Strawberry Alarm Clock (psych rock / USA)

Biography:


Strawberry Alarm Clock was a psychedelic rock band from Los Angeles, known for their 1967 hit “Incense and Peppermints”.

The group originally consisted of Ed King (lead guitar), Mark Weitz (keyboards), Lee Freeman (rhythm guitar), Gary Lovetro (bass), and Randy Seol (drums). On their first and most famous single, “Incense and Peppermints”, lead vocals were sung by Greg Munford, a 16-year-old friend of the band. The song reached #1 on the Billboard pop singles chart in late 1967. After that success the band added George Bunnell (bass and rhythm guitar) before making their first LP in 1967, also titled Incense and Peppermints. Bunnell would also become their main songwriter.

Membership changes were many. Gary Lovetro left the band before the second album, Wake Up It’s Tomorrow (also 1967). The single “Tomorrow” from this album was a minor hit and their only other top 40 appearance, reaching #23 in early 1968. Although the group followed up with more LPs in 1968 (The World in a Seashell) and 1969 (Good Morning Starshine) the band had begun to fall apart and the audience was mostly gone. In various forms the group managed to keep performing until 1971, when it finally broke up.

The Strawberry Alarm Clock made two notable appearances in films, first in the 1968 Jack Nicholson movie Psych-Out, where they played several songs, including “Incense and Peppermints”, “Rainy Day Mushroom Pillow”, and “The Pretty Song from Psych-Out”, and then in the 1970 Russ Meyer camp classic Beyond the Valley of the Dolls.

Ed King went on to join Lynyrd Skynyrd. Several members of Strawberry Alarm Clock reunited in the 1980s to perform on oldies concert tours.

The original band lineup reunited to perform an approximately one-hour set at the Virginia Theatre in Champaign, IL, on April 29, 2007. The event was part of the last day of Roger Ebert’s ninth annual Overlooked Film Festival and was preceded by a screening of Beyond the Valley of the Dolls. Despite being unable to speak due to recent surgery, Ebert made prepared remarks with the use of a device given to him by a U of I professor.