The origins of Popcorn
(taken from Gershon Kingsley's website)
 the album which includes the first popcorn ever |
Despite the wide range of music Gershon Kingsley has composed, he is most well-known for a 1972 instrumental dance hit called "Popcorn."
Kingsley recalls that he wrote the primary melody to "Popcorn" in about 30 seconds. The song was first released in 1969 as part of a Kingsley solo album called "Music To Moog By." This version differs quite a lot from the well-known version released by Hot Butter. A single version was released too, which had some extra effects compared to the album version. Then the First Moog Quartet, a band formed by Gershon Kingsley in 1970, used "Popcorn" as their encore song while on their nation-wide tour of college and universities. This version was released in 1972 on their LP Popcorn.
 hot butter single (france) |
In 1972, "Popcorn" was recorded by a group of musicians under the band name Hot Butter. Stan Free, who was a member of the First Moog Quartet, played the Moog on this recording. Stan Free was a session pianist who had worked with artists like Paul Simon and Peggy Lee and was credited on many film and TV productions.
The song quickly became an international hit, with cover versions sprouting up all over the world. It hit number 1 on the German charts and sold over one million copies in that country alone.
In the Netherlands, the song also became a #1 hit, thanks to the various versions which were released in 1972 (these were Hot Butter, The Popcorn Makers, Anarchic System and Revolution System). There was not a solid policy for the same song by different artists back then. To avoid problems, the Dutch top 40 organization added all the versions together so that every music company which released Popcorn could say it was at number 1. And it would a bit silly to play the same song four times in an hour.
And unlike so many pop songs, it has not faded into history. Not at all. Cover versions of "Popcorn" have continued to show up. An overview of several cover versions can be found here.
Later in his career, Kingsley started to work with classical orchestras, where Popcorn was played also. The song "Popcorn International" is an orchestral version of Popcorn played by the Cologne Radio Orchestra; the Boston Pops have also played it. The song consists of seven movements titled: Moderato, Japan, Italy, Spain, Austria, Hungary and USA (many thanks to John Gibbs from the Universaty of Washington for this). More info can be found here. There you can find a sample of Popcorn International too. Official album releases have not been found and precise dates are unknown, sadly.
In 2000, Kingsley re-recorded the song with the help of Producer Dave Baron. This version is released on the compilation album "At Home With The Groovebox", which also includes bands like Air and Beck.
 the 2000 version |
