Remember When: Hot Butter Brought Synths into the Mainstream with “Popcorn”

When Hot Butter’s instrumental single “Popcorn” made its way onto radio playlists in 1972, it stood out from the typical Top-40 fare of the day. In addition to having no vocals, it also had no guitar or piano. The synth-driven piece was unique in its day, but it set the tone for the new wave and electronica hits that would fill up the pop charts in the years to come.

“Popcorn” is catchy and fun, but you can’t be blamed for thinking it’s more than a little cheesy. The song’s composer, Gershon Kingsley—who died in 2019 at the age of 97—would have agreed. Yet this pioneering pop delight is rooted in classical music as well as the early frontiers of synthesized music. Though it could have been dismissed as a novelty upon its release, “Popcorn” still has plenty of fans more than half a century later. Here is how it wound up on our musical radar in the first place.

Part Pop, Part Kitsch

Hot Butter were the first ones to have a hit with “Popcorn,” but they were not the first to record it. Kingsley put the track on his 1969 album Music to Moog By. This album was a continuation of the pioneering work with the Moog synthesizer he had started as part of the duo Perrey and Kingsley. When Kingsley was recording Music to Moog By, he played a song he had been working on—one that reminded him of Johann Sebastian Bach’s Inventions and Sinfonias. Someone at Audio Fidelity Records suggested the title “Pop Corn.” In an interview for the video series Top 2000 a go go, Kingsley said he liked the title, assuming it was suggested because the Moog made sounds similar to that of popcorn being popped. He chose the title, but not for that reason: “It’s not what you think. …Pop is for pop music, and corn is for kitsch.”

Kingsley’s original version sounded like it could have been performed by an entire band, but it was played entirely on the Moog. In 1972, Kingsley recorded a new version of the song—now called “Popcorn”—with his group, the First Moog Quartet. This rendition had more of a rock feel. The First Moog Quartet had frequently played the song live before recording it, and at that point, one of the members of the group was a keyboardist named Stan Free. He would go on to form a new band called Hot Butter, with whom he would introduce “Popcorn” to a much larger audience.

A Boundary-Breaking Hit

If not for Free, “Popcorn” might only be known among students and fans of early electronic music. However, Free decided to record another version of “Popcorn” with Hot Butter in 1972. The main difference between the Hot Butter version and the two earlier versions masterminded by Kingsley was the addition of live drums. Though this version was not entirely electronic, it still went a long way toward showing that a song played primarily on synths could become a major pop hit. Hot Butter’s rendition of “Popcorn” also demonstrated that music fans could be receptive to a tune that had ties to music from the 18th century while also sounding futuristic. 

The Impact of “Popcorn”

Hot Butter’s version of “Popcorn” went to No. 9 on the Billboard Hot 100. It was the only hit Hot Butter ever had on the Hot 100, and it was the only version of “Popcorn” to register on the chart. Their rendition became a hit in numerous countries and topped the pop charts in Belgium, France, New Zealand, and Spain.

“Popcorn” was covered by numerous artists after Hot Butter popularized the song. The only one of these covers to enter a Billboard chart was by The Boomtang Boys, whose 1999 techno remake peaked at No. 26 on the Dance Club Songs chart. “Popcorn” has also been covered by Crazy Frog, Herb Alpert & The Tijuana Brass, and Muse. It was also the inspiration for a track that took synthesizers even further into the mainstream—Jean Michel Jarre’s “Oxygène (Part IV)”—which became a Top-10 hit in several European countries as well as in New Zealand in 1977. “Popcorn” was also covered by the Swedish Chef in a 2010 Muppets skit.

Hot Butter’s version was very much a product of its time, as the sounds made by synths expanded and developed quickly in the years that followed. The melody of “Popcorn,” however, is timeless. Even though artists like The Boomtang Boys and Muse have updated the sound of “Popcorn,” it’s the song’s playful melody that keeps us coming back to it.

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Photo by GAB Archive/Redferns