siLLy puPPy The last full year as a band, VANILLA FUDGE followed suit after releasing two albums in 1968 by once again releasing two more in the calendar year 1969 before the band ran out of steam and called it quits in early 1970. After a two year roller coaster ride that began with the surprise success of the band’s self-titled debut which propelled VANILLA FUDGE to the big boys’ league in the world of 1960s psychedelic rock, the band had derived a wide variety of styles to its repertoire and to its credit never really stagnated however the relentless push to constantly move on to the next thing yielded varying results.

The band ended its career with its fifth and final album ROCK & ROLL which emerged on 25 September 1969 and thus not only ending one of the most dynamic decades in the entire history of musical innovation but also the end of one of the bands that became an extremely influential force for the many other acts that would soon adopt its unique perspectives on merging the seemingly disparate worlds of soul music, pop and experimental psychedelia that would soon take on a greater role in morphing into hard rock and progressive rock. VANILLA FUDGE’s last offering featured a more streamlined approach after the rather scattered “Near The Beginning.”

One of the primary forces that whipped the band into being focused was by having a producer who could offer a perspective that a bunch of drifting musicians could realize on their own. ROCK & ROLL welcomed Adrian Barber who had worked his magic with The Velvet Underground and would eventually go on to usher Aerosmith into the limelight. His contributions forged ROCK & ROLL into another cohesive album’s worth of material that coexisted snuggly side by side and teased out all the brilliance that had put VANILLA FUDGE on the music map in the first place without all those annoying excesses that emerged when the band was left to its own devices on the self-produced “Near The Beginning.”

This final chapter once again saw a track listing of self-penned psychedelic rock tunes along with cover songs stripped of their hit making immediacy and given the proper psychotropic makeovers. ROCK & ROLL begins with the fiery “Need Love” sung by guitarist Vinnie Marteli and showcases what sounds to me like an early prototype of what Deep Purple would crank out the following year on its classic “In Rock” album. This feisty track mixes energetic blues guitar rock with the fuzzy organ and boogie-woogie piano rolls along with a sizzling rhythm section that finds bantering bass and drums rolls screaming that the band has successfully taken the genre of ROCK & ROLL into the world of hard rock and a sampling of proto-metal intensity.

“Lord Of The Country” follows and features some of the earliest examples of what i would call Queen. The soulful gospel rock track crafted by Mark Stein almost sounds like something that would fit in on Queen’s “The Night At The Opera.” The style only awaits Freddie Mercury to charismatically animate it to the next level. The first cover track, Carole King’s “I Can’t Make It Alone” is another soulful heavy psych reinterpretation that the band excelled at from its earliest origins. Tight vocal harmonies, skillful rhythm section and a reweaving of the melodic fabric to allow for another tasty treat of VANILLA FUDGE charm. “Street Walking Woman,” another Martelli sung track allows another band original to follow suit with the same soft / hard tradeoffs.

Another captivating song is the brilliant “Church Bells Of St. Martins” which features an army bugle i believe and military march drumming introducing the main song which goes on into folk and rock territory but once again highlighting the band’s evolution of its vocal harmonizing. Once again this sounds exactly like what Queen would build its career on throughout the 70s but once again Stein’s vocals don’t quite have that Freddie Mercury magic. It’s still a highlight of the album though as the arrangement is brilliant.

The near 9-minute “The Windmills Of Your Mind” is the other cover, this time a song written by Michel Legrand, Alan Bergman and Marilyn Bergman for the film score “The Thomas Crown Affair.” While originally sung by Noel Harrison, the track was covered by Dusty Springfield in the same year as this version in 1969 except her version found its way into the top 40 whereas VANILLA FUDGE was imploding and failed to capture much fanfare with this final release. This soulful interpretation pulled out all the usual VANILLA FUDGE punches and the band owned it much like it did with Donovan’s “Season Of The Witch” on its previous album. The original vinyl ended with the 1961 James Ray hit “If You Gotta Make a Fool of Somebody” sung by drummer Carmine Appice which the band teases into a soulful hard rock sensation. Some remastered versions also feature a studio version of “Break Song” which appeared in a side-long B-side on “Near The Beginning” only this version is far superior as it emphases the band’s strengths.

Given all the low ratings of ROCK & ROLL and almost ubiquitous panning by critics and reviewers alike, i was quite surprised to love this final offering from VANILLA FUDGE. This is one of the most focused album of its five album run and mixes all the things that made the band so unique. It retains the soulful covers turned heavy psych while emphasizing the newfound love for hard rock turned up a few notches. Likewise the band’s unique vocal harmony arrangements took a leap in ingenuity and clearly passed the baton on to Queen whereas the organ dominated hard rock in the vein of Grand Funk Railroad only more soulful was ripe to gift to Deep Purple for an upgrade. It’s a shame VANILLA FUDGE couldn’t develop its own creations into the next phase of rock and metal but it cannot be understated how influential this band was to the next generation of rockers that dominated the 70s. I personally love this album a lot and find it to be third in line after the masterpiece “Renaissance” and the crafty self-titled debut. A great way to go out and i’m surprised very few have taken notice.