Hot Butter


Hot Butter was an American instrumental band fronted by the keyboard player Stan Free. The other band members were Dave Mullaney, John Abbott, Bill Jerome, Steve Jerome, and Danny Jordan. They were best known for their 1972 version of the Moog synthesizer instrumental, "Popcorn", originally recorded by its composer, Gershon Kingsley, in 1969. The track became an international hit, selling a million copies in France, 250,000 in the United Kingdom, and over two million globally.

Career

The group released two albums, Hot Butter and More Hot Butter, primarily of covers, on LP issued by Hallmark Records. The two albums were compiled on CD as Popcorn on the Castle Music label in 2000, though several tracks, including Roger Whittaker's "Mexican Whistler", were deleted.
Tracks written by members of the band were "At the Movies" and "Tristana", by all the band members except Free, and "Space Walk", by Dave Mullaney and his brother. "The Silent Screen " is credited to all the members except for Free, but it's actually an arrangement of the main theme of the first movement of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's Symphony No. 40. Among the other artists covered by the band were Stephen Schwartz, Jerry Lordan and The Shadows, Neil Diamond, Joe Meek and The Tornados, Neal Hefti, Serge Gainsbourg, Robert Maxwell, Piero Umiliani, Jean-Joseph Mouret, Billy Joe & the Checkmates, Joe Buffalo's Band, Teo Macero, Leroy Anderson, Chuck Rio, and Norman Petty and The String-A-Longs. Mullaney and Abbott did most of the arranging. The Jeromes, Jordan, and Richard E. Talmadge produced the albums with MTL Productions for Musicor.
In addition to "Popcorn", another well known track is August Musarurwa's "Skokiaan", which was included on RE/Search's compilation album, Incredibly Strange Music. Follow-up singles included The Shadows' "Apache", Chuck Rio's "Tequila", Billy Joe and the Checkmates' "Percolator", Joe Buffalo's Band's "Slag Solution", and Gene Farrow with G.F. Band's "You Should Be Dancing".

Discography

Albums

''Hot Butter''

Side one
  1. "Popcorn"
  2. "Day by Day"
  3. "Apache"
  4. "At the Movies"
  5. "Tristana"
  6. "Song Sung Blue"
Side two
  1. "Telstar"
  2. "Tomatoes"
  3. "Amazing Grace"
  4. "Love at First Sight"
  5. "Song of the Narobi Trio"
  6. "Hot Butter "

    ''More Hot Butter''

Side one
  1. "Percolator"
  2. "Slag Solution"
  3. "Sounds"
  4. "Wheels"
  5. "Skokiaan"
  6. "Pipeline"
Side two
  1. "Space Walk"
  2. "The Masterpiece"
  3. "Tequila"
  4. "Syncopated Clock"
  5. "Kappa Maki"
  6. "Mah-Na, Mah-Na"

    ''Popcorn with Hot Butter''

Side one
  1. "Popcorn"
  2. "Day by Day"
  3. "Apache"
  4. "At the Movies"
  5. "Tomatoes"
Side two
  1. "Pipeline"
  2. "Hot Butter"
  3. "Telstar"
  4. "Tristana"
  5. "Song of the Nairobi Trio"
  6. "Amazing Grace"

    ''Moog Hits''

Side one
  1. "Slag Solution"
  2. "Sounds Simple"
  3. "Wheels"
  4. "Skokiaan"
  5. "Russian Whistler"
Side two
  1. "Space Walk"
  2. "The Masterpiece"
  3. "Tequila"
  4. "Syncopated Clock"
  5. "Mah-Na, Mah-Na"
  6. "Mexican Whistler"

    ''Popcorn'' (CD)

  1. "Popcorn" Bourne Music
  2. "Day by Day" Valando Music
  3. "Apache" Francis Day & Hunter
  4. "At the Movies" Catalogue Music
  5. "Tristana" Catalogue Music
  6. "Song Sung Blue" Ardmore & Beechwood
  7. "Telstar" Ivy Music Ltd
  8. "Tomatoes" Famous Chappell
  9. "Amazing Grace" ARTAL
  10. "Love at First Sight" Shapiro Bernstein/Britico
  11. "Song of the Narobi Trio"
  12. "Hot Butter " ARTAL
  13. "Mah-Na-Mah-Na" Carlin Music Corp
  14. "Masterpiece" September Music Corp
  15. "Percolator"
  16. "Skokiaan" Peter Maurice Music Co Ltd
  17. "Slag Solution" Copyright Control
  18. "Sounds" Warner Chappell Music Ltd
  19. "Space Walk" Copyright Control
  20. "Syncopated Clock" EMI Harmonies Ltd
  21. "Tequila" MCA Music Ltd
  22. "Wheels" Campbell Connelly & Co Ltd

    Singles

"Popcorn"

Side one
  1. "Popcorn"
Side two
  1. "At the Movies"

    "Apache"

Side one
  1. "Apache"
Side two
  1. "Hot Butter"

    "Tequila"

Side one
  1. "Tequila"
Side two
  1. "Tomatoes"

    "Percolator"

Side one
  1. "Percolator"
Side two
  1. "Tristana"

    "Slag Solution"

Side one
  1. "Slag Solution"
Side two
  1. "Kappa Maki"

    "You Should Be Dancing"

Side one
  1. "You Should Be Dancing" Hye Fye Music Ltd
Side two
  1. "You Should Be Dancing" Hye Fye Music Ltd
Arranged by B.K. Bowie; produced by Jerry "Swamp Dog" Williams, Jr.