No. 74: ‘You Keep Me Hangin’ On’

The story goes that producer Shadow Morton came up with the recipe for Vanilla Fudge when he heard its organist playing the 45 rpm record of the Supremes’ “You Keep Me Hangin’ On” at 33 …“in order to learn it.”

“That’s the group,” Morton remembered saying. The Long Island band’s signature move became to slow down, lengthen and freak out the Top 40 hits of the day.

Morton also changed the group’s name — from the Pigeons to Vanilla Fudge. The name still seems appropriate, as they were white boys specializing in thick and sticky covers of R&B/Motown hits — “You Keep Me Hangin’ On,” “Take Me for a Little While,” “People Get Ready,” “Shotgun,” “My World Is Empty Without You” and so on.

The technique made for some strange listening, but it struck gold with the Supremes makeover. The cover became a smash for the unknown band in the summer of 1967, just as top 40 radio warmed to psychedelic pop and FM radio emerged.

“You Keep Me Hangin’ On,” with its funeral church organ and bursts of hard rock chops, played like a novelty song at the time. The Motown original’s frenetic Morse Code-like cry for help became an opening B-3 organ dirge.

Hippie nation embraced the odd mix of the familiar — the Supremes’ already classic hit from 1966 — with the heady-spooky vibes of the day. Promoters spun it as symphonic psychedelic rock.

The reheated “Hangin’ On” single (3 minutes or so) reached No. 6 on the charts. The version of choice for the underground came on the band’s self-titled debut album, clocking in at almost 7 minutes.

That debut album by Vanilla Fudge was all covers, of course, an odd move in the era of album rock artists. (The LP also had songs by the Beatles and Sonny & Cher.)

“That was the whole style,” organist Mark Stein recalled. “We had that (half speed) approach to every song. It was great.” The act was further defined by Stein’s B-3 organ and the explosive drum work of Carmine Appice, usually applied with the light & heavy dynamics that found favor in hard rock over the coming decade.

Appice argues that the Fudge version of the song was more in tune with lyricist Eddie Holland’s work than the Supremes’ buzzsaw original: The Motown record “sounds very happy, but the lyrics aren’t happy at all. If you lived through that situation, the lyrics are definitely not happy.” (The original was written and produced by the hitmaking team of Holland–Dozier–Holland.)

Vanilla Fudge was red hot for the rest of 1967, playing with Janis Joplin, Cream, and the Mamas and the Papas. The party ended with a splat with the follow-up “The Beat Goes On,” a concept album based on a Sonny & Cher song and the historic march of time. The album remains an infamous dud, the “Ishtar” of the psychedelic era. The band blamed Shadow Morton and he agreed with them.

Bassist Tim Bogert later said, ” ‘The Beat Goes On’ was the album that killed the band.”

Vanilla Fudge’s lone hit marches on into the new century, a staple of classic rock radio. Film and TV soundtrack credits include “Once Upon a Time in Hollywood,” “Mad Men” and “The Sopranos.” In “Hollywood,” director Quentin Tarantino uses “Hangin’ On” as fuel for the scene in which the heroes fight and kill home-invading Manson family members.

Liner notes: Bassist Bogert and drummer Appice went on to found Cactus, a blues rock outfit in the vein of Humble Pie and the Shadows of Knight. Bogert died in 2021. … Reba McEntire and Kim Wilde both enjoyed success with future revisions of “Hangin’ On.” … Vanilla Fudge broke up in 1970, but reunited several times and continued to perform as of 2022.

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