Is that the sound of coffee percolating? No, it’s popcorn, with “Popcorn” being the name of Hot Butter’s one and only hit single. Led by keyboardist Stan Free, who previously worked with groups such as the Association, the Monkees, and the Four Seasons, Hot Butter additionally included Dave Mullaney, Bill Jerome, Steve Jerome, Danny Jordan, and John Abbott.
An instrumental, Hot Butter’s “Popcorn” (Musicor Records) was certainly an oddity at the time of its birth. Cracking the national Top 10 in the summer of 1972, the strange track was monopolized by the cosmic buzz of a Moog synthesizer, which to many was viewed as an alien entity, since it was still relatively new and hadn’t yet become a staple of the rock diet.
Charged and layered with hypnotizing rhythms, “Popcorn” bubble-oops, bubble-oops, and bubble-oops some more to the point where it’s guaranteed to assault the senses and not let go. A bit comical and cheesy, but astonishingly inventive, the pulsating piece rested on elements of disco and electronica, years before either genre was even a twinkle in anybody’s eye, or ear I should say. In fact, in hindsight, Hot Butter’s “Popcorn” was so futuristic that it could pass for a contemporary recording.
The flipside of “Popcorn” was also an instrumental stressing the groovy features and techniques of the Moog synthesizer. Sweet and atmospheric, “At The Movies” strolls, glides, and trots about to the kind of warm, cheery, and dreamy din known for haunting elevators and medical offices.
So far out they were in, Hot Butter were indeed unique visionaries.
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