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At the height of the "Flower Power" era of psychedelic music in the mid sixties, Strawberry Alarm Clock gave us one of classic rock's most memorable songs, 1967's, "Incense and Peppermints". Formerly known as The Sixpence, this California based group was originally made up of Ed King of (lead guitar), Lee Freeman (rhythm guitar), Gary Lovetro (bass), Mark Weitz (organ), and Randy Seol (drums). (Ed King went on of course to play with Lynyrd Skynyrd)

The story of the song, "Incense & Peppermints," is a fascinating one. The recording was initially intended as a 'B side' and the lead vocal is actually that of a friend of the band, 16 year old Greg Munford, who was just hanging around during the session. He was not even a regular band member, but ended up singing a tune that would rocket to number one in the United States and sell over a million copies. Despite this success, Munford never actually joined the group.

Before recording their full-length debut album, the band added a second bass guitarist, George Bunnell, who was also an accomplished songwriter who's contributions enhanced a style that coupled hippie trappings with enchanting melodies and some imaginative instrumentation.

In the summer of 1967, The Strawberry Alarm Clock contributed music to the film "Psych-Out", as well as appearing in it. The band toured the US with some of the biggest acts of the day, but poor management and dissention among the members started to tear it apart. Bassist Gary Lovetro left the band before they recorded their second album, "Wake Up It's Tomorrow", which also appeared in 1967. A second single release, "Tomorrow" made it to number 23 in January, 1968.

Between 1968's album, "The World In A Seashell" and 1969's "Good Morning Starshine" the band went through a number of line-up changes which undermined their direction. To add to their problems, a manager who double-booked them on several occasions brought on many lawsuits.

Although they remained together until 1971, the Strawberry Alarm Clock was unable to regain its early popularity and saw only limited success on the singles chart with "Sit With The Guru".

Ed King later joined Lynyrd Skynyrd, while several of his former bandmates reunited during the 80s for a succession of "summer of love revisited" tours. Their memory would be brought to the forefront again in 1997 when "Incense And Peppermints" was featured in the first Austin Powers movie.

The entire band who recorded "Incense and Peppermints", including Greg Munford, was set to get together in December, 2004, for the first time since the recording session, but last minute contract problems prevented it.

The Strawberry Alarm Clock was my psychedelic band from California and reached the top of the charts with "Incense and Peppermints" at the height of the flower power era in 1967. We were originally called Thee Sixpence but decided to change our name to something more...contemporary(?). When I got home from the band meeting resulting in the name change, my mother simply said "You've GOT to be kidding." The band consisted of me on lead guitar (and a lot of bass on the 2nd, 3rd & 4th albums), Lee Freeman (rhythm guitar), George Bunnell (bass), Mark Weitz (organ), and Randy Seol (drums).

The story behind the song, "Incense and Peppermints," is a fascinating one...as well as a hard lesson learned! Mark Weitz wrote the bulk of the music and I wrote the bridge. We didn't have lyrics.

Our manager took our music track to a producer in Hollywood. In a month we received our lyrics in the form of sheet music and a demo tape. Neither Mark's name or my name appeared on the credits. Our manager's explanation? "This is what you have to do to break into the music business." What? Give away something you wrote??

No one in the band could sing the tune so the vocal was done by a friend of ours, Greg Munford, who also had a local band. Despite the record going to #1 in November, 1967, Munford never joined the band.

The Strawberry Alarm Clock appeared on some of the top television shows at the time (including The Jonathan Winters Show, Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In) and a couple of movies ("Psych-Out" and, later, "Beyond the Valley of the Dolls"). We recorded a follow-up tune called "Tomorrow" which charted as high as #14. The record company didn't like our next album so they brought in some outside writers for our third album. By this time, internal conflicts caused the departure of Bunnell & Seol. We tried, through various incarnations, to revive the music but just couldn't come up with another "Incense...".

Funny how things work out. While the "Clock" was sitting at home and out of work, we received word that our former manager had put together a bogus "Clock" and had booked a 3-month tour of the South. We were able to stop the bogus band in its tracks and then decided WE should do the tour ourselves. And THAT's how I met Ronnie Van Zant and the rest of Lynyrd Skynyrd.

Skynyrd was our opening act for most of the tour. We became good friends and went through some interesting experiences together. (Remind me to tell you about the riot at the Army Base in Albany, Georgia where a lot of our equipment got stolen - we barely got out with our lives!).

One day Skynyrd was rehearsing at a club in downtown Jacksonville. Ronnie called me and said "Come on down...we want you to hear a tune we wrote." The tune was called "Need All My Friends" and I was blown away. I wanted to play guitar behind that guy! It took a couple of years but finally, in late '72, Ronnie called me with an invite into the band....on bass.

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