Baltimore’s 1960s “Sunshine Pop” band The Peppermint Rainbow

By Tom Warner (Accelerated Decrepitude, 10/15/2012)

Thanks to Johnny Dollar for reminding us of Baltimore’s forgotten 1960s “sunshine pop” band The Peppermint Rainbow (1967-1970). JD scored the group’s lone LP Will You Be Staying After Sunday at a Joppa Road Salvation Army store and posted the cover on Facebook, leading us to scratch our heads as to why we had never heard of them.

A quick Google search informed us that the band – formed in 1967 under the name New York Times before changing their name to Peppermint Rainbow in 1968 and featuring sister singers Bonnie and Pat Lamdin – was discovered by “Mama” Cass Elliot (Baltimore’s own Ellen Naomi Cohen), who caught one of their performances (and later sang a medley of The Mamas & The Papas tunes with them on stage) and was responsible for getting them signed to Decca Records, where their songs were produced by Paul Leka (who composed the No. 1 hit “Green Tambourine” for The Lemon Pipers and produced Steam and The American Breed). It was a logical fit, as Peppermint Rainbow played the same sort of sunny-tempered SoCal soft-rock as the Mamas & Papas, The 5th Dimension, and Spanky and Our Gang. (In fact, many see their hit single “Will You be Staying After Sunday” as a kind of sequel to Spanky’s 1967 #9 hit “Sunday Will Never Be the Same” or 1968’s “Sunday Mornin’.”)

Continue reading “Peppermint Rainbow” at Tom Warner’s Accelerated Decrepitude.