Banana Splits discography: History and Key Facts

The Banana Splits are a fictional musical group of four animal characters; Fleegle, a dog; Bingo, a gorilla; Drooper, a lion; and Snorky, an elephant; played by actors in costume miming to music created for them, who starred in their own successful television series The Banana Splits Adventure Hour.

The Banana Splits' bubblegum pop rock and roll was provided by studio professionals, including Al Kooper ("You're the Lovin' End"), Barry White ("Doin' the Banana Split"), and Gene Pitney ("Two Ton Tessie"). Jimmy Radcliffe provided his songs ("I'm Gonna Find a Cave", "Soul", "Don't Go Away Go-Go Girl", "Adam Had 'Em" and "The Show Must Go On") but did not contribute vocals to Splits recordings. The music director was music publisher Aaron Schroeder who picked the songs created by his staff writers. The intended main theme song was to be the Ritchie Adams and Tony Powers song "We're the Banana Splits" but the television and advertising executives thought the "Tra La La Song", another Adams composition co-written with prolific songwriter and producer Mark Barkan, was a catchier theme.

According to an interview in DISCoveries magazine, Adams and Barkan sang "Wait Til Tomorrow", "We're the Banana Splits" and "The Tra La La Song". David Mook produced all of the released tracks (co-producing the single sides Long Live Love and Pretty Painted Carousel with Aaron Schroeder), credited as "A Past, Present, and Future Production by David Mook for Hanna-Barbera Productions, Inc." (Mook also co-wrote the theme songs for Chuck Barris's The Dating Game and The Newlywed Game). Arranger Jack Eskew also orchestrated some of the Splits' tunes. Three singles, "The Tra La La Song", "Wait Till Tomorrow", and "Long Live Love" were released by the Splits along with an album, We're the Banana Splits. Two 45 rpm EP records with four songs each were available via an offer on the back of Kellogg's cereal boxes. Two of the three singles as well as both EPs were issued with picture sleeves.

Source and attribution

Text excerpted from Banana Splits discography by Wikipedia contributors, available under Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0. The extract is abridged and formatting has been adjusted; the adapted text on this page is shared under the same licence. Revision history.