Guest post by Nathan Arizona
When the Newbeats sang their new 1964 earworm hit “Bread and Butter” on Dick Clark’s “American Bandstand,” teens all over America were surprised to see that the lead singer wasn’t a girl. The high-pitched vocal came from a sturdy-looking blond guy at a time when falsetto singing in pop music was still rare. Larry Henley’s falsetto was especially jolting when he jumped in after a few normal lines from the backup singers.
The song was catchy as hell but kind of goofy. “Well, I like bread and butter/I like toast and jam/That’s what baby feeds me/I’m her loving man”. It wasn’t a novelty song, but it did go pretty close to the line. The robotic dance moves by Henley were kind of weird too, but oddly mesmerizing.
The Newbeats were scuffling before they received “Bread and Butter” in the mail from a guy they had known in Texas. They placed it with a record company, but didn’t expect much from the effort
Here’s what the kids on “Bandstand” heard. The two guys flanking Henley were brothers Dean and Mark Mathis, who founded the band with Henley a few years earlier.
The Newbeats never had another smash hit, but “Bread and Butter” has had a long afterlife. Schmidt’s Blue Ribbon Bread used it in a commercial for many years. So did other food companies. including Spam and Doritos.The caviar distributors did not come calling. It was also featured in a Walmart ad. It was on the soundtracks of movies “Anchorman” and “Brave Little Toaster Goes to Mars.” Devo sang it on the soundtrack of the erotic film “9 1/2,” sticking fairly close to the original. The Newbeats’ version was kind of silly, but they didn’t wear flowerpots on their heads.
Henley went on to a successful songwriting career, mainly due to a tune that was basically the opposite of “Bread and Butter” — “Wind Beneath My Wings,” first widely heard as sung by Bette Milder in the movie “Beaches” and since then at pretty much every wedding in America. Sappy, not snappy.
Falsetto was popular in R&B and soul before “Bread and Butter,” but not in pop itself. (I guess we can’t count Alvin and the Chipmunks). Frankie Valli was around, but his voice was a bit lower than Henley’s, whose falsetto didn’t sound much like anybody else’s. Barry Gibbs’ falsetto was probably the most successful. He didn’t know he had it in him until his producer asked him to try it on the Bee Gees’ “Nights on Broadway” in 1975. It became a huge hit, sure, but it never made it into a Spam commercial.