Lemon Pipers – Green Tambourine

Green Tambourine is a single from The Lemon Pipers  album with the same title, from 1967. No. 1 on February 3, 1968, sold over a million copies. The record remained on the chart for three months. The Lemon Pipers never repeated this success.

Lyricist Shelley Pinz wrote the words to this song after reading a newspaper article about an elder UK street musician who used a tambourine to collect money as he performed in front of a bank.

The Indian tones and haunting sitar music playing in the background gave the song a special atmosphere which obviously captured the imagination of the record buying public of the time. The vocals are accentuated by a heavily emphasized tape echo every time the word play appears. The Lemon Pipers would never repeat their success with Green Tambourine and pretty soon after went their separate ways.

The members of the Lemon Pipers weren’t too comfortable being made over into a bubblegum act; they wanted to make sophisticated psych-rock.

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The Lemon Pipers - Green Tambourine

THE LEMON PIPERS Green Tambourine 1968 HQ02:25

The Lemon Pipers comprised drummer William (Bill) E. Albaugh (1946–1999), guitarist Bill Bartlett (born 1946), vocalist Dale “Ivan” Browne (born 1947), keyboardist Robert G. Nave (1944–2020), and bassist Steve Walmsley (born 1948), who replaced the original bass guitarist Bob “Dude” Dudek.

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