Having grown up in a music-loving family, I always take delight in remembering my ’70s childhood–Grandpa’s Classical and Military music; uncles’ ’70s Folk Rock and Progressive Rock; parents’ The Carpenters, Matt Monro, Johnny Matthis, and Frank Sinatra; and aunts’ The Hollies, The Zombies, The Love Generation, The Mamas & the Papas, The 5th Dimension, and a lot more groups regarded now as Sunshine/Psychedelic Pop.
One of such bands whose music I often heard being played at our house, in the early ’70s, was The Peppermint Rainbow.
Formed in 1967, in Baltimore, Maryland, USA, The Peppermint Rainbow consisted of the sisters Bonnie (lead vocals) and Patty Lamdin (vocals, keyboards), Doug Lewis (guitar), Tony Carey (drums/percussion), and Skip Harris (bass). Despite the chart success of some of its singles in 1969 as well as having been championed by Cass Elliot of The Mamas & the Papas, The Peppermint Rainbow split up in the year that followed, leaving a legacy of only one but memorable album, 1969’s Will You Be Staying after Sunday?
Like that of many of its contemporaries during the Sunshine Pop era of the late ’60s, the music of The Peppermint Rainbow is steeped with saccharine vocal harmonies, horn and string orchestration, upbeat and soothing rhythms, and catchy melodies.
Recommended tracks are “Pink Lemonade,” “Don’t Wake Me Up in the Morning, Michael,” “Walking in Different Circles,” and “Green Tambourine.”