The Rock and Roll Dubble Bubble Trading Card Co. of Philadelphia 19141 – Bubble Gum Music / On a Summer Night [1968; Buddah Records]

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On the A-side of their only single (and only release at all, apart from a split that threw this single’s two tracks together with a pair from Chris Bartley), the lengthily-named bubblegum pop band sings about the appeal of their chosen genre to them, with a solid backing beat holding up the reedy vocal harmonies.  References to other bubblegum songs are dropped, and followed with examples of bands (e.g., The Grateful Dead and Herb Alpert) whose music doesn’t turn on the Dubble Bubble boys. 

The B-side slows things down to a ballad pacing, with the back vocals ornamenting the simple lyrics of a mid-summer romance, and the percussion again comes off as the best part, this time with an odd beat involving a woodblock.  Not quite good enough to justify hunting it down, but for a one-hit wonder all about how much the band loves their own style of music, it’s surprisingly decent.

Here’s the cover art used in Italy.

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And Japan.

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The Crusaders – Free as the Wind [1977; ABC Blue Thumb, ABC Records, Blue Thumb Records, Carrere, Discos Musart, S.A. De C.V., MCA Records]

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Packing eight tracks of funky jazz, this album follows The Crusaders’ Those Southern Knights from the previous year with highly confident compositions putting the seven-member band to work with pieces which easily slide from slow and chill to uptempo intensity.  Neatly knitting together the drums, bass, keyboards, horns, sax, and guitars, the music is predominately positive in its instrumental moods, though slight twists in their performance introduce shades of sad-hearted reflection.  The handful of guests in the back half of the album fit their contributions in without a hitch (though Roland Bautista’s guitar does stick out somewhat), but the finesse of the core group provides plenty of spectacle on its own.  Just excellently-played fusions of jazz and funk from start to finish, and a solid spot for those new to the band to start checking out their output.