Shock Doc Of Rock from Lower Levels Of Wooster, MaIt's about beating your brains on the wall, see? You're going to Donnie's house, man.He showed us what they had there, and we liked it." I think our drummer Randy Seol stumbled on the store by accident one night while having dinner on the floor above at an ethnic restaurant or some kind one night way back in the beginning of 67. The East Indian Kurtas we had custom made at a store named Sat Parush in Westwood, California. Slay was not instrumental in our 'Look.' He was our record producer. We were asked by Frank Slay to come up with a new name because when we did a name check to clear it for label printing, Thee Sixpence was already used somewhere by another band at the time and there would be too much confusion. I borrowed the Strawberry from Strawberry Fields Forever and then right down to the noisy Baby Ben electric alarm clock (in my bedroom/guest house where we used to rehearse) that we hooked up with name Strawberry to come up with the new name. I was instrumental in coming up with the name. ![]() Regarding the band's name and their psychedelic look, Weitz says, "It went from Thee Sixpence right into the Strawberry Alarm Clock. His voice sounded best, and we all agreed on keeping his vocal track on the final version." Greg Munford (A 16-year-old guitar player also produced by Holmes) was a guest in the studio that day, and gave a go at it. Regarding the lead vocalist on I & P: When it came time to record the vocal tracks, none of the members of the Alarm Clock sounded right for the lead vocal. Upon the untimely breakup of the SAC in 1970, and due to the high cost of continuing on with the lawsuit, I was forced to drop the case. After two years, I made a second attempt to initiate the lawsuit against Holmes. I was determined to sue all parties concerned, but was talked out of this action by Slay by mentioning the fact that it would destroy the future livelihood of the band, and we would lose the tour bookings that the band just signed on to do with the William Morris agency. Needless to say, when the song climbed to #1 on the Billboard Top 100 charts, Ed King and I were duped out of our fair share and never received a dime for our efforts. A verbal battle ensued, and ultimately Frank Slay went ahead and made a decision to have the label printed with John Carter's and Tim Gilbert's names both listed as the writers. I assume, this was the industry standard at the time, that Slay was committed to uphold. Holmes would not agree to Slay's request for only having FOUR writers maximum to appear on the label. Holmes wanted HIS name as well as ALL the members of the SAC as writers to appear on the label. It was regarding who should receive the credit as writers of 'Incense and Peppermints.' Holmes was not happy with the fact that Ed King, John Carter, Tim Gilbert and I would receive credit as writers (which was rightfully so). When Frank Slay was approving the writer's names and how they would appear on the actual label prior to printing, our manager Bill Holmes and our producer Frank Slay had an argument. To this day, they have received 100% of the royalties. Frank Slay ultimately credited that melody line solely to the writing team of John Carter and Tim Gilbert. John Carter was solely responsible for conjuring up the lyrics and the controversial melody line extracted out of the finished musical track. Our producer Frank Slay decided to send the fully mixed music track (recorded on 8 tracks of mono!) to John Carter a member of the band The Rainy Daze, who Slay also produced at the time. At the time when the music was recorded at Art Laboe's 'Original Sounds' studio in Hollywood, there was only a temporary title to the song, and lyrics had not yet been written. Weitz gave us this account of how the song was written and how Munford ended up singing it: "I came up with the idea and actual music to the then untitled song that ultimately evolved into the #1 national hit, 'Incense and Peppermints.' I wrote the intro (the oriental sounding riff), the verses, and the ending (the major sevenths) while Ed King, at my request for some help on completing the song, co-wrote the bridge (the F # part) and of course the lead guitar parts. Despite this success, Munford never actually joined the group. He was not even a regular band member, but ended up singing a tune that would rocket to #1 in the United States and sell over a million copies. ![]() He was brought in to sing harmonies on this song, but ended up doing the lead vocals. It was Greg Munford, a 16-year-old singer with a group called The Shapes, who sang lead. The writing credits on the song are listed as John Carter and Tim Gilbert, who were not part of the band, and the lead vocalist on this track was also not a member of the group. Weitz, who was the original keyboard player of the Strawberry Alarm Clock, helped us sort out. This song has a rather convoluted history that Mark S.
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