Yesterday’s classic song of the day was about 99 red balloons; today’s is about a single yellow balloon. The song, which few of you will remember (but might recall when you listen to it), is called “Yellow Balloon” and it’s performed by a group called The Yellow Balloon. Released in February of 1967, this little piece of sunshine pop rose to #25 on the Billboard Hot 100.
The group The Yellow Balloon was truly a one-hit wonder—actually, a one tune wonder. The flip side of the “Yellow Balloon” single was titled “Noollab Wolley,” which is “Yellow Balloon” backwards—which is literally what the track was, the song played backwards. The A-side rose to #25 on the Billboard Hot 100 in 1967. Nobody played the B-side.
“Yellow Balloon” was written by songwriter/producer Gary Zekley (along with Dick St. John and Jay Lee), who also wrote “Sooner or Later” for the Grass Roots. He first gave the song to Dean Torrence (the “Dean” of Jan and Dean) for a solo release, but Zekley didn’t like that recording and shopped it around a little. It landed with Ken Handler of Canterbury Records, who brought in a bunch of LA studio musicians (including Jim Gordon on drums) to record it. They attached the name The Yellow Balloon to the studio recording and made it into a hit. For “live” performances, Zekley employed some long-haired teenaged ringers to do the lip synching.
(Dean Torrence’s slightly more Beach Boys-like version of “Yellow Balloon” was released as a single attributed to Jan and Dean; it didn’t break into the Hot 100.)
Whomever was singing and playing, “Yellow Balloon” is a classic slice of ’60s sunshine pop, complete with lots of “ba ba bas” and fairly meaningless lyrics about “It’s like a yellow balloon, on a rainy afternoon, and love’s a yellow balloon.” Whatever that means. Sounds nice, though.
And here’s your daily bonus video of the day, the nonexistent group The Yellow Balloon lip synching the song “Yellow Balloon” on the LA-based TV show Shebang. Notable among this fake group of fake musicians (not a guitar cable or microphone in sight!) is actor Don Grady, also known as Robbie Douglas on the TV show My Three Sons. He’s the one in the big floppy yellow hat “playing” drums.
