Saturday June 18, 2022 “Indian Giver” 1910 Fruitgum Company
OK we started the week seriously with “Indian Reservation” and we spent a short time at Wounded Knee and the Little BigHorn and Cher gave us the sad story of being a “Half Breed” so I thought that we should end the week of Indian related songs completely frivolously with the 1910 Fruitgum Company’s “Indian Giver”.
"Indian Giver" was a song written by Bobby Bloom, Ritchie Cordell, and Bo Gentry. It was first recorded by 1910 Fruitgum Company for their 1969 album, Indian Giver. The song went to number five on The Billboard Hot 100 in 1969 and was on the charts for 13 weeks. Its B-Side, "Pow Wow", was actually a song called "Bring Back Howdy Doody'' deliberately pressed backwards as a way of deterring radio stations from playing the B-Side.
This may surprise you or it might even horrify you but “Indian Giver” was the third top ten song for the 1910 Fruitgum Company. They also had hits with “1,2,3 Red Light” and “Simon Says”. Essentially a studio band put together by the kings of Bubblegum music production Jerry Kasenetz and Jeff Katz, although there were some members from a New Jersey band known as Jeckell and the Hydes.
The lead singer on “Indian Giver” was Joe Levine who was also the lead singer for another Kasenetz/Katz ‘band’, The Ohio Express who had hit with other Bubblegum classics “Yummy, Yummy, Yummy” and “Chewy, Chewy”. Oh, we are into some truly classic music now.
For those unfamiliar with the bubblegum genre I think it was best summed up by Dawn Eden critic for music magazine Mojo who said, “Power pop aims for your heart and your feet. Bubblegum aims for any part of your body it can get, as long as you buy the damn record."
Stay safe and well…and does this song feel like it's playing longer than the 2:47 listed on the video?