Le Pamplemousse - Le Spank

"There's nothing else I wanna do, but Spank it, Spank with you!"

My review of 'Le Spank' by Le Pamplemousse

There's some really great synth and piano chords, solos and electronic sounds throughout, which play an important part as the track doesn't feature any strings. The bass line is nice and simple syncopated licks and the vocals are quite stacato, punchy but melodic at the same time.

I love the couple of simple but really catchy synth melodies, the second of which has some really nice 'glide'. The track is finished off with a very relaxed jazzy sax solo.

Quite a relaxed but funky song, well written and performed.

Mini Biography for 'Le Pamplemousse'

'Le Pamplemousse' was another studio project of the legendary disco funk / jazz funk producers Laurin Rinder and Michael Lewis. The pair released material under several different guises in the 70's including 'El Coco' and 'Tuxedo Junction'. Basically, any material they had was given to the project that it fitted best.

The term 'Le Pamplemousse' simply means 'Grapefruit' in french, and each album cover and some of the single contained some sort of reference to a Grapefruit, usually displayed in a suggestive or errotic way.

The band consisted of musicians that Rinder and Lewis worked a lot with on their other projects, however, Laurin Rinder has admitted that both he and Michael Lewis did so much of the instrumental work, that it's possible that the musicians credited on each album were just added, when in fact they may not have played any part. However credit shouldn't be taken away from these musicians, as they were all involved some way or another with Lewis and Rinder's projects, and could well have played a part! The truth is that only they know who actually did something or not!

'The Jones girls' however, certainly did provide vocals for the project. The Jones sisters Valerie, Shirley and Brenda Jones were originally from Detroit Michegan. In the 60's they sang in Detroit as opening acts for artists such as 'The Four Tops' and 'Little Richard'. After some solo success on the Paramount Records and Curtis Mayfield's Curtom Records labels the girls were quite in demand during the 70's as session vocalists. A major turning point in their career was when they started singing for Diana Ross. After two years recording and touring with Diana Ross they managed to secure a record deal with the Philadelphia International Records label and released 4 LP's.

See my previous post El Coco - Cocomotion for further Biography of 'Laurin Rinder and Michael Lewis

My other favorite tunes by 'Le Pamplemousse'

Gimme what you got Youtube
Gitcha Down

'Le Pamplemousse' Band Members / Musicians

• Laurin Rinder - Drums, Percussion, Production
• Michael Lewis - Synthesizer, Keyboards, Piano, Electric Piano, Clavinet, Organ, Marimba, Glockenspiel, Horn arrangemnet, Production
• The Jones Girls (Valerie, Shirley, and Brenda Jones) - Vocals
• Jack Weber - Guitar
• John Hunt - Guitar
• Joe Bellamy - Bass
• Stan Fisher - Bass
• Gil Karson - Bass
• Dave Williams - Bass
• Washington Jones - Organ, Piano
• Doug Richardson - Soprano / Tenor Saxaphone
• Jo Bim Avanzi - Tenor Saxaphone
• Michael Lewis - Clavinet, Synthesizer
• Harry Kim - Trumpet
• Adrienne Williams - Vocals
• Jerri Bocchino - Vocals
• Chris Bocchino - Vocals
• Mark Bryson - Vocals
• Kathy Nixon - Vocals
• Marsha Thacker - Vocals
• Alex Brown - Vocals
• Mortonette Jenkins - Vocals
• Patti Hall - Vocals
• Merria Ross - Conductor
• Engineers - David Ruffo, Joe Bellamy
• Executive Producers - Ed Cobb , Ray Harris

Discography for 'Le Pamplemousse'

Albums

• Le Pamplemousse - AVI Records - 1976 / 1980
• Le Spank - AVI Records / Derby / EMI Electrola - 1977
• Sweet Magic - AVI Records - 1978
• Planet Of Love - AVI records / Disques Vogue / Derby - 1979
• My Love Is Burning Up - AVI Records - 1981
• Put Your Love Where Your Mouth Is - AVI Records - 1984

Singles

• Get your boom boom around the room - AVI records / Barclay - 1976
• Gimmie What You Got - AVI Records - 1976
• Le Spank - AVI records / Barclay - 1977
• Do You Have Any (Ya Know Where I Can Get Some) / Slowdown - AVI Records - 1978
• Monkey See, Monkey Do - AVI Records - 1978
• Sweet Magic (7") AVI Records - 1978
• You + Me = Love / Wear It Out / Le Spank - Unidisc - 1986
• Cocomotion / Le Spank (reissue with 'El Coco')- Hot Classics - 1990
• Le Spank / Street Dance (reissue) - Unidisc - 1993
• I Like The Sounds - Azuli Records / Formaldehyde / Definity Records - 1999

Youtube Video