The 1910 Fruitgum Company was, in my opinion, truly a great band, but who were they. Well, that's kind of a mystery.  They were originally called Dr. Jeckell and the Hydes.  According to the cover of the "Simon Says" album, they were formed in January of 1967 and originally consisted of Floyd Marcus on drums, Pat Karwan on lead guitar, Mark Gutkowski on organ, Steve Mortkowitz on bass guitar, and Frank Jeckell on rhythm guitar, all of them taking turns on vocals. It was this line up of the band that recorded their biggest hit, "Simon Says", which was on the album of the same title. As far as I know, this was also the line up on their second album, "1,2,3 Redlight", but I can't be sure of that. The cover of this album mysteriously doesn't mention anything about who they are, or list the names of the members, but judging by the sound I think it's most likely the same guys, or mostly the same guys, or a bunch of studio musicians with Mark doing vocals.  On their third album, "Goody Goody Gumdrops", the band changes almost all of its members.  Now the band consisted of Mark Gutkowski on organ and rhythm guitar, Chuck Travis on lead guitar, Rusty Oppenheimer on drums, Larry Ripley on bass and horns, and Bruce Shay on percussion, all of them taking turns on vocals. I'm pretty sure this is also the same line up on their fourth album, "Indian Giver", but once again, there is no mentioning of the band members on the cover, but at least they are pictured on it. On their fifth and final album, "Hard Ride", the band once again changed its line up, and this time the line up completely changed.  There is not one member of the first two line ups in this album, and they don't really sound like a 1910 Fruitgum Company, although I still like this album very much.  Now the Fruitgum Co. consisted of Jimmy Casazza on drums, Don Christopher on guitar and vocals, Ralph Cohen on trumpet, Rich Gomez on guitar and vocals, Jerry Roth on saxophone and Pat Soriano on keyboards and vocals.  Well, that's about it, after that there were a few singles that went nowhere, and then they were gone.  And now some members have gotten back together with others to reform the Fruitgum Company.  Be sure to check out their website here, and try to catch them live.  I certainly will be, and will cya there.  Well, I'll let you take a look around the rest of my page now.  There isn't much yet, there's a discography, some photos, and maybe by the time you're reading this there are some links.

Something new, I got a very interesting email with some better info on the history of the 1910 Fruitgum Company, from a staff writer/producer for Super K records, Steve Dworkin.  He wrote "The Song Song" on the album "1,2,3 Red Light", and that Howdy Doody Song that is backwards on the flip side of the "Indian Giver" 45, titled "Pow Wow".  Rather than modify what I wrote, and sort out everything, here's the email as it is here.
 

Discography
 

Photos
 

Links