mindflux, Human Sexual Response, Julian Cope as a B-side to "Charlotte Anne" in 1988, and the Vancouver-based punk band The Young Canadians.

Related Research Articles

<i>Nuggets: Original Artyfacts from the First Psychedelic Era, 1965–1968</i> 1972 compilation album by various artists

Nuggets: Original Artyfacts from the First Psychedelic Era is a compilation album of American psychedelic and garage rock singles that were released during the mid-to-late 1960s. It was created by Lenny Kaye, who was a writer and clerk at the Village Oldies record shop in New York. He would later become the lead guitarist for the Patti Smith Group. Kaye produced Nuggets under the supervision of Elektra Records founder Jac Holzman. Kaye conceived the project as a series of roughly eight LP installments focusing on different US regions, but Elektra convinced him that one double album would be more commercially viable. It was released on LP by Elektra in 1972 with liner notes by Kaye that contained one of the first uses of the term "punk rock". It was reissued with a new cover design by Sire Records in 1976. In the 1980s, Rhino Records issued Nuggets in a series of fifteen installments, and in 1998 as a 4-cd box set.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Strawberry Alarm Clock</span> American psychedelic rock band

Strawberry Alarm Clock is a psychedelic rock band formed in 1967 with origins in Glendale, California, a city about ten miles north of downtown Los Angeles. They are best known for their 1967 hit single "Incense and Peppermints". Categorized as acid rock, psychedelic pop and sunshine pop, they charted five songs, including two Top 40 hits.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Nebula (band)</span> American rock band

Nebula is an American rock band formed by guitarist Eddie Glass and drummer Ruben Romano upon departing Fu Manchu in 1997. Mark Abshire soon joined as the band's original bassist.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Graham Salisbury</span> American childrens writer and pop musician

Graham Salisbury is an American children's writer. His best known work is Under the Blood Red Sun, a historical novel that features a Japanese-American boy and his family during World War II. Under the name Sandy Salisbury he was a pop musician in the late 1960s, notably with The Millennium.

Mike Appel is an American music industry manager and record producer, best known for his role in both capacities in the early career of Bruce Springsteen.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">The Peanut Butter Conspiracy</span> American rock band

The Peanut Butter Conspiracy was an American, Los Angeles-based, psychedelic pop/rock group from the 1960s. The band is known for lead singer Barbara Robison and for briefly having Spencer Dryden of Jefferson Airplane as a band member.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">The Yellow Balloon (band)</span>

The Yellow Balloon was an American sunshine pop band, formed in Los Angeles in 1967 by songwriter and producer Gary Zekley. The group is notable for featuring Don Grady of The Mickey Mouse Club and My Three Sons fame. Other band members hailed from Oregon and Arizona. They were led by Alex Valdez, and included Frosty Green (keyboards), Don Braucht, and Paul Canella. The band at one time also included Daryl Dragon, later the male half of Captain & Tennille.

<i>Cybernetic Dreams of Pi</i> 1983 studio album by The Slickee Boys

Cybernetic Dreams of Pi, released in 1983, is an album by The Slickee Boys. It was released on LP by the Minneapolis record label Twin/Tone. Along with songs penned by the band, there are cover versions of songs by Hamilton Streetcar and the Status Quo. To support the album, the band shot music videos for "Life of the Party" and "When I Go to the Beach", the latter video receiving semi-regular airplay on MTV, thanks to a second-place finish on that channel's Basement Tapes show. A CD version with eight additional tracks was released 22 years later.

<i>A Postcard from the Day</i> 2006 live album by The Slickee Boys

A Postcard from the Day is the second live album by the Washington, D.C. band The Slickee Boys. The album, compiled by guitarist Marshall Keith, collects recordings from 1980 to 1982, taken from shows in Maryland, Virginia, D.C., and New York City.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Yellow Balloon</span> 1967 single by The Yellow Balloon

"Yellow Balloon" was a Top 30 hit single in the Billboard Hot 100 by The Yellow Balloon, included on the group's 1967 self-titled album. It was classified as being in the sunshine pop genre.

Alan Gary Zekley was an American West Coast record producer and songwriter associated with 1960s, 1970s, and 1980s bands and songs in the bubblegum, rock and roll, sunshine pop, and surf genres.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">The Lords of Altamont</span>

The Lords of Altamont are a rock and roll band from Los Angeles, California. The band mixes the sounds of '60s garage and psychedelic rock, American punk rock, British rhythm and blues and glam combined with B-movie biker exploitation imagery. Past and present line-ups of The Lords of Altamont have included members of The Bomboras, The Fuzztones, The MC5 and The Cramps. As of 2017 the band has released six albums on various labels including the newest, The Wild Sounds of the Lords of Altamont, on Heavy Psych Sounds Records.

The Peppermint Trolley Company was an American sunshine pop band known for their 1968 single "Baby You Come Rollin' 'Cross My Mind" as well as their performances on Mannix, The Beverly Hillbillies and their arrangement and performance of The Brady Bunch original theme song.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Shrubs (American band)</span> American rock ‘n roll band

Shrubs are an American rock ‘n roll band based in Rock Tavern, New York.

The Dolly Rocker Movement were an Australian neo-psychedelic rock band, formed in 2002 by singer and guitarist, Daniel Poulter, the Australian line-up included, Ricky Drabsch (bass), Martin Walters (keyboards) and Christopher Rudge (drums). They released three full-length albums, Electric Sunshine, A Purple Journey Through the Mod Machine and Our Days Mind the Tyme (2009), through independent Australian record label Off the Hip before disbanding in 2013.

<i>Yeah!</i> (Brownsville Station album) 1973 studio album by Brownsville Station

Yeah! is the third studio album by the hard rock band Brownsville Station. It was their highest charting album, reaching number 98 on the Billboard 200.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Swim Deep</span> British indie rock band

Swim Deep are a British indie pop band formed in Birmingham, England. The band currently consists of Austin Williams (vocals), Cavan McCarthy (bass), James Balmont (keyboards), Robbie Wood (guitar), and Thomas Fiquet (drums).

The Magicians were an American garage rock band formed in New York City, New York, in 1965. The group released four singles during their brief recording career with Columbia Records, with their most well-known song being "An Invitation to Cry". Members Alan Gordon and Garry Bonner later became a successful songwriting duo, and the Magicians' material was assembled on a compilation album in 1999.

The Tuneful Trolley was an American psych-pop sextet from the late 1960s. Originally a high school band called "The Mark of Quality" from Suffolk County, Long Island, they were discovered and renamed by Sandy Yaguda of Jay and the Americans. Yaguda helped the band sign with Capitol Records and produced their first and only album, Island in the Sky.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Crumb (band)</span> American indie rock band

Crumb is an American psychedelic rock band. The group is a collaboration of Brooklyn-based musicians Lila Ramani, Jesse Brotter, Bri Aronow, and Jonathan Gilad (drums), who met while attending Tufts University.

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 "Where Did They Get That Song?" . Retrieved 2007-05-25.
  2. 1 2 "Sunshine Rides On A Trolley - ROBBIE SNOWDEN (1967) - Pop Archives - Sources of Australian Pop Records from the 50s, 60s and 70s". Pop Archives. Retrieved 2014-08-23.
  3. 1 2 Whitburn, Joel (2002). Top Pop Singles 1955 to 2002 . Menomonee Falls, Wis.: Record Research. p.  37. ISBN   0-89820-155-1.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.