VANILLA FUDGE heavy metal history anniversary

August 1967: Vanilla Fudge - Vanilla Fudge

Vanilla Fudge is the self-titled debut album by the American psychedelic rock band Vanilla Fudge. Released in the summer of 1967, the record is made up almost entirely of slowed-down, heavy covers, along with three short original instrumental tracks. It turned out to be the band's biggest album, hitting number 6 on the Billboard charts and number 8 in Finland. Interestingly, parts of the original stereo release were actually mixed in mono, including their famous cover of "You Keep Me Hangin' On." An edited version of that track came out as a single and became a big hit, too.

Wikipedia observes:

AllMusic's Paul Collins retrospectively rated Vanilla Fudge four out of five stars some time in the 2000s. He stated that "nobody could accuse Vanilla Fudge of bad taste in their repertoire" and that most of the tracks "share a common structure of a disjointed warm-up jam, a Hammond-heavy dirge of harmonized vocals at the center, and a final flat-out jam." However, he also said that "each song still works as a time capsule of American psychedelia."

The staff of Classic Rock Magazine wrote in 2021: "Released a year before Led Zeppelin blasted into action, the Fudge are one of those crucial bands who mixed heavy blues, psychedelia and raucously progressive musicianship in a way that helped pioneer what we now regard as metal."

You Keep Me Hangin' On | Stereo Unedited Version | Vanilla Fudge

Vanilla Fudge - You Keep Me Hangin' On (1967)

Vanilla Fudge "Keep Me Hangin' On" on The Ed Sullivan Show