Known as 'the first of the heavy bands' and 'doyens of punk mysterioso' this Long Island group first came to public attention in 1967 with a revival of an old Supremes hit `You Keep Me Hangin´ On`. Vanilla Fudge had slowed down this song to half its original tempo, inserted plenty of neo-classical organ and Indian guitar licks and swelled it up to an almost Spectoresque extravaganza.
A full seven-and-a-half-minute version of this single was included on the 1967 debut album "Vanilla Fudge", plus Fudged-up arrangements of such songs as `Eleanor Rigby`, `Ticket To Ride` (both written by the Beatles), `Bang Bang` (by Sonny & Cher) and `People Get Ready` (by The Impressions). Their almost fussy neo-gospel harmonies and cinerama arrangements were irritating a lot of people, but created a certainly exhilarating sound.
The second Vanilla Fudge album "The Beat Goes On" was one of the most gallant disasters in the annals of rock, a musical record of the previous 25 years including the entire history of music in less than twelve minutes. The third album "Renaissance" was released some months later and featured mostly original songs as well as a nine-minute version of Donovan's `Season Of The Witch`.
By 1970 Vanilla Fudge issued their final album "Rock And Roll" and disbanded. Carmine Appice and Tim Bogert formed Cactus and eventually ended up playing with Jeff Beck in Beck, Bogart & Appice. Mark Stein formed Boomerang.
Vanilla Fudge had made the whole notion of interpretaion interesting again. But their own songs and in live performance they were almost too hard to take. That mixture of overpowering Rascals organ and psychedelic Hendrix guitar, all those slow build-ups and crescendos, those lulls and storms, every bit of it copied by a hundred other Long Island hard-rock groups-it finally got too much for everyone except the fans of what the Fudge termed "psychedelic symphonic rock."