B.T. Puppy Album Discography
The B.T. Puppy label was an offshoot of Bright Tunes Productions, the Tokens' company. B.T. Puppy
was formed by the Tokens after their success of the "The Lion Sleeps Tonight" on RCA Victor. The
Tokens were made up of Hank Medress, Jay Siegel and brothers Mitchell and Philip Margo.
The group was originally formed in Lincoln High School in Brooklyn NY in 1955. Original membership was Hank Medress, Neil Sedaka, Cynthia Zolotin and Eddie Rabkin. Jay Siegel replaced Rabkin in 1956. At first the name of the group was Linc-tones (after their high school), but they used "The Tokens" for a record they recorded in 1956 ["I Love My Baby/While I Dream," Melba 104].
In 1960, Medress and Siegel were joined by brothers Phil Margo (18 years old) and Mitch Margo (13 years old) to form a group called "Those Guys". They wrote "Tonight I Fell in Love" and took it to Morty Craft at Warwick records. Craft wanted the record but did not like the name "Those Guys". Medress and company offered Craft the name they had used years earlier, and Craft agreed and put out the record.
"Tonight I Fell in Love" was a hit, going to No. 15 in the charts, but they told Craft they were signing with
RCA. When Craft asked them what RCA could give them that Warwick couldn't; they answered in
unison, "Being paid!"
At RCA the group was produced by Hugo and Luigi, hitmakers who produced Sam Cooke. During an early recording session they asked the Tokens if they had any songs they would like to record. The Tokens said that they liked "Wimoweh" a South African Zulu folk song written by Solomon Linda, and recorded in the early 1950s by Pete Seeger and the Weavers. The Tokens sang the song, which is basically a chant of the word "Wimoweh," which means "lion." Hugo & Luigi liked the song, but wanted a vocal melody above the chant, so they had George Weiss write the lyrics to "The Lion Sleeps Tonight". Hugo and Luigi also wanted an even higher backing vocal on the record, so they brought in operatic soprano Anita Darian, who was in demand singing pop backgrounds and doing commercial jingles. When they gave her the score, she said that she couldn't sing it like that, but she could sing it one octave higher. The dumbstruck producers said, "That's impossible." But Darian's amazing range is quite evident in "The Lion Sleeps Tonight," as it is in their followup, "B'wa Nina (Pretty Girl)."
"The Lion Sleeps Tonight" became a No. 1 hit for the Tokens in the US. The Tokens had other hits for RCA and issued four albums, The Lion Sleeps Tonight [RCA LSP-2514], We The Tokens Sing Folk [RCA LSP-2631], Wheels [RCA LSP-2886], and The Tokens Again [RCA LSP-3685], the latter two issued after they had left RCA. Although the first RCA album pictured only the four singers on the back, starting with the second RCA album, their accompanist, Joe Venneri, was also pictured with the group. In the photo below right, Venneri is at the center, surrounded by (clockwise from left) Hank Medress, Mitch Margo, Phil Margo and Jay Siegel.
After leaving RCA in late 1963, they established their own record company called B.T. Puppy. The B.T.
comes from the Tokens music publishing company Bright Tunes, the puppy name was a nod to RCA
with their dog mascot Nipper. The company was located at 1700 Broadway in NYC.
The company was a 50-50 venture with Jerry Blaine, the owner of Jubilee Records. Jubilee was responsible for manufacturing and distributing the records produced by the Tokens. Their first hit was in late summer 1964, "He's in Town," which reached No. 43 on the Billboard charts (a cover version in the UK by the Rockin' Berries made #3 there). In the spring of 1966 they had a #30 hit with "I Hear Trumpets Blow."
Eventually, the Tokens abandoned recording for their own B.T. Puppy label and began recording albums
for other labels. In 1967 they signed with Warner Bros and recorded the album It's a Happening
World [Warner Bros WS 1685], which produced the top-40 hit "Portrait of My Love." The Tokens
offered a version of their later LP Intercourse to Warner Bros as a followup to It's a Happening
World, but Warners rejected it and apparently the group, too. The group then signed with Buddah in
1969 with the LP Both Sides Now [Buddah BDS 5059], which contained a stereo overdub
version of "He's In Town," new remakes of "The Lion Sleeps Tonight" and "Tonight I Fell In Love," the
original version of "I Hear Trumpets Blow," as well as minor charters "She Lets Her Hair Down (Early In
The Morning)," "Don't Worry Baby," "Both Sides Now," and "Some People Sleep." Hank Medress left
the
group in the early 1970s to become a producer (e.g., Tony Orlando & Dawn). The remaining trio carried
on, recording as Cross Country in 1973 with the LP Cross Country [Atco SD 7024].
In addition to their own career, the Tokens produced other artists, both on the B.T. Puppy label and for
other labels. They produced the Chiffons and Randy and the Rainbows for Laurie/Rust. Their biggest
success on B.T. Puppy was with a New Jersey group called the Four Graduates, who changed their
name to the Happenings when they signed with B.T. Puppy. The Happenings had the hit "See You In
September" which reached No. 3 on the US charts in August 1966. The Happenings did better with "I
Got Rhythm" which went to No. 1 in the Cash Box Charts, and they had a couple of additional hits in
1967 with "My Mammy" and "Why Do Fools Fall in Love." The Happenings put out two original albums
and a Greatest Hits compilation on the label, and although the first LP and the compilation charted, their
second album, Psycle, arguably their best, inexplicably failed to chart. The Happenings left to
sign with Jubilee Records, where they released Peace of Mind [Jubilee JGS 8028] in 1969.
The first 5 albums on the label did well with one album by the Tokens, three albums by the Happenings and one with both the Tokens and Happenings. And then the bottom dropped out. At the end of 1968, when the Happenings comp, as well as their last chart single, left the charts, there were no more chart hits on B.T. Puppy.
This brings us to the enduring mystery concerning B.T. Puppy Records. After those first five albums, what happened?? The twenty one albums on the label after the first five are nearly impossible to find, and if you do find one, it costs big bucks. Twenty-one albums, all pressed in low quantities and not promoted much at all. Huh?
Many people have speculated that B.T. Puppy may have been running a tax dodge, but this didn't seem like the case. Tax scam labels popped up in the late 1970s and early 1980s (B.T. Puppy was gone by then), and were operated to provide losses that could be used to shelter profits in a parent company. The classic case is Morris Levy's Roulette label which formed the Tiger Lily label and produced 100 poorly- selling albums on the label in just two years. Tiger Lily bought master tapes from defunct record companies or bands, and then issued records of that material. The albums issued were bare-bones affairs clearly not finished, with minimal mastering and lousy cover graphics not meant to entice prospective customers to buy. The companies made no effort to promote the records and quickly dumped the few records produced into the cut-out market. The label would then claim inflated costs in producing the records and the parent company would use the losses to cover profits of the parent company. The albums produced by these labels are selling for big dollars in today's collector market, just because they are so rare. These labels operated mainly between 1976 and the early 1980's. In addition to Tiger Lily, there were more than a handful of other labels allegedly operating in this way.
B.T Puppy does not easily fit the mold of these tax dodge labels. First off, B.T. Puppy ended in 1972, a
few years before the tax scam heyday. Second, B.T. Puppy albums, even though rare, do have first
class graphics and production values. Third, the material issued on the label was usually recorded in-
house, not purchased from other companies. According to an interview with Mitch Margo in the notes for
the CD reissue of the Token's rare Intercourse album, Margo said of the odd behavior of B.T.
Puppy that "it was filling a contractual commitment with our distributor, Jubilee.... I wasn't pleased at all
about it. There were very few printed and it is indeed a rarity." Even though Margo was talking
specifically about the Intercourse album, this is probably the explanation for all of the albums after
the first five.
A look through some of the last twenty-one albums seems to support the idea that the albums were pressed with no anticipation that they would be hits. Most of the albums were by unknowns. The album by Brute Force certainly was off-color enough to be banned from the radio. Finally, even though the word "Intercourse" means "talk", nobody would suspect it would be a top-200 best seller, if it was stocked in record stores at all. Just like Phil Spector's contract-fulfilling Crystals single "(Do) The Screw," one wonders whether B.T. Puppy had a different meaning of the word in mind all the time.
Although B.T. Puppy stopped putting out singles in 1970 and albums in 1972, the company stayed in a dormant state rather than closing down altogether. In the 1990s, they re-established the label for production of CDs, with some reissues and some new material. This discography includes listings for LPs, singles, and known CD issues.
BTPS-1010 - Mixed
Soul - Cinnamon Angels & Satans Four [1970] This was actually the Chiffons and the
Del Satins, respectively. Released with two different covers. Dance To The Music (S)/(I'm Not Gonna
Worry Cause) I Know He's Mine (S)/Can I Depend On You (S)/Cute Little Girl In Town (S)/Let's Be
Sweethearts (S)/Calypso Girl (S)//I Can't Find The Girl On My Mind Now (M)/It's Raining Outside
(M)/That's When I'll Stop Loving You (S)/If I Knew You (S)/Say There (S)/Brother Where Are You (S)
