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Love Grows (Where My Rosemary Goes)
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Date Aired
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March 19, 2022
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Running Time
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23:22
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Audible logo flashes on screen
Todd (VO): This episode is brought to you by Audible.
Todd plays "Love Grows (Where My Rosemary Goes)" on the piano.
EDISON LIGHTHOUSE - LOVE GROWS WHERE MY ROSEMARY GOES
A one-hit wonder retrospective
Todd: Welcome back to One Hit Wonderland, where we cover bands and artists known for only one song. Now, I tend not to cover a lot of [image pops up of "Oldies but Goodies" compilation album cover] old old oldies on this show, despite the boomer years being an untapped goldmine of short-lived artists. I got my reasons. It's super hard to find footage of them and... [image of young children] none of my viewers know these songs. But, after the monstrously long and difficult last few videos, I'd like to do something a little less intense... and boy, do we got a wispy little trifle of a song today!
Video for Edison Lighthouse - "Love Grows (Where My Rosemary Goes)"
Todd (VO): The year is 1970. [clip of Led Zeppelin live performance] The biggest names in music have made the album their medium of choice, leading the singles market to a scourge known as [animated clip of The Archies - "Sugar, Sugar" plays; sinisterly] bubblegum pop, [live footage of Bo Donaldson & The Heywoods and The Partridge Family] a new form of music despised by all serious music fans for the crime of [sarcastic] not being real music!
Todd: Leading to a fun six-decade debate about the value of authenticity in music that I am in no way tired of having!
Todd (VO): Anyway, one of the new bands in this genre is the British bubblegum act Edison Lighthouse, and they kicked off the entire decade with their one hit. A lovely little nothing called "Love Grows (Where My Rosemary Goes)," [back to Todd] which hit the Top 5 in America and hit #1 in their home country.
Edison Lighthouse: And her life's a mystery, oh, but
Todd starts dancing and mouthing the words along with the song
Edison Lighthouse: Love grows where my Rosemary goes
And nobody knows
Todd (VO): Yeah, I'm gonna guess this won't be my top viewed video of all time. Even in 1970, when this song was riding high, Edison Lighthouse was probably not the name on every record buyer's lips. So normally, I would leave this to the "no one cares" pile.
Todd: Except that I actually have an excuse to bring it up, because... once again, TikTok has weaved its chaotic magic.
Various TikToks play in the background as the song plays
Edison Lighthouse: She ain't got no money
Her clothes are kinda funny, her hair is kinda...
Todd (VO): A couple of months ago, Edison Lighthouse, of all bands, went viral. Welp, that's all the excuse I need.
Todd (VO): And as it turns out, this story is a lot weirder than I expected, and lets me shine a flashlight into some dark obscure corners of the pop music industry.
Todd: Yeah, we're about to see how the sausage gets made.
Todd (VO): Come watch the oddest career in pop music history through the strange, strange story of Edison Lighthouse.
Todd: An ephemeral band that vanished before they ever really began.
Edison Lighthouse: And nobody knows
Before the hit
Todd: [clears throat] Uh, I set up this series to discuss full careers, and that structure presumes that every One Hit Wonder I cover had careers.
Todd (VO): They had ambitions to do more; have other famous songs; be remembered for something other than the one hit.
Todd: Edison Lighthouse... were not that kind of artist. Arguably, Edison Lighthouse were not artists at all!
Various images and album covers pop up of...
Todd (VO): So let us start with this man, Tony Burrows. Tony was in several bands; he also tried for a solo career under the name "Tony Bond."
Clip from Goldfinger
James Bond (Sean Connery): I must be dreaming
Clip plays in the background of...
Todd (VO): Eventually, he joined a band called "The Ivy League" - none of these guys are Tony; he only joined the band after two of these guys, [image of...] John Carter and Ken Lewis, quit the band to go into production.
Todd: The year was 1967.
Clip plays in the background showing...
Todd (VO): And the streets of the western world were crowded with smelly hippies. It was the Summer of Love, and people were flocking to the epicenter of the counterculture: San Francisco.
Clip of Scott McKenzie performing "San Francisco (Be Sure to Wear Flowers in Your Hair)"
Scott McKenzie: If you're going to San Francisco
Todd (VO): This song was a worldwide smash. [clip of The Flower Pot Men's...] And so, Carter & Lewis wrote their own little cash-in on the trend with a song called, "Let's Go to San Francisco."
The Flower Pot Men: Let's go (let's go) to San Francisco
(Let's go to San Francisco), let the wind blow
Todd (VO): As you can tell, this is kind of a Beach Boys ripoff, which... [image of The Beach Boys] The Beach Boys were not from that part of California, but...
Todd: ...if you're a bunch of Brits who've never even left the island, maybe you don't know that.
Todd (VO): This song was performed by "The Flower Pot Men," which... Heh, you know, what a name, right? [image pops up showing...] You know, "flower", as in "flower power."
Todd: "Pot", as in [sarcastic laugh] eh heh, eh heh, eh heh.
Todd (VO): Perfect name if you're trying to look like a bunch of hippies. But hippies did not actually perform this, because...
Todd: ...The Flower Pot Men did not technically exist!
Todd (VO): It was just a bunch of session musicians, one of which may or may not be Tony Burrows, I have conflicting reports on that. In any case, the song caught on, and since Carter & Lewis needed a set of actual bodies to go out there and promote it, Tony got the gig.
Todd: And little did he know, but jamming himself into this prefab little studio group of fake hippies had put him at the forefront of a new genre.
Todd (VO): Now, in the mid '60s, a lot of the great hits were being made by these charmingly amateurish garage bands, [...The Monkees - "Daydream Believer"...] and with the rise of The Monkees, labels began realizing that the band did not actually have to play any of the music. [...animated clip of The Archies...] And later with The Archies, they realized they didn't even need the band! [...and The Ohio Express - "Chew Chewy"] And with the peace-and-love hippies everywhere, it was pretty easy to take their psychedelic aesthetic and happy vibes, and... just take out all the drugs and sex.
Todd: And so, a new group of...
Todd (VO): ...extremely chipper bands started popping up. They had names like [images of album covers from...] "The 1910 Fruitgum Company," "Captain Groovy and His Bubblegum Army," "The Rock and Roll Dubble Bubble Trading Card Company of Philadelphia 19141" - these are all real.
Todd: Almost all of the bubblegum acts were One Hit Wonders, and the critics hated every single bit of it, but they did sell a lot of records.
Todd (VO): Anyway, let's go back to Tony Burrows, who, by 1969, had decided he was done also. The Flower Pot Men had flamed out, and he was like, "Well, I got a family now, I don't really need to be living out on the road". And so he settled in for a long career of session work.
Todd: Was that him giving up on his dreams? Or did he think he still might hit it big? I don't know, but boy did he ever.
The big hit
Todd: Okay, so, you know how sometimes shit will pop up on your Spotify algorithm that [image of Spotify playlist pops up with a song titled "Hold My Hand"] you don't recognize and...you try to find out about the artist, but there's no information about them anywhere, and the more you look, [clip scrolling Google search for the credited artist: "They Dream By Day"] the more you start to suspect that it's a completely made up name slapped on some shit that Spotify produced themselves to get the right vibes for their playlists?! Okay, well... Edison Lighthouse is the 1970 version of that.
Clip of TV host introducing Edison Lighthouse followed by them performing
Jimmy Savile (VO): The #1 record, and it's a great sound, here's Edison Lighthouse!
Todd (VO): In late 1969, Tony Burrows stepped into one of his billions of studio gigs and recorded a song called [image of the single cover pops up] "Love Grows (Where My Rosemary Goes)."
Todd: Once he recorded it, he immediately pegged it as a potential hit, and wanted to put his name on it.
Todd (VO): The label disagreed. Instead, they credited it to "Edison Lighthouse".
Todd: A band that, once again, did not exist. [image of...] The name is a mangling of the famous Eddystone Lighthouse, and uh... I guess [image of cover for Edison Lighthouse's debut album Already pops up] "Edison Lighthouse" sounded psychedelic enough for 1970. It's fine!
Video for "Love Grows (Where My Rosemary Goes)"
Edison Lighthouse: She ain't got no money, her clothes are kinda funny
Todd (VO): I think they didn't want to put Tony's name on it because...
Todd: ...Tony wasn't gonna go out on the road, he had other commitments.
Todd (VO): Hence this video, which has not a single Tony Burrows in it.
Todd: Well, I guess one of those guys might also be named "Tony Burrows". I didn't check.
Todd (VO): Tony did agree to be in the band for their TV appearances, though, so... there he is. Proof I didn't make him up. Now, in America, bubblegum was still connected to garage rock and tried to sound like it.
Todd: Not so in the UK, where they didn't even have rock stations until 1967.
Clip of live performance from...
Todd (VO): So if you wanted to listen to The Beatles, [image pops up of...] first you'd have to sit through the light, light hits of Perry Como. [clips of Pickettywitch - "That Same Old Feeling"...] So when the Brits got into bubblegum music... Uh, they made The Archies sound like goddamn death metal. Like, it was much closer to the pre-rock & roll crooner music. [...and Blue Mink - "Melting Point"] And instead of cheapo guitar and organ, they tended to really lay on the strings and horns. It's very syrupy and sickly sweet. Now, bubblegum is called that because it's not even candy, you can't swallow it, you get no nourishment out of it.
Todd: And so, you have this record, which... is not a substantial song.
Edison Lighthouse: She talks kinda lazy, and people say she's crazy.
Todd (VO): It's about a girl. The girl is great; she is basically a manic pixie dream girl long before that term existed.
Todd: [sarcastic] She's a [Todd puts up peace signs] free spirit, maaaan.
Todd (VO): I mean, by 1970, artists were not trying to jump on the hippie bandwagon anymore, that was well over. That's why The Flower Pot Band called it quits.
Todd: But I do still sense a little flower power in this. It's a very... garden-y song.
Image of a package of rosemary plant seeds
Todd (VO): She's got a plant name; "love grows" wherever she goes, like sunflowers.
Todd: I can only imagine this girl carrying a watering can.
Edison Lighthouse: There's something about her hand holding mine
Todd (VO): I gotta admit, I don't find this song super interesting, although I am fascinated by the way Tony pronounces the word "mystery."
Edison Lighthouse: And here life's a mystery [pronounced miss-tah-reeee]
"Miss-tah-reeee?"
Todd: But I think there is one really interesting thing about "Love Grows", which is that it really doesn't have a chorus, exactly.
Todd (VO): It kinda has, like, a one stanza structure. Feels like it should be a verse or the chorus, but instead they just kinda split in half, so you get, like...
Todd: ...half a verse and half a chorus.
Edison Lighthouse: Endlessly, because love grows
Todd (VO): And then they just keep repeating it.
Todd: And they hit that hook really, really hard. Over and over.
Edison Lighthouse: Because love grows where my Rosemary goes
Todd (VO): I mean, it's kind of a rollercoaster of a song, and it just keeps slamming up and down. And before you've had a chance to recover, you're already at the next climax.
Edison Lighthouse: It keeps growing every place she's been
Todd: Yeah, I can totally see why this caught on on TikTok.
Montage of TikToks featuring the song
Todd (VO): In a way, this is, like, the perfect TikTok song, 'cause there's, like, twenty seconds of song in it. And it's really catchy, and they just...
Todd: ...hammer it into you.
Todd (VO): You can't say it's, like, amazing lyrically. The performances aren't stunning, sorry Tony.
Todd: So, I think the reason it's lasted is... just for being well constructed!
Todd (VO): This song has a solid pedigree; it was written by the same guy who wrote "Build Me Up Buttercup." But it honestly more reminds me of... later bubblegum, when the Swedes got ahold of it, and they turned pop songwriting into this precise mathematical formula. I mean, the melody to this is just immaculate; it goes up and down with the mood and the lyrics and the music; it's just a solidly made song.
Todd: Now I've said some things in here about how disposable bubblegum is.
Todd (VO): But, of course, it can't be that disposable - here I am, talking about it and how it went viral fifty years later!
Todd: The fact is, it's never gone away.
Todd (VO): Even more than most bubblegum songs, it's just ridiculously happy! [clip from The Kissing Booth] Which has made it a pretty fitting choice for rom-coms, where it's shown up in background repeatedly over the years.
Todd: And in fact, bubblegum pop as a whole was extremely influential.
Clips of Sweet - "Blockbuster" and T. Rex - "Bang a Gong (Get It On)"
Todd (VO): Shortly after this, the kids who were listening to bubblegum music started glitter rock and glam rock. In fact, you can hear a little bit of T. Rex in that guitar!
Clip of the song shows how the lead guitar plays a sparkling lick
Edison Lighthouse: I'm a lucky fella, and I just gotta tell her
Todd (VO): I mean, you hear it, right? So yes, there's a lot to be said for this genre; it has more than its share of classics: [brief clips of...] "Sugar Sugar"; "Everlasting Love".
Love Affair: Here I stand with my everlasting love
And a lot of your classic pop nerds will tell you that "Love Grows" is on that same high level.
Todd: [beat] Mmmm, I don't know about that...
Todd (VO): The song's better than okay, certainly. But I-I just feel like there's not a lot to it. It feels somehow shorter than it is. And it's only, like, a two-and-a-half minute song.
Todd: I mean, it's good, it's just not... great.
Todd (VO): In any case, for poor Edison Lighthouse, they found out quickly that careers do not grow where their hit single goes. Or, more accurately, they did not find that out because they weren't real. So surely there's no more to this story, right?
Todd: Well...
The failed follow-up
Todd (VO): Tony Burrows, who had other commitments, never recorded an Edison Lighthouse song again. So they just replaced him and moved on, since they weren't really a real band with any permanent members anyway.
Todd: So, after this, we have two separate paths: Tony vs. the band. And the band was just a bunch of randos they threw together and their story is much less interesting, so let's knock that out of the way.
Live clip of Edison Lighthouse performing "It's Up to You, Petula"
Edison Lighthouse: It's up to you, Petula
Do the things you wanna do with your life
Todd (VO): This is their [image pops up of single cover for...] Tony-less follow-up, "It's Up to You, Petula", keeping with their tradition of love songs to girls with archaic names.
Todd: If this had been a hit, I expect they'd have done, like, "Hey, You're Great, Constance" or "My Girl Marlene."
Edison Lighthouse: Well do you want my love?
Petula, now it's up to you.
Todd: I believe this song is best described as... inessential. It certainly didn't do very well.
Image of single cover for "She Works in a Woman's Way"
Todd (VO): According to Wikipedia, they also had one other song that charted in New Zealand.
Song plays over different footage of the band performing
Edison Lighthouse: Yes, she works in a woman's way
She's got a face just like a child, but her heart's a woman
Though she's acting so meek and so mild
But she works in a woman's way.
Todd: This... is a pedophile song.
Edison Lighthouse: She smiles her little smile
Todd (VO): I mean, maybe there's a way to interpret it that isn't about pedophilia, but... uh, you have to do a lot of work to get there, and it's much easier and funnier to call them pedophiles, so there you go.
Todd: After that, the band goes defunct.
Image of Love Grows (Where My Rosemary Goes) & Other Gems on Spotify
Todd (VO): I checked out the only album they have on Spotify, and I wasn't impressed.
Todd: But I did notice one interesting thing.
Todd (VO): To the best of my knowledge, this album, for the band that doesn't exist...
Todd: ...also does not exist.
Todd (VO): I mean, is-it's hard to verify these things fifty years later, and... and, I don't know, maybe the internet just never documented it, but from what I can tell, [album name gets underlined] there was never an album with this name, [release date of 1970 is underlined and zoomed into] the band didn't release an album that year, [image focuses on the cover, or lack thereof] it doesn't even have real cover art, [image focuses on track list] a couple of these songs I couldn't prove were actual Edison Lighthouse songs, [image zooms in on and underlines "Melanie Make Me Smile] this one is a mislabeled Tony Burrows solo record. [image of Greatest Hits: Edison Lighthouse on Spotify] And I found another album by them too that I couldn't verify!
Todd: Uh, I don't know who owns this music now, but...
Todd: ...they are really honoring this band's legacy by keeping up their fakeness even through the streaming era. But ignore them, and let's go back to Tony Burrows, who as it turns out... became a bit of a trendsetter.
Todd: So, you know how there's, like, this weird thing in every era where it seems like everyone's sings the same way?
Clips of Pearl Jam -"Jeremy"; The All-American Rejects - "Swing, Swing"; and a TikTok of a guy imitating an indie girl singer
Todd (VO): [imitating hunger dunger dang singing] Like, in the '90s it was this, and then it was emo boys, and now, it's like, indie girl voice.
Todd: Okay, well, in 1970, every other band on the radio sounded like Tony Burrows. But in that case... it's a little different, because all those bands... were Tony Burrows.
Live clip of White Plains - "My Baby Loves Lovin"
Todd (VO): In 1970, Tony Burrows hit the charts with four different songs by four different bands. Now, I love it when an artist becomes a One Hit Wonder more than once, and yet somehow, this is one of those well-known pop facts that completely missed me. How did I not know about this?
Todd: And these hits weren't, like, one after the other either. [screenshot of article "The top ten this week in 1970: When one singer dominated the chart"] They were all charting simultaneously. That's bananas. Let's check them all out!
Video for "My Baby Loves Lovin'" plays
White Plains: My baby love (loves), my baby loves lovin'
She's got what it takes and she knows how to use it
Todd (VO): Here's the first band, White Plains. Which is another fake name slapped on a bunch of unreleased songs by The Flower Pot Men.
Todd: Their song is called [image of single cover for...] "My Baby Loves Lovin'."
Todd (VO): Again, you see no Tony, that's the bass player lip syncing. Tony performed with them on TV, but did not tour.
White Plains: My baby love (loves), my baby loves lovin'
She's got what it takes and she knows how to use it.
Todd (VO): This is... probably the most brainless of the songs you'll hear today.
Todd: [jokingly] Check out their follow-ups.
Text of the made up singles Todd mentions pops up as he says them
Todd (VO): "Love Lovin' My Baby," "Loves My Baby Lovin'", and "Baby Lovin' Loves My Love Lovin' Baby." [live clip plays of...] Alright, here's Tony's third hit of 1970, [image of single cover for..] "United We Stand" by Brotherhood of Man.
Brotherhood of Man: For united we stand, divided we fall
Now this one has had a lot more of a shelf life than "My Baby Loves Lovin'." And it's certainly a lot more substantial.
Video for "United We Stand"
Brotherhood of Man: If the world around you falls apart, my love, then I'll still be here
Todd (VO): This call for peace on Earth resonated with a lot of people during the war-stricken boomer years, and had a small revival after 9/11.
Todd: Personally, I think it kinda sucks, but if it hit some hearts in 1970, I'm not gonna argue against it.
Todd (VO): Now, unlike most of the acts mentioned so far, Brotherhood of Man was an actual real-ass band. I'm not sure this actually counts as a One Hit Wonder because, after Tony left, they kept soldiering on and...
Todd: ...it took a little bit, but eventually they did have a handful of other hits after they...
Clip of Brotherhood of Man performing on...
Todd (VO): ...won Eurovision! And then reinvented themselves [clip of Brotherhood of Man - "Angelo"] as a bunch of ABBA rip offs.
Todd: And I mean rip. offs.
Brotherhood of Man: Running away together, running away forever, Angelo
Todd (VO): ...Good god. What's the Swedish word for "plagiarism?" But anyway, Tony was only in this band for a hot minute, but... Yeah, all three of these songs were on the charts, which meant that Tony would have two of his bands booked for the same show [clip from Mrs. Doubtfire] and he'd have to rush around and change costumes sitcom style between performances.
Audio clip plays over footage of Tony performing
Jimmy Savile (VO): One of the singers in the Brotherhood of Man, he would also sing in Edison Lighthouse, because it's the first time... that-that I know anyway, that the same singer's been in two different groups!
Todd (VO): A lot of this footage is lost, but according to the record books, he was double booked on Top of the Pops four times.
Todd: And finally, Tony Burrows' 4th hit of 1970; [image of single cover for...] this one is from a band called "The Pipkins", and it is called "Gimme Dat Ding!"
Clip of show going over the pop charts, then the song plays over people dancing to it
Host: What happens to this one, this is a novelty record, big in England, by the Pipkins!
The Pipkins: Gimme dat, gimme dat, gimme gimme gimme dat, gimme dat ding
Todd: [stares in silence while the music plays]
The Pipkins: Gimme dat ding, gimme dat, gimme gimme dat, gimme gimme gimme dat ding
Todd: [defeated] Oh yeah, I know this one.
Todd (VO): Shows up in the background of comedies and commercials when they need the most annoying song in the universe. The Pipkins are a ragtime pastiche and...
Todd: ...I'm not sure how, but my gut says this is racist in some way.
The Pipkins: Gimme dat, gimme dat, gimme gimme gimme dat, gimme dat ding, gimme dat, gimme gimme dat
Todd (VO): Man, fuck this.
Todd: And so that is how Tony Burrows became the biggest hitmaker of 1970... without ever having a hit.
Did they ever do anything else?
Todd: Uh, they meaning Tony? Uh... well, [images of a couple of Tony's records] Tony tried to put out some solo records. One of them scraped onto the bottom of the Hot 100 and then disappeared. After that, he went on, mostly to do session work.
Clip of Elton John performing...
Todd (VO): He sings backup for Elton John on "Tiny Dancer". [clip plays of...] He also sang on the most famous soft drink commercial of all time. [Note: After the video was released, Todd commented on it saying "Okay, I'm going to put up a correction/disclaimer here: Tony claims to have sung on the "I'd Like To Buy the World a Coke" commercial but I'm having a lot of trouble verifying that. He might be lying! I feel that full disclosure requires me to admit that."]
Chorus: I'd like to buy the world a Coke.
And that's all I know of what he was doing up until...
Todd: ...1974, when Tony Burrows became a One Hit Wonder... for the 5th and final time.
Live clip plays of...
Todd (VO): This is [image of single cover for...] "Beach Baby" by the band "The First Class." Another Top 10 hit for Burrows.
Todd: For corny '70s pop, this is pretty alright.
The First Class: Do you remember back in old L.A.
When everybody drove a Chevrolet?
Todd: I love it when Brits talk about America. No American has ever said the words, "Old L.A."
The First Class: Beach baby, beach baby there on the sand
From July to the end of September
Todd (VO): This came out the same year that Happy Days debuted, and I think this is one of the first real nostalgia songs of the '70s, like...
Todd: ..."Hey, remember our innocent teenage years?"
The First Class: Remember dancin' at the high school hop
Todd (VO): "Remember [images pop up of...] sock hops? Remember The Beach Boys? [clip of cops and protestors getting physical] Remember all the good times before the world went fucking crazy? Wasn't that all great?"
Todd: Yeah, I bet it was.
Todd (VO): Yeah, that song is pretty fun. And after that, Tony Burrows fades again from public view. They really tried to turn The First Class into a real band, but none of the following records caught on, and after the second album, they broke up.
Todd: Burrows kept recording with other imaginary bands, with names like [images of the records/bands Todd mentions] "Domino"; "Original Cast"; "Heart to Heart"; "Magic" - most of these songs have evaporated into the ether.
Clip of interview with Tony
Todd (VO): But at that point, Tony Burrows had enough hits that he has developed a sort of cult fanbase, [recent clip of Tony performing] and he tours with the nostalgia circuits; he calls himself, "The Voice of 1970".
Todd: You know, that's not a bad title to have.
Did they deserve better?
Todd: I... I-I don't even know how to answer that. Who is even the "they" we're talking about?
Live clip of "Love Grows (Where My Rosemary Goes)"
Edison Lighthouse: I'm a lucky fella, and I just got to tell her, that I love...
Todd (VO): "Love Grows (Where My Rosemary Goes)" is a fine little happy song, and... the next time you fall in love, maybe turn it on, and it'll sound absolutely amazing. I think it's pleasant enough. Wouldn't go out of my way for it.
Todd: But as an amateur historian, this song is an amazing story about an absolutely ridiculous career in the margins of pop music. That's its value to me.
Todd (VO): Good luck, Tony Burrows, wherever you are, and keep popping that bubblegum.
Edison Lighthouse: It keeps growing every place she's been moving, nobody knows but me
(Love grows where my Rosemary goes) If you've met her, you'll never forget her...
...
Closing Tag Song: Dennis Brown - "Love Grows"
THE END
"Love Grows Where My Rosemary Goes" is owned by Bell Records
This video is owned by me
THANK YOU TO THE LOYAL PATRONS!!