September 30, 2022     —–     Chart #163

Hello Music Friends,

Hey folks, welcome to another edition of Chart of the Week. Can you believe we have done 163 of these? Some great songs have been profiled, many of them conjuring up memories of our youth. Today’s entry is no exception. I heard this song countless times on the college juke box and danced to it many times. “Build Me Up Buttercup” is a song written by Mike d’Abo and Tony Macaulay, and released by the Foundations in 1968 with Colin Young singing lead vocals. Young had replaced Clem Curtis during 1968 and this was the first Foundations hit on which he sang. It hit No. 1 on the Cash Box Top 100 and No. 3 on the US Billboard Hot 100 in early 1969. It was also a No. 2 hit in the United Kingdom, for two non-consecutive weeks, behind “Lily the Pink” by the Scaffold. It was quickly certified gold by the RIAA for sales of over a million US copies.

“Build Me Up Buttercup” is featured in the 1998 romantic comedy film There’s Something About Mary and the 2020 film The Kissing Booth 2, as well as in a series of 2020–21 Geico commercials. It is also one of the 7th inning stretch tunes that since 1990 has been played at the Angel Stadium, home of the Los Angeles Angels. Since 1998, at the University of Wisconsin–Madison, it has become a tradition at every home game for students and fans to sing the song during Wisconsin Badger football games, the song will usually play during a time out and when the song is turned off on the PA system, the students and fans sing the song acapella enthusiastically, also, sometimes during halftime shows at the home football games, the Wisconsin Marching Band will play this song in a medley called the “Camp Randall Sing-Along” where students and fans also sing the song.

The Foundations were a British soul band (1967–1970). The group’s background was: West Indian, White British, and Sri Lankan. Their 1967 debut single “Baby Now That I’ve Found You” reached number one in the UK and Canada, and number eleven in the US. The group was the first multi-racial group to have a number one hit in the UK in the 1960s. The Foundations were one of the few British acts to successfully imitate what became known as the Motown Sound.

Live in 1969:  https://youtu.be/klNean7JJdA

From There’s Something About Mary:  https://youtu.be/gZbHdVYCVhI

Have fun with this song and the chart. Its really fun to just play the song on the guitar and sing it like you have in the car or at a party many many times before.

Keep rockin my friends,

Stan Bradshaw