Popcorn!

So I am currently living in Israel for the next few months, and in honor of Rosh Hashanah - the Jewish New Year - decided to post about the greatest Israeli cultural export. No, not Natalie Portman, I'm referring to Gershon Kingsley, a former Kibbutznik and electronic-music pioneer who is probably most famous for writing Popcorn. Kingsley was born in Weimar Germany in 1922 and immigrated to then-Palestine in 1938 where he learned piano and played jazz in Tel Aviv and Jerusalem. In 1946, he moved to L.A., studied at Cal Arts and then migrated to New York where he made a name for himself in musical theatre. In 1966, he undertook a series of albums, first with collaborator Jean-Jacques Perrey and then with his own quartet, in early electronic music. It's these albums that I want to shine a light on.

Kingsley and Perrey's first album - The In-Sound from Way Out - is decent, but I'm most partial to their third album which better incorporated The Moog (pictured above in an early incarnation) than their first two efforts - Music to Moog By.

Two stand-out tracks. First off, "Hey Hey" which was later sampled by RJD2 for "The Horror."


And then, because I can't resist - the original Popcorn. This predates the version later recorded by Hot Butter, a band Kingsley's quartet members would form in the early 1970s. I find this to be the superior version - a more sophisticated, if less dancy, arrangement.


UPDATE: Because I thought this was kinda cool, the composer himself, Gershon Kingsley, playing a very melodic and arguably moving rendition of Popcorn on his grand piano.

Shana Tova!