Vanilla Pop – Sweet Sounds from Frankie Avalon to ABBA
Joseph Lanza
Vanilla Pop tells the story of a branch of popular music history that since the 1950s has been relegated to the sidelines, as historians concentrate on the more R&B influenced, “credible” rock ‘n’ roll.
The book describes the character of vanilla pop as “extreme studio processing, high-register vocals, flowing melodies, ethereal sound effects”. Which is a fairly accurate description of the music of ABBA.The story is primarily an American one, though parelleling rock history, as the 1960s and then 70s progress, British and then European artists made their impact on the genre. Many of the artists discussed are pretty much forgotten today, many having never really made any impact outside America in the first place.
But that doesn’t detract from the story for the modern reader, and indeed it’s enlightening to learn about these long forgotten artists. The book ends with a selected discography of “vanilla artists” encouraging the reader to go out and listen to this music.For the ABBA fan, the main interest is the penultimate chapter, Chapter 13: ABBA’s Vanilla Ice. It celebrates ABBA’s vanilla qualities, framed in the basic ABBA biography. The reader may not necessarily agree that ABBA belong in the same genre as artists such as Frankie Avalon, Mitch Miller, The New Christy Minstrels or the Carpenters, but the author makes a compelling argument.
Interestingly, Benny’s pre-ABBA group The Hep Stars also garner a mention, with their cover of ‘Groovy Summertime’, originally recorded by The Love Generation, one of the bands featured in the book.If you’re a fan of all sorts of music, Vanilla Pop is an interesting read.
August 2005. Book supplied by Chicago Review Press.
