The Ohio Express
| Ohio Express | |
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The Ohio Express in 1973
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| Background information | |
| Also known as | Sir Timothy and the Royals |
| Origin | Mansfield, Ohio, United States |
| Genres | Bubblegum pop |
| Years active | 1967–present |
| Labels | |
| Website | theohioexpress |
| Members |
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| Past members |
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The Ohio Express is an American rock band, formed in Mansfield, Ohio in 1967.
Though marketed as a band, it would be more accurate to say that the name "Ohio Express" served as a brand name used by Jerry Kasenetz's and Jeffrey Katz's Super K Productions to release the music of a number of different musicians and acts. The best known songs of Ohio Express (including their best scoring single, "Yummy Yummy Yummy") were actually the work of an assemblage of studio musicians working out of New York, including singer/songwriter Joey Levine.
Several other "Ohio Express" hits were the work of other, unrelated musical groups, including the Rare Breed, and an early incarnation of 10cc. In addition, a completely separate touring version of Ohio Express appeared at all live dates, and recorded some of the band's album tracks.
The question of who is the "real" Ohio Express is difficult to answer. The first record credited to The Ohio Express was "Beg, Borrow and Steal", a Top 40 hit in the US and Canada in late 1967. However, exactly the same record had initially been issued as by the Rare Breed in early 1966 on Attack Records. This failed to chart nationally, though it did see regional chart action in New Hampshire and Utah.
The Rare Breed issued one more single in 1966 on Attack, "Come and Take a Ride in My Boat", which was a minor chart hit in the US southwest though this single also failed to chart nationally (the song hit No. 6 a year later for Every Mother's Son as "Come on Down to My Boat"). The Rare Breed then apparently had a dispute with Super K Productions and left the company, never to record again.
The band's original recording of "Beg, Borrow & Steal" sung originally by former member Michael Fenneken, was then re-mixed and re-issued in August 1967 on Cameo Parkway Records, now credited to the Ohio Express (a name to which Super K Productions controlled all rights). The record was a No. 1 single in Columbus, Ohio, by early September, and gradually became a hit across Canada and the US through the following months.
The otherwise exhaustively annotated Nuggets box set (which includes "Beg, Borrow and Steal") suggests the Rare Breed were from New York or New Jersey, but offers no other data. However, a 2003 interview and a 2009 YouTube post of a performance of "Beg, Borrow and Steal" identifies the members of the Rare Breed as John Freno (vocals, guitar), Barry Stolnick (keyboards), Joel Feigenbaum (rhythm guitar), Alexander "Bots" Narbut (vocals, bass) and Tony Cambria (drums), all originally from Brooklyn and the Bronx, New York.
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