That's right, in the late sixties/early seventies, Kelloggs (the makers of Corn Flakes) had it's own record label. (If you think that is weird, I have a Paul Revere And The Raiders album on the Sears record label.) While Columbia had Bob Dylan and Atlantic had Ray Charles, Kelloggs had the top rock n roll act of the era; The Banana Splits.
The Banana Splits Aventure Hour was a Saturday Morning TV show that ran on NBC from 1968 to 1970. It was a collaboration between Hanna-Barbera and Syd & Marty Krofft. (The duo that would bring us H.R Puff n Stuff, Lidsville and Sigmund The Sea Monster.)
The Splits consisted of four non-animated characters (Basically, four guys dressed in furry mascot outfits.) who ran wildly around the studio running into each other and falling down to the accompaniment of groovy music and sound effects. They also rode around an amusement park, (Six Flags, I believe) on super cool four wheelers. (Yes, this is what passed for children's entertainment in the late 60's)
In addition to the Splits mania, the show also featured a couple of cartoons and a live action serial called Danger Island. (Does anyone remember the catch phrase, "Uh Oh, Chongo!")
Although the show sounds pretty moronic nowadays, (as it probably did back in those days) the show was meant to be kind of a kids version of Laugh-In, with the same style of quick editing and slapstick humor. I, at the time being a pre-schooler, loved the show. I even belonged to some sort of Banana Splits fan club. I remember getting a Splits sticker in the mail.
The best part of the show, for me, was the music. Back then every Saturday morning tv show had a band (The Archies, Lancelot Link, Fat Albert etc...) and The Banana Splits were no exception. Ten or so years before MTV, the Splits were doing videos to happy sunshine psychedelic pop music. And somewhere along the line, Hanna-Barbera and Kelloggs got together and started releasing Banana Splits records.
Listening to the music now, I am amazed at how well most of the tunes hold up. Some of the people who sang lead vocals on the songs include, Barry White, Joey Levine (who sang on dozens of bubble gum pop songs by The Ohio Express including, "Yummy, Yummy, Yummy". ) Al Kooper and Gene Pitney (!?!). Most of the songs were produced by David Mook, who is most famous (to me anyway) for co-writing, "Scooby Doo, Where Are You?". How is that for a Saturday morning cartoon super group?
The best and most famous song from the show is the theme tune, "The Tra-La-La Song" which is the happiest sounding music ever recorded to vinyl. (I am smiling just thinking about it.) The song was written by the mysterious N.B Winkless Jr. Winkless was a fairly successful jingle writer at the time having written "Good Morning, Good Morning" for Kelloggs Corn Flakes and "Snap Crackle And Pop" for Rice Krispies. He supposedly wrote the Tra La La Song on a rickety piano in a living room in a house in Kenilworth, Illinois. (According to Wikipedia, anyway) In addition, legend has it ( or Wikipedia does..anyway...again) that Winkless' sons played three of the Splits on the show.
Whatever happened to N.B Winkless Jr.? God only knows. The only other information I could find was a book for sale on Amazon authored by a N.B Winkless Jr. called, "The Gambling Times Guide To Craps" which was published in 1983. ( You can buy a used copy for $23.00 on Amazon, if you are interested.) Perhaps Winkless took his royalties from his cartoon and breakfast cereal songs to Vegas and won a bundle at the crap tables or maybe he sits alone at a rickety piano in Kenilworth, Illinois singing old commercial jingles to himself. Either way, if you should happen to run into him someday, tell him I really like his song.
--Rock N Roll Casey
February 19, 2016
Shangri-La, Ohio
***If You Would like to read part 2 of this story checkout,
N.B Winkless Jr. & The Banana Splits
Casey's Website
Casey's Facebook Page
*Most of the information on this post came from the internet which means it must be 100% accurate.
