Ohio Express
The Ohio Express was a bubblegum pop and garage rock band that fronted for Kasenetz and Katz's Super K Productions. The band is strongly associated with fellow upbeat pop group 1910 Fruitgum Company. Both groups were partially faceless studio assemblages and partially real groups undergoing genuine tours. The Kasenetz-Katz studio musicians working out of New York, including singer-songwriter Joey Levine, produced the iconic pop smash "Yummy Yummy Yummy".
The real band behind the "Ohio Express" name was originally named "Sir Timothy & The Royals" and hailed from Mansfield, Ohio. They hooked up with the men of Super K in 1966 and were renamed the Ohio Express. They released their first single and LP on Cameo-Parkway Records of Philadelphia in the autumn of 1967. Unfortunately, the record label went into bankruptcy shortly after that and was purchased by music business mogul Allen Klein, who still owns the masters to this day.
The group then moved to the home label of bubblegum pop, Buddah Records (purposely misspelled so as not to be sacrilegious), where they released four LPs and a multitude of singles. They became a major part of the sunshine-soaked vibe of 70s pop and were somewhat of a household name. They charted several singles in the Top 40, most featuring the vocals of Levine, though their albums sold less well and none never charted above #100 on the Billboard charts.
The New York studio musicians were mostly heard on the tracks released as singles, while the five lads from Ohio could be heard on some of the album tracks as well as appearing at various concerts. The flesh-in-blood Ohio group also made several television appearances. Copying the sounds of Joey Levine proved somewhat of a challenge live, but they band kept on going.
By the end of Ohio Express' career at Buddah, recordings made by various groups of musicians were released as singles under the Ohio Express name, including "Sausalito," recorded in England by future members of 10cc.
The song "Yummy Yummy Yummy" was featured in several popular television shows. at the end of a Monty Python episode called "How Not to Be Seen," though this was a cover version and not the original recording. It was also featured in at least two episodes of The Simpsons, once in an episode in which Bart munches his way to obesity due to an addictive set of snack machines being installed at Springfield Elementary, and another instance in an episode in which Homer listens to and sings along to "Yummy Yummy Yummy" while his father watches the first moon landing in 1969. It was also featured in an end scene from the popular documentary from Morgan Spurlock, Super Size Me in which Spurlock is eating his "Last McSupper", as dubbed in the movie while joined by a crowd of fans and friends.
Several Ohio Express songs have been used in television commercials in the ensuing years, most recently "Chewy Chewy" in an ad for Quaker Oats Granola bars.