Wednesday June 1, 2022 “You Keep Me Hanging On” Vanilla Fudge
If you're as old as me you might remember the first time you heard this song and thought incredulously “is that the Supremes song!?” When the Vanilla Fudge crashed onto the airwaves we weren’t really prepared for their loud, heavy, slowed-down arrangements of contemporary pop songs, blowing them up to epic proportions and slathering them in a trippy, psychedelic, pile-driving haze.
The band, from Long Island, NY was originally known as the Electric Pigeons and at that moment they were a blue-eyed soul cover band. The first time Vanilla Fudge’s version of “You Keep Me Hanging On” was released it didn’t perform well enough to hit the charts, even with an appearance on the ‘relly, really big’ Ed Sullivan Show.
Then Vanilla Fudge began touring incessantly opening for Jim Hendrix and Cream and when they completed their second album, which did not include “You Keep Me Hanging On” their record label reissued the single and, I guess timing being everything, it became a top ten hit.
Vanilla Fudge were so popular that for a brief time their opening band was this new group from the UK known as Led Zeppelin.
In addition to “You Keep Me Hanging On” Vanilla Fudge would apply their somewhat unusual musical interpretations to “Eleanor Rigby”, “She’s Not There” and Sonny & Cher’s “Bang Bang” among many other tunes.
Not to discredit the Supremes in any way but when Vanilla Fudge lead singer Mark Stein gets to the line "...there ain't nothing I can do about it" he definitely makes it heartbreakingly believable.
Stay safe and well…and I know that Vanilla Fudge may not be to everybody's taste so I spared the non-believers the seven minute version and included the video of the radio friendly 2:55 minute recording.