“Popsicles and Icicles” by the Murmaids is a long-time favorite of mine that has a timeless quality to it, and a remarkable convergence of talent went into its creation. The vocal group was composed of sisters Terry Fischer and Carol Fischer plus Sally Gordon. Mike Post was a schoolfriend of Terry Fischer and cut several demos for the trio; Post would sometimes bring the women to Gold Star Studios to provide backing vocals on various recordings.
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“Popsicles and Icicles” was one of the earliest songs written by David Gates, after his family relocated from Tulsa, Oklahoma to Los Angeles in 1961. Gates is best known as the bandleader and lead singer for the under-rated soft rock band Bread.
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Terry Fischer, Carol Fischer and Sally Gordon came to the attention of Kim Fowley while they were doing backing vocal work for Mike Post, and he offered to record a single for them; at the time, according to Wikipedia, Fowley was “the in-house producer for Chattahoochee Records”, which released the single. Fowley produced “Popsicles and Icicles” and four other tracks for the band (now known as the Murmaids), each of which served as the “B” side for various releases of the song.
“Popsicles and Icicles” by the Murmaids reached #3 on both the Billboard and Cash Box record charts in January 1964. Additionally, the song was ranked #1 on the Record World charts for the week of January 18, 1964; since the next Number One song on the Record World charts was “I Want to Hold Your Hand” by the Beatles, “Popsicles and Icicles” is often cited as the last Number One song of the pre-British Invasion era.
(January 2015/1)
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Items: Popsicles and Icicles
