Strawberry Alarm Clock discography
Listings of the group’s album and singles. By title(s)/label/catalog number/year/peak chart position on Billboard.
View the Strawberry Alarm Clock albums page.
SAC albums:
“Incense and Peppermints” UNI 3014 (Mono) & 73014 (Stereo) — 1967 #11
“Wake Up It’s Tomorrow” UNI 73025 — 1968
“The World in a Seashell” UNI 73035 — 1968
“Good Morning Starshine” UNI 73054 — 1969
“The Best of Strawberry Alarm Clock” UNI 73074 — 1970
“Changes” Vocalion VL 73915 — 1971
SAC singles:
“Incense and Peppermints” bw “Birdman of Alkatrash” All American 373 — 1967
“Incense and Peppermints” bw “The Birdman of Alkatrash” UNI 55018 — 1967 #1
“Tomorrow” bw “Birds in My Tree” UNI 55046 — 1967 #23
“Pretty Song From Psych-Out” bw “Sit With the Guru” UNI 55055 — 1968 #65
“Barefoot In Baltimore” bw “Angry Young Man” UNI 55076 — 1968 #67
“Sea Shell” bw “Paxton’s Back Street Carnival” UNI 55093 — 1968
“Stand By” bw “Miss Attraction” UNI 55113 — 1969
“Good Morning Starshine” bw “Me and The Township” UNI 55125 — 1969 #87
“Desiree” bw “Changes” UNI 55158 — 1969
“Starting Out the Day” bw “Small Package” UNI 55185 — 1969
“I Climbed the Mountain” bw “Three” UNI 55190 — 1970
“California Day” bw “Three” UNI 55218 — 1970
“Girl From the City” bw “Three” UNI 55241 — 1970
– Compiled by Jeff Ziemer
Links to Amazon product page if title is available
I’ve researched that “Incense and Peppermints” went gold as a single just a little after it hit number one on Billboard,but I can’t find any certifications for the album.Did it ever achieve gold status maybe later in the sixties or in the early seventies?
It has by now, I’m sure. The I&P LP reached #11 on Billboard’s album chart, and as I recall they told us we had to buy the gold record awards if we wanted them….they were like 60.00…none of us did it.
Who were the fiends that wanted to virtually extort you for proper certification of the album, the RIAA or UNI records? The whole thing’s a sin! The album must have earned gold back when it was charting. It hung on to that #11 spot for three straight weeks and the top ten at the time boasted four future HAll of Fame acts. (Beatles,Supremed,Stones,Doors) And another dreadful injustice. Was the failure of the subsequent lps to chart the result of UNI not even having them properly audited by the RIAA?
I’m not really sure who the extorter was…..probably both.
The major error was between UNI and our manager and producer regarding the subsequent LP’s.
What they so miserably failed to do was to cull follow up singles from the I&P LP. Instead they had us rush to record a new song, Tomorrow, written by Mark Weitz and Ed King. Why?, because Mark and Ed were denied writers credit for the first single, Incense and Peppermints. This was a way to make up for that travesty. What it did instead was pull the plug on the momentum of the I&P LP and prematurely promote the 2nd LP which would not be released for months to come. Wake Up It’s Tomorrow was released in early 1968. The single, Tomorrow was released at the end of 1967. Tomorrow did reach #23 on Bilboard’s Hot 100. Even more curious was that the flip side of Tomorrow was Bird’s in My Tree, from the first album!
UNI did little to promote the 2nd album. The urgency of an album to be supported by a single was lost as Tomorrow had already peaked…the album was left to forage on it’s own and died.
The third LP, The World in a Seashell suffered in many ways from the failure of the 2nd album. At this point UNI and our producer and manager had basically blamed the band for writing bad and overly indulgent material. The fix was to bring in outside writers like Carol King, Bob Stone, Roy Freeman and even John Carter and Tim Gilbert who got the full writing credit for Incense and Peppermints. That was another slap in the face for Weitz and (Ed) Kiing. Even curiouser than before the SECOND single from the 3rd LP was Seashell written by Carter and Gilbert and on the flip side is Paxton’s Backstreet Carnival from the 1st LP!
Randy Seol and I left the band after that third long player.
We were on good terms with the band for the most part, but at odds with the manager.
I believe we would have had a better shot at longevity without all the ill fated decision making, and we haven’t even touched on the greed factors involved. The band ended up having to fire the manager and discontinued working with the producer prior to recording the 4th and final LP, Good Morning Starshine.
So in other words,while SAC and cohorts were doing everything they could to spread love,music and good will,The Man insisted on having his devious corporate ways with you anyway.Sickmaking.Was there ever consideration on incorporating yourselves as the Beatles did with Apple.At least with the problems they had there,they could say it was their own wrongdoing and not the falacy of some unwanted interloper.
After the first album we had all agreed to first let go of Gary Lovetro. Then after the third album it was brought to our attention that Bill Holmes, our manager and co-producer was undermining us financially. There were bad dealings going on to the extent that law suits were being brought against us without our knowledge. Worse than that, our hard earned touring profits were being pilfered. We had a band meeting where we all agreed to fire Holmes. Then out of left field he tells us he has cancer and only six months to live and begs us not to fire him. Three band members felt beholding to him and said we can’t go through with it. It was at that point Randy Seol and I quit the band. Bad decisions all around. We had wanted to be a better band. We were all of the same mind to move forward as a cohesive unit without the interlopers.
It was not meant to be.
When the remaining members crawled from the wreckage and picked up the pieces they had a renewed urgency….they did finally fire Holmes and the other producer, Frank Slay. Mark and Ed produced the fourth and final album. They enlisted Jimmy Pitman as the front man and main songwriter and brought back the Incense and Peppermints drummer, Gene Gunnels.
They tried in earnest to regain the momentum that once was, but without the support of their record company and an abandoned audience they floundered. They would have had a fighting chance if UNI had promoted the single and album title song, Good Morning Starshine, as much as Oliver’s record company promoted his version of the song.
Who wrote the lyrics to “Barefoot in Baltimore”?
While anticipating the new album from Strawberry Alarm Clock, there are a couple of things I always wanted to know about the earlier SAC releases and hope you could shed some light on this matter.
I’ve been told though it’s doubtful that one of the SAC albums from 1967 – 1969 was issued with an alternate stereo mix. My question is, are any of these album, “Incense and Peppermints”, “Wake Up It’s Tomorrow”and “The World in a Seashell” of having more than one released stereo mix (whether on subsequent vinyl pressings or CD)?
I think some of the confusion there is because the single of Incense and Peppermints was originally released in mono….and the subsequent “stereo” version was I believe, simulated stereo. I can’t remember if the first album had a mono version as well….hmmm….I think maybe there was.
I’ve always loved the instrumental track played during the party scene in Beyond the Valley of the Dolls. I believe it’s called Toy Boy. Is it available anywhere? if not is there any chance it could be made available on the web site?
“Toy Boy” is one of my favorite pieces of music from that movie. I’ve been trying to find a decent copy of it for years! Any chance at all?
I was listening to “Incense and Peppermints” on you tube and saw different lyrics on several postings and none of them were the lyrics as I remembered them, though mine could by way off as well. Is there a site that has the correct lyrics or do you have them listed here somewhere?
Good sense, innocence, cripplin’ mankind
Dead kings, many things I can’t define
Occasions, persuasions clutter your mind
Incense and peppermints, the color of time.
Who cares what games we choose?
Little to win, but nothing to lose.
Incense and peppermints, meaningless nouns
Turn on, turn in, turn your eyes around.
Look at yourself, look at yourself, yeah, girl
Look at yourself, look at yourself, yeah, girl, yeah!
To divide a cockeyed world in two
Throw your pride to one side, it’s the least you can do.
Beatniks and politics, nothing is new
A yardstick for lunatics, one point of view
Who care what games we choose?
Little to win, but nothin’ to lose.
Good sense, innocence, cripplin’ mankind
Dead kings, many things I can’t define.
Occasions, persuassions clutter your mind
Incense and peppermints, the color of time.
Who cares what games we choose?
Little to win, but nothin’ to lose.
Incense and peppermints
Incense and peppermints
Sha la la
Sha la la
Sha la la
Sha la la
Sha la la
Sha la la