Gary James' Interview With Tim Corwin Of
Ohio Express



Their first hit record was "Beg, Borrow And Steal", which cracked the Top 40 in the U.S. and Canada in 1967. It was the song "Yummy, Yummy, Yummy" that really put them over the top. That song went to number four in the U.S., number five in the United Kingdom, number five in Ireland, number seven in Australia and number one in Canada. Just two months into its release, "Yummy, Yummy, Yummy" sold over a million copies and was given a Gold Album award. Here to talk about the history and current status of Ohio Express is band member Tim Corwin.

Q - Tim, you were once a drummer. These days you're both the lead singer and emcee.

A - Yes. When I got up front, there was the final power. I love it! I love connecting with people. You're back there, banging away and you're going, "You know what? Let me up there."

Q - It sounds like a pretty smooth transition for you.

A - A friend of mine who was in a local band said, "Tim, you need to get up front, man." God Bless him. He was right. When I started doing it I was like, "Man, I like this!" Then you become a producer. I want this guitar player. I want this drummer. I use two keyboard players just to fill in for the horns. I'm doing some really dynamic stuff with my guys. I love that full-blown, big sound. So, yeah. You get up there and a lot of things come to you. It's just a whole different feeling.

Q - You were not part of the original band that recorded "Yummy, Yummy, Yummy", were you?

A - That was Johnny Levine and Artie Resnick that were the writers of that song. We did some of the backline vocals and instrumentation, but basically it's all studio production, but we helped out. We even did some backlining in that period with Joe Walsh. I'd forgotten the stuff we did in the studio with those guys. When I trademarked this name I re-recorded all these so called Bubblegum songs, that era of music which fits a lot of us, just because that cheesy voice of his, I couldn't stand it. I always thought that was a mockery of the song. I re-recorded it. Everything you get now is me. I've got a cheesy voice too, but it's not like somebody's got a clothespin on my nose. And so I re-recorded all this stuff. All the hits. They're downloads from Cleopatra Records. We're now with them. Everything you get is all re-recorded.

Q - When critics in the past would talk about your music they would refer to it as "Bubblegum" music. I honesty don't know that that term means.

A - (laughs) Me either. That's kind of like Donald with "fake news." It's somebody's little, trumped up idea of calling it that. There were so many groups back then with the same music forte. When you hear this stuff played out 'live' you get down there and it connects. You love doin' it. German tours are phenomenal. They love this stuff. You get a good backline and you play "Yummy, Yummy Yummy" and you play it from your heart, it kicks butt.

Q - When that song became such a hit, where did the group perform? Did they do the Dick Clark Caravan Of Stars tours?

A - Yeah. I did Dick Clark. I did Merv Griffin when Judy Garland was the host. Dick Cavett. Don Webster out of Cleveland. I've done all the TV shows.

Q - You grew up in Mansfield, Ohio.

A - Well, actually Lexington, Ohio. It's a suburb of Mansfield.

Q - Okay. What kind of place was Lexington, Ohio to grow up in?

A - Lexington was a sleepy, one main street town with farming fields all around it. A railroad goes through it, a clear fork stream goes through it. It's just a nice little place where you could leave the keys in your car and your house unlocked. (laughs) It's still a sleepy little burg, but a lot bigger. The urban sprawl from Mansfield has combined us together kind of.

Q - There weren't a lot of nightclubs or bars there?

A - No. When we would play locally we would go there with a friend of mine who was our first manager out of Mount Vernon, Ohio, which is were a lot of your Hollywood actors came from, Kenyon College. He was our first manager. He started using the Y.M.C.A.s in towns within a fifty mile radius. He'd call it The Inferno and use the Y.M.C.A.'s dance floor stage area, which was sometimes combined like an auditorium at a school with a basketball court. We'd play those for him. We did a lot of stuff in Columbus in my Junior and Senior year. Every weekend I would be playing in Columbus, Ohio which is about fifty miles South of here. There were clubs in Columbus, naturally. There were supper clubs. There were high school dances. There were Battle Of The Bands events. Swim clubs all had entertainment. We were booked sometimes two, three times a weekend when I was in high school. In my Senior year I was driving a Jag. (laughs) I still have five of those now. We were a good band, Sir Tim And The Royals. We were doing Turtles. We were doing some of our own stuff we wrote. We were able to write our own stuff way back then. Some of that stuff is on our first album, "Beg, Borrow And Steal". We really got popular. Those Columbus bands were no slouching bands either. There's some good entertainment that came out of Columbus. We whipped them guys in Battle Of The Bands and got noticed by Super K Productions out of New York and then the rest is history. They swooped us up and we went to the city and started banging out on the Cameo-Parkway label at first with "Big Ball Of Steel" and then in the Bubblegum era with Kama Sutra.

Q - You have Wendy Kay of Mars Talent Agency looking to get you into festivals, theatres, casinos, package tours.

A - Yes. Festivals. Corporate parties. She's good on that. We're not exclusive with Mars Talent. I do feed other people with electronic information rather than send them a CD or flash drive. I'm trying to get hip here.

Q - You're doing a good job.

A - It's a dog eat dog business. You've got some cover bands in this business for awhile that just do cover songs. They've never had one hit record, never left Ohio, making four, five grand a show. Friends of mine, (1910) Fruitgum Company, Mick, they backline me. I've done some stuff in Orlando. They've got a possible Asian tour coming up this Summer (2018). So, I'm kind of anxious for that. That'd be fun. I've been doing stuff in Germany. I've got a friend who books me a few times in the lakes up here in June, July. Lake Erie. I go up there to a couple of clubs. That's always a ball. I like getting out. I love carrying my band if I can 'cause I've got two keyboard players. Those guys are good. I've got a guitar player second to none. We even do Steely Dan "Reelin' In The Years". What a workout! (laughs)

Official Website: www.TheOhioExpress.com

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