For fans of easy listening, bubblegum, middle of the road pop or any other non-rock retro-kitsch genre, the Going Thing is sure to be grail. They are a classic example of how the “youth market” was packaged to non-youths of the late 60s. The group offers all the energy and sex appeal of “the in sound” with none of the messy commitment. The records are packed with rock and roll medleys as soothing to the over-the-hill crowd as they are insulting to rock fans. They’ve got hits of the day with new lyrics written especially for Ford Motors employees. They’ve got trite jokes about this crazy loud music all the kids are listening to these days. The whole affair is served up with the kind of infectious super-square showbiz glitz that I’m always on the lookout for.
I first discovered the group about ten years ago when I found their first album, “The Going Thing 1969″ in a thrift store. I also found their second album, “Christmas With The Going Thing,” in a thrift store. I acquired their opus, “The Going Thing 1970,” in a trade. All told, I probably spent less than five dollars on their catalog. Imagine my amusement at finding these albums for sale on eBay for a hundred bucks a copy — even the Christmas one! And despite their top-shelf kitsch appeal, they don’t seen to have made the rounds on any of the share blogs. Hopefully, the RapidShare link at the bottom of this post will help rectify the situation.
The core of the Going Thing was the writing/arranging/producing/performing team of brothers John and Tom Bahler. In the late 60s and early 70s, these guys were everywhere. They sang with Percy Faith, Anita Kerr and Hugo Montenegro. They supplied Raiders for Paul Revere and a Union Gap for Gary Puckett. They fixed vocals for The Monkees, Bobby Sherman and The Kids From The Brady Bunch. They “were” the Partidge Family (except for Keith). They appeared on the backs of cereal boxes and in the cartoons as such post-Archies groups as The Sugar Bears and Pebbles and Bamm Bamm’s Bedrock Rockers. They sang the theme to “Love American Style” and wrote lots of commercial jingles. They also released three albums with their own group, The Love Generation.
It was in the waning days of that project when the Bahlers signed on with advertising agency J. Walter Thompson to help organize a rock oriented campaign for Ford Motors. Designed to sell the the 1969 Ford line, The Going Thing — with their good looks and “youthful” outlook — appealed both to young consumers and dirty old franchise owners. They appeared in television commercials, performed at dealers conventions and recorded these three promotional giveaway albums.
Along with the Bahlers, the group also included guitarist Larry Carlton and singer Janis Hansen, who sang the lead vocal on the Sergio Mendez hit “The Look Of Love.” The group also very nearly included a young Karen and Richard Carpenter. At the last minute, they begged off to sign with A&M Records instead, thus reportedly foregoing a salary of fifty grand a year each and a couple of new Mustangs.
Like most ace studio session people, the Bahlers are mostly unknown to the general public. But there’s a great interview with Tom over at the “C’mon Get Happy” Partridge Family Tribute site, and some fan pages of Bahlerana on a site called — appropriately enough — The Bahler Pages. There’s also some video of The Going Thing in the LOVEfords Web site’s video library. And if that’s not enough, you can catch the Bahlers’ current work with the New Lawrence Welk Orchestra at the Champagne Theatre-Welk Resort in Branson, Missouri!
44 Responses to “The Going Thing”
- 1 Pingback on Apr 25th, 2006 at 3:13 pm
- 2 Pingback on Jun 15th, 2007 at 4:14 pm
Fantastic stuff, thanks
Wow. Ask and ye shall eventually receive. Until BGFink brought it up in his blog, I wasn’t aware that The Going Thing had done anything more than that little Ford promo that showed up on The 365 Days project in 2004.
Thanks.
More oddball records, please.
i love hearing all those gory details of Ford’s 1969 and 1970 product release campaigns.
The band reminds me of those groups that would perform the free shows inside amusement parks in the 70s.
BenT is correct. I worked for many years doing sound for Southern California theme parks, and this is exactly the kind of crapolium that would be presented by the park as ‘Entertainment’. A big crowd of semi-talents who have a year of Up With People under their belt, doing three to four a day for exhausted guest who will sit therough anything as long as it’s air-conditioned.
Many painful memories were knocked loose by this. It’s so packed with cheese I can’t help but get nostalgic. Thanks.
Howdy,
Loved the cheese but was blindsided when the going thing took a cheap shot at one of my heros, Herb Alpert. At the end of tijuana taxi they proclaim that “Herbie Alpert you’re Jewish now you say you’re spanish why didn’t you change your name.” Wow, is this a carry over from the old days at Ford when Henry was famously anti-semitic?
Keep it up and more odd-ball rekkids please.
Thanks, Miles
I would call that lyric anti semetic. It just doesn’t measure up to the rigid standards of sensitivity that we have today.
OK,
I have always been a fan of these “industrial’ records and enjoy the spin an industry tries to give to pop culture. That said, this is a nice collection of music and I enjoyed it very much. HOWEVER . . . When they got to “Hey Jude” I think they went a little to far.
This is like Karen Carpenter doing a tribute to Aretha Franklin. LOL
Oh man, this stuff is terrific. I have spent countless hours hunting through mostly crappy collections of vinyl at thrift stores and garage sales for precisely the type of items you have made available here. Most often, I have nothing to go by except for an eye-catching cover, and even then the desired result is far from guarenteed.
Thanks to the efforts of the good people at Bostworld, I can do a little less searching.
I particularly enjoy the spiel from the Ford advertising exec. I find it hard to believe that bit was intended for mass consumption. Ford wanted to demonstrate the superiority of their products by arrogantly blabbing about their oversaturation of all advertising mediums?
And to think, when I was a kid in the 60’s and 70’s my parents foolishly drove Plymouth and Dodge vehicles.
The Going Thing albums were never intended for public consumption. They were sent to dealers and sales reps only. The band only did the odd teevee commercial and played at conventions.
If you like The Going Thing, I suggest a visit to Dave’s Record Collection over at the CBS site:
http://www.cbs.com/latenight/lateshow/exclusives/record_collection/
There, Steve Young presides over a nice collection of oddball vinyl. I’ve had some correspondence with him; he’s an “Industrial Musical” fetishist with a hell of a collection.
There’s a good article on the subject at:
http://www.furious.com/perfect/industrialmusicals.html
LOVEfords, as mentioned above, does have some Going Thing c pieces in its video library. Check the web site http://www.lovefords.org for the latest - it is a superb quality 90-second commercial/artistic rendition of The Going Thing.
I found THE GOING THING 1970 today for $10. Yeah!
What a bargain! Hope it was two-sided and had a cover!
I believe Karen and Richard Carpenter were part of the group, as they both had to return the cars and 50k.
CW
Oh yeah — they signed the contracts all right. They did some fancy footwork to get out of them.
Yes they did some pretty spiffy footwork! I think they were friends with the Tom and he went to bat for them (thank god)!
Hey, do you know if they actually appeared in any ads for Ford or were they let out of the contract soon after it was signed?
Tom, yes. But also Herb and Jerry!
(I do not believe Karen and Dick did anything for Ford except sign their contract.)
I am from australia and my sister was in the australian version of the 1970s band “The Going Thing” does anyone have anything on this group??
cheers
I don’t know anything about an Australian Going Thing, but I seem to recall something on this site:
http://bubblegumfink.blogspot.com/
The content in question may no longer be up there, but you could trying shooting the proprietor an inquiry.
I found the 1970 Going Thing alblum at a thrift shop in Denver about 7 years ago and have always wondered what it was all about till I found this blog. Thanx!
It is I who thank you for visiting!
I heard “Dance to the Music” today on Luxuria Music and had to own it. Thank you!
Please post : asking Jayne if her sisters name was Megan and if she knew if the Aussie group “the going thing” went to London in/or about 1973? I had a friend who was in a group by the same name..all Aussie’s except one fellow from New Zealand. They had awesome harmonies……. and from the UK went to Puerto Rico to perform for awhile, then to the US (New Jersey).
(there was another girl in the group originally, but she left in London to marry a British fellow and started a family)
WOW! You took me back, man. I was about ten years old when Dad brought home “The Going Thing” album from work - he worked in “the glass house” as they call it in Dearborn, the Ford World Headquarters building. Yes, he was the consummate ’60’s ad man, starting with JWT on the Ford account in the mid ’50’s, then hired by Ford in ‘59. Was head of the Ford Truck campaign I think at the time of “The Going Thing”, and eventually was working directly under Edsel Ford (the one still living) when he retired in ‘92. A couple years before his passing the Going Thing theme found it’s way out of the caverns in my mind and I started singing it to him (after we enjoyed a couple martini’s - the ad man’s standard creative juice, ya know). He almost had to change his underwear he was laughing so loud. To hear it again… just takes me back!
Thank God I can return.
You gave me a moment today. Thanks.
Mike
Thanks for the recollection, Mike! I gotta figure there must have been a little bit of scorn for the children and their toy cars over in the truck division! Anyway, if you liked the above, check this out — it’s sure to mess your mind up a little bit more!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B8rAh72jRDo
Okay, I will cop to BEING in that group in 1970 (I am the guy on the right with the guitar on the LP cover. As matter of fact, I’m also the putz who ended up singing a mediocre rendition of “Hey Jude”). Thanks for the blast from the past. I have lost touch with pretty much everyone else who was in the band.
Kim Carnes was also almost in the 1970 group, but wanted to do it with her husband Dave. Ford opted for Larry Carlton, who went on to be one of the best guitarists on the planet, and a different girl.
Thanks for visiting Harry!
My Golddiggers post helped precipitate a reunion — perhaps the same thing will happen with TGT!
Now I double dare you to dig up stuff on The Kids Next Door. We did the Dean MArtin show and a lot of Vegas in the 60’s!
By way of example:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EbxWg5zUAhc
h
Oh My! I thought I was the only one who remembered The Going Thing! Our next-door neighbors owned a Ford dealership back in ‘69 and I was a car-crazy 7-year-old at the time. I went head-over-heels for the 1969 Ford car line, and I have ended up owning a total of eight 1969 Ford products over the years - I still have the Mustang and T-Bird! I loved Ford’s Going Thing theme for 1969 and still had the song running through my head (even remembering the lyrics!) for decades after. I so wished to hear it again, so when I came upon a snippet of the Going Thing theme song on LoveFords a couple of years ago, I nearly wet my pants! Since then, I managed to buy the Going Thing 1969 album on eBay - yes, I am one of the wackos who spent almost $100 on the album - but what a treasure it is to me! I collect memorabilia specific to 1969 Fords, so I guess J Walter Thompson really did a number on me with their 1969 Ford campaign! I would love to buy a video of all the 1969 Ford commercials with the Going Thing sound but I haven’t had any luck with that yet. Thank you SO MUCH for having this forum so I could learn so much more about THE GOING THING!!
Wow! I’ll bet you can find someone who’ll trade you a ‘69 Mustang for some Going Thing footage!
The drummer of The Going Thing was my brother. He was a very good drummer, and the rest of the group were good. The problem was the music. It never was going to last, but they were paid to advertise Ford. My brother died of cancer aged 41. He had been a drummer from age 6. He never made it big time, but it didn’t matter to family and friends. He was a very good musician, as are other family members. He was a family man whose children are also musicians. Sure the music was average, a bit after its’ time, but I love it.
I’m sorry to hear of your brother’s demise (was it Mitch Gordon?), and I’m happy to help keep his work alive. They may not have garnered the acclaim nor staying power of, say, Creedence Clearwater Revival, but The Going Thing continue to have their fans.
Derrick, I am talking about the Australian “The Going Thing”. What group are you talking about? I don’t know Mitch gordon. sis
I’m talking about this Going Thing:
http://derrickbostrom.com/bostrom/2006/02/17/the-going-thing/
Derrick, I guess there was more than one “The Going Thing”. the group I refer to was an Australian group started in the late 60’s. It had Athol Guy from the original Seekers as the main music source. Are you talking about a group from wherever you are?
sis
Though there has been a sighting on the web of an Australian TGT, I have never seen nor heard anything about them. The “thing” in question here is the group from Los Angeles, put together by Tom and John Bahler for Ford. If you read through all the comments on this page, however, you’ll discover some other members of the Australian GT family.
Christie posted on 29th September,2007. There was a singer called Megan. They did go to England early 70’s. My brother was the drummer.
Sis.
I have a copy of the Australian Going Thing album that I picked up when I was down there several years ago. It is really good. They also released a couple of non-LP singles, of which I believe I have 1 of the 2.
My first grade teacher was a member, at one time, of The Kids Next Door. Her name was Janenne Ogletree (sp). That was in 1966. I wonder if anyone knows anything of her now?
It’s taken months to track down any referance to the Australian TGT group! They were sponsored by Ford Australia. My mum was one of the singers - guilty as charged of leaving the band and moving to the UK with my dad! She’s still in contact with several of the others from the group most of who settled in the US after their tour there in the 70’s. If anyone has access to any of their records I’d be really interested to purchase them. Thanks Derrick for bringing the international TGT family together!!
I have been looking for The 1970 album off and on for like 10 years! Never thought to do a non Ebay web search. John Morrisey, who put them together and head of marketing at Ford at the time, lived down the street with his family in Bloomfield Village. The guys had a Ford-Lotus Grand Prix Go cart! It was awsome. I won the 1970 album at a school carnival and that image of those orange jumpsuits was forever burned into my noggin. I never put the relationship to the Partridges, Monkees, Love American Style, Gary Putmam Union Gap, Paul Revere and the Raiders etc, until a search amongst other pop freak’s postings like this! For some reason I thought ‘Up Up and Away’ (5th Dimension) was on that album? huh… oh well, THANKS! for the download and the connection. You are Super Dyanamite in a Groovy kind of way.
For some reason I think we did signing Up Up and Away once in a while, so it may have been on the first LP, the year before me. I believe we did a Ford parody of “Age of Acquarius,” too. I only remember that because the Eb chord gave me fits on a Rickenbacker 12 string
> At the end of tijuana taxi they proclaim that “Herbie Alpert you’re Jewish now you say you’re spanish why didn’t you change your name.” Wow, is this a carry over from the old days at Ford when Henry was famously anti-semitic?
I don’t see how that is Anti-Semitic, it’s humor about ethnicity, and I think it makes a mockery out of pressure to professionally change one’s name. I’m very easily offended by anything racist, anti-semitic, anti-gay, sexist, etc., and this line didn’t hurt me in the slightest.