The Lemon Pipers were a 1960s psychedelic pop band from Oxford, Ohio, known chiefly for their song "Green Tambourine", which reached No.1 in the United States in 1968. The song has been credited as being the first bubblegum pop chart-topper. Credited or not, the song appealed to the hippy movement of the time, to which bubblegum music was anathema. The success of "Green Tambourine" caused the label to put pressure on the group to stay in the bubblegum genre, and in March 1968 the band released another Leka/Pinz song, "Rice Is Nice", which peaked at No.46 in the US and No. 41 in the UK in May. The band had little enthusiasm for either song, however, dubbing them "funny-money music" and recording them only because they knew they would be dropped by Buddah if they refused. The Lemon Pipers evolution from 1960s rock music into a gold record bubblegum band created what keyboardist Robert "Reg" Nave has described as "the duality of The Lemon Pipers": "We were a stand-up rock 'n' roll band, and then all of a sudden, we're in a studio, being told how to play and what to play."
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