{"id":383000,"date":"2026-01-02T06:36:05","date_gmt":"2026-01-02T06:36:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/383000\/"},"modified":"2026-01-02T06:36:05","modified_gmt":"2026-01-02T06:36:05","slug":"lynyrd-skynyrd-and-this-1967-one-hit-wonder-have-more-in-common-than-most-realize-thanks-to-a-shoddy-business-deal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/383000\/","title":{"rendered":"Lynyrd Skynyrd and This 1967 One-Hit Wonder Have More in Common Than Most Realize, Thanks to a Shoddy Business Deal"},"content":{"rendered":"

We often compartmentalize the sunny, jangly sounds of 1960s folk-rock and the gritty, overdriven sound of 1970s Southern rock as two distinct, separate moments in the genre\u2019s history. But it\u2019s a small world, after all, and the music world is even smaller, which is how a one-hit wonder from 1967 was inextricably (but invisibly) linked to Lynyrd Skynyrd<\/a>, a band invariably associated with the 1970s.<\/p>\n

The story of Lynyrd Skynyrd\u2019s connection to this late 1960s one-hit wonder, like so many \u201ccrossed path\u201d stories, had multiple actors working in tandem to shape history as we know it today. Pre-Skynyrd, a guitarist named Eddie King and a keyboardist named Mark Weitz were working together in a sunshine pop band called Strawberry Alarm Clock. The band\u2019s biggest claim to fame is their 1967 hit, \u201cIncense and Peppermints\u201d<\/a>, from the album of the same name.<\/p>\n

Strawberry Alarm Clock\u2019s hit track from their debut record topped the charts in the U.S. and Canada and reached the Top 40 in New Zealand and Australia. This should have been a stunning success for everyone involved in the making of \u201cIncense and Peppermints\u201d, if they had all been given the appropriate credit, which they weren\u2019t.<\/p>\n

The Case of the Missing Credits on This 1967 One-Hit Wonder<\/p>\n

If you\u2019re only going to have one major hit of your career, you\u2019d better make sure you\u2019re getting credit for it. Unfortunately, that was an industry lesson Strawberry Alarm Clock keyboardist Mark Weitz and guitarist Ed King had to learn the hard way. According to a blog post by Weitz<\/a>, he and King fleshed out the early stages of \u201cIncense and Peppermints\u201d in about 45 minutes. \u201c[Ed] contributed the bridge, the guitar parts, and helped with the arrangements,\u201d Weitz recalled.<\/p>\n

John S. Carter embellished the instrumental track with lyrics alongside his writing partner, Tim Gilbert. And in the end, it was Carter and Gilbert who received sole credit for the track, cheating Weitz and King out of any royalties or ownership. According to Weitz, this decision was a byproduct of \u201can argument between [band manager] Bill Holmes and [producer Frank] Slay. Holmes wanted nine names on the record. Slay said, \u2018That\u2019s silly. Pick four.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThey couldn\u2019t come to terms,\u201d Weitz continued. \u201cAnd ultimately, Slay chose to send the label to printing with only the lyricists Gilbert and Carter as the songwriters. A lawsuit was in the making against Holmes, our manager, but was dropped shortly afterward.\u201d Weitz added that someone told him he couldn\u2019t base a copyright case on chord progressions, saying, \u201cThat\u2019s why I never pursued it. They said the case would never hold up, and if I did pursue the lawsuit, it would be the demise of the band.\u201d<\/p>\n

So, Where Does Lynyrd Skynyrd Come Into Play?<\/p>\n

The twisted saga of Strawberry Alarm Clock\u2019s one major hit, \u201cIncense and Peppermints\u201d, was undoubtedly a memorable experience for both Mark Weitz and Ed King, who had to watch their musical contributions and money bypass them and head straight for John Carter and Tim Gilbert. (The two musicians still don\u2019t have credits for the track as of this writing.) Luckily for King, he didn\u2019t have to wait too long before an even better musical opportunity presented itself to him.<\/p>\n

In the late 1960s, Strawberry Alarm Clock was opening for a Floridian band called The One Percent. King made friends with the latter band\u2019s members, which included Ronnie Van Zant, and told them that if they ever needed a guitarist, to let him know. The band, which, at this point, had switched its name to Lynyrd Skynyrd, took King up on his offer in 1972. King would play bass on the first three Lynyrd Skynyrd albums, including (Pronounced \u2018L\u0115h-\u2018n\u00e9rd \u2018Skin-\u2018n\u00e9rd), Second Helping, and Nuthin\u2019 Fancy.<\/p>\n

Lynyrd Skynyrd\u2019s debut alone is chock-full of great hits, including \u201cSimple Man\u201d, \u201cFree Bird\u201d<\/a>, and \u201cGimme Three Steps\u201d. \u201cSweet Home Alabama\u201d and \u201cDon\u2019t Ask Me No Questions\u201d came one album later. With so many hits in such a short amount of time, we don\u2019t doubt the experience helped soothe any lingering sting from King\u2019s experience with Strawberry Alarm Clock.<\/p>\n

Photo by Michael Ochs Archives\/Getty Images<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"We often compartmentalize the sunny, jangly sounds of 1960s folk-rock and the gritty, overdriven sound of 1970s Southern…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":383001,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[49,48,75,150926,341,5475,163015],"class_list":{"0":"post-383000","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-music","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-canada","10":"tag-entertainment","11":"tag-lynyrd-skynyrd","12":"tag-music","13":"tag-rock-music","14":"tag-strawberry-alarm-clock"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/383000","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=383000"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/383000\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/383001"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=383000"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=383000"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=383000"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}