Golden Hits Of The 60s” 

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MARATHONS

“PEANUT BUTTER”

(H.B. BARNUM, Cooper, Smith, Goldsmith)

Arvee 5027

No. 20    June 19, 1961

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As the Vibrations, Don Bradley (bass), Carl Fisher (second tenor), Dave Govan (baritone), Jimmy Johnson

(lead) and Richard Owens (first tenor) were hot stuff and in heavy demand in early 1961.   Their delightful

dance disk on the Checker label, “The Watusi, ” was a top 40 item (#25).    As THE JAYHAWKS, almost the

identical line-up had made the nation’s charts in 1956 with the original rendition of “Stranded In The

Jungle.”

Arranger/producer/tunesmith H.B. BARNUM (or possibly another hungry rep at the Hollywood-based

Arvee label) offered the Vibrations some side line cash if they would moonlight their way through a sticky

novelty number called “Peanut Butter.”   Neither Barnum nor any of the vinyl pushers at Arvee expected

“Butter” to spread its appealing way through thousands of American households, but it did.

However, since the Vibrations were undercontract to Checker at the time, the success of “Peanut Butter”

prompted the label to file a lawsuit against Arvee, and the Chess-Checker-Argo organization won the right

to issue the single under its own logo.   Arvee Records secured the rights to the “Marathons” name, and

soon after released a highly-collectible LP and a follow-up single about an overly endowed vixen who

should have known better than to wear a “Tight Sweater.”   (As a tasty tidbit of trivia, the “Sweater”

songsmith was SONNY BONO.)    This number did not sell well, and reportedly no Vibrations voices were

present on this or any successive Marathon offerings.