Artist:The Yellow Balloon
Song:Yellow Balloon
Album:The Yellow Balloon
In the late 60s, a real band wasn't necessary to have hit single. The Kasenetz-Katz factory was based on recording with studio musicians and then form a band. That's kind of what The Yellow Balloon was. They scored a top 30 hit with the 1967 single Yellow Balloon. And that was it. They only recorded one album. And as you will see, there was a celebrity involved in this. The guy behind The Yellow Balloon was producer and songwriter Gary Zekley. His biggest success was writing the 1970 Grass Roots hit Sooner or Later. In 1966, Yellow Balloon was on a Jan & Dean album that was never released. Zekley liked the song but he hated the recording. So he pitched the song to record companies. Canterbury Records owner Ken Handler liked the song so much that he wanted to record it immediately. So he brought in studio musicians like guitarist Mike Post and keyboardist Daryl Dragon. When the record started getting radio airplay, Zekley realized he would have to put a band together. Fortunately, Handler had a solution. He had under contract actor Don Grady from the popular sitcom My Three Sons. Grady gathered some friends to record an album. They were Alex Valdez on lead vocals, Frosty Green on keyboards, Paul Canella on guitar and Don Braucht on bass. Grady played drums under a phony name. And you'll notice in the video he's wearing a disguise though Dick Clark clearly knows who he is. The single Yellow Balloon reached #25 on the Billboard Hot 100. The band could have been successful but they split up soon after the album was released. The reissue label Sundazed has released The Yellow Balloon album with bonus tracks. Here's The Yellow Balloon performing Yellow Balloon on American Bandstand 1967.
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