In early 1966, songwriter Sandy Pinz, was standing in front of the famous Brill Building in New York when she noticed a man sitting on the sidewalk begging for coins. He had a tambourine laying on the cement and people were throwing coins into it. She thought about that man and went back to her office and wrote a poem called “Green Tambourine.” She showed the poem to Paul Leka, a producer for Buddah Records and they decided it could be a hit record. So, Leka wrote the music to the words of the poem and now all they needed was someone to sing it.

Buddah Records had a group they had signed but couldn’t find anything that sounded right for them. The company was about to drop the group from the label when “Green Tambourine” came along. The group was The Lemon Pipers and they came from Oxford, Ohio. Leta flew to Oxford to play the song for them and see if they were interested in recording the song.

The Lemon Pipers consisted of William Barret on lead guitar, Steve Walmsley on bass, William Albaugh on drums and keyboardist R.G. Nave. Their lead singer was Ivan Browne. When Letz got to Oxford, he played the song for the group and they didn’t really like it. Browne who was the spokesman for the group told Letz they would pass. Letz told Browne that Buddah was about to drop them from the label and if they didn’t take the song, they were out. The Lemon Pipers thought it over and decided to stay with Buddah and so, they recorded the song.

A new drum track and an orchestra was added to the recording and masters were cut and distributed to radio stations all over the country. The song soon gained traction and entered the Billboard Hot 100 at number 68 on December 16, 1967. It took seven weeks to reach the top of the chart.

For some reason which I’ve never understood, The Lemon Pipers and the song “Green Tambourine is considered “Bubblegum Music.” The late Sixties was a good time for bubblegum, groups like The Ohio Express and the 1910 Fruitgum Company were recording bubblegum, but, I just don’t see The Lemon Pipers in that same genre. Wikipedia calls them a psychedelic pop band which, I believe is much more accurate. At any rate, they were labeled bubblegum and as a result, they had a lot of difficulty getting another hit. In fact, they never did hit the charts again at any number, let alone number one. The are one of the truly “one-hit wonders.”

“Green Tambourine entered the charts on December 16, 1967 and spent just one week at number one, the week of February 3, 1968.