Before he became Patti Smith’s lead guitarist, Lenny Kaye compiled the 2 album set, Nuggets: Original Artyfacts from the First Psychedelic Era. Released in 1972, the two-LP set covered American garage rock and psychedelia from the years 1965 to 1968 and was a major influence on punk rock. Rhino Records reissued an expanded version of the set in 1998, with 118 tracks in total. I’m profiling and rating each of these 118 tracks, working backwards.
Track 76/118
From: Las Vegas, Nevada
Aphoristic Rating: 8/10
YOU MUST BE A WITCH – The Lollipop Shoppe [2:40]
(Fred Cole)
Personnel/FRED COLE: vocals * ED BOWEN: lead guitar * RON BUZZELL: guitar * BOB ATKINS: bass * TIM ROCKSON: drums
Produced by DANIELLE MAUROY for LORD TIM PRODUCTIONS
Recorded in Hollywood, CA
Uni single #55050 (1/68)
The Lollipop Shoppe boast one of the most misleading band names in popular music. “The Lollipop Shoppe” implies the kind of bubblegum pop you’d expect from The Archies or 1910 Fruitgum Company. But ‘You Must Be A Witch’ is actually one of the more unhinged songs on Nuggets.
The Lollipop Shoppe were originally formed in Las Vegas, Nevada, and known as The Weeds. They moved to San Francisco to play a non-existent gig at the Fillmore. They then attempted to move to Canada to avoid the draft, but short on gas money they only made it to Portland. They were signed to MCA, and their manager changed their name to The Lollipop Shoppe without their consent.
‘You Must Be A Witch’ was the lead single from the band’s only album, Just Colour, their first record as The Lollipop Shoppe. Neither the single nor the album charted, and the band broke up in 1969. ‘You Must Be A Witch’ holds up well though – the guitar and vocal are moody and menacing. On the other hand, it’s not a particularly hummable tune – it carries through on atmosphere.
There’s little information on the other members of The Lollipop Shoppe, but lead singer Fred Cole went on to play with a succession of bands. He often worked with his wife, Kathleen “Toody” Conner, on bass. Cole passed away in 2017, but you can read a 2009 interview with Cole here: https://www.pdxmonthly.com/arts-and-culture/2009/07/music-fred-toody-0809
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Aphoristic Album Reviews is almost entirely written by one person. It features album reviews and blog posts across a growing spectrum of popular music.
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Graham Fyfe has been writing this website since his late teens. Now in his forties, he's been obsessively listening to albums for years. He works as a web editor and plays the piano.
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Wow. Didn’t know about this. Fred/Toody Cole and Dead Moon (their band) is legendary here in Portland. Thanks for posting!
Cool – I figured you might know about them given the Portland connection. I only just realised the pdx stands for Portland.
This is different. It has some early “heavy metal” in it. I hear some Sabbath type things and punkish elements.
The name probably didnt help them at all.
Yeah, it’s pretty edgy for early 1968 – and I assume it was recorded in 1967. Pretty weird name choice – The Weeds suited them much better.
The name did exactly what you said…I thought of a bubblegum type band. Yes very edgy for then.
That’s a cool tune and certainly not the type of music you’d expect from a band titled The Lollipop Shoppe! Another hidden treasure from the Nuggets collection.
Yeah, I liked the edge on it. Terrible band name choice from their manager – you’d expect something like ‘Yummy Yummy Yummy’, not an unhinged piece of proto-punk.
I read that Lord Tim Hudson, the Weeds/Lollipop Shoppe was also The Seeds manager, and he felt that the two bands would get confused with each other. He was probably right. While The Lollipop Shoppe is not exactly the best name, bubblegum was big at that moment so he hoped that some of that popularity would rub off on the band.
OK – that makes some sense. He could have made the weeds and the seeds into some kind of supergroup.
The Swedes!
Somehow I missed this email when it came in. That’s pretty good. You never know what bands are gonna make it.
I think a better name would have helped…
I think that’s less important than good songwriting, breaks, luck, etc. People thought Beatles was an incredibly silly name at first.