This was no “Simon Says.”

By 1967, album rock had arisen. After all, “Sgt. Pepper” came out in the spring. But it wasn’t only the Beatles, “Are You Experienced,” “The Doors” and even “Disraeli Gears” were also released in 1967. Even though album rock had no radio outlet in most markets, word was being spread amongst the cognoscenti, you only had to hear these records once to get them, they were building upon the foundation of what once was, they were testing limits. So when the Ohio Express released “Yummy Yummy Yummy” in the spring of 1968, it was universally derided, as simplistic trash.

But you had to hear it. Because it was featured in Top 40 playlists, and those dominated the AM radio that we were all addicted to, both in cars and on our transistors.

Now when “Yummy Yummy Yummy” peaked at #5 on WABC’s 5/18/68 chart, it was an outlier. You’d have to go all the way to #26 to find something equally light, a trifle, “Indian Lake,” the Cowsills track.

Also on the chart were “Mrs. Robinson” and “Jumpin’ Jack Flash” and “A Beautiful Morning” and “Stoned Soul Picnic” and one of my personal favorites, “Reach Out of the Darkness,” which was so groovy now, that when they hit the chorus you could only smile, with exuberance.

Then again, there was that bass driven groove of the intro and the endless changes, something absent from almost all hit music today. A lot of today’s successes are triumphs of image over music, then again, as hip as we were back in the day, today’s youngsters believe they’re hipper, they don’t know what they’re missing out on.

Now the Tommy James & the Shondells track “Mony Mony” was actually #4, one step ahead of “Yummy Yummy Yummy” on this chart, but despite some scuttlebutt on the internet, I never saw James and his crew as precursors of bubble gum rock, reading the lyrics you might think “Hanky Panky” simplistic, but the sneer with which it was delivered… And let’s not forget that “Hanky Panky” and “I Think We’re Alone Now” were hits in 1966, when the world of music was truly just spreading its wings. And you knew “I Think We’re Alone Now” was hip because it was covered by the Rubinoos. And, of course, Billy Idol covered “Mony Mony,” but no credible rocker ever covered “Simon Says.”

A simplistic song about a child’s game. Inferior to Red Rover if you ask me, but the song “Simon Says” was exploitive, you could see men coming up with a marketing hook on their way to success. And there was the cheesy intro and not a whole hell of a lot of melody.

But “Yummy Yummy Yummy”? That was an original! They had to start from scratch on that one, there was no playground game with that moniker.

Now if you check the Wikipedia page for “Yummy Yummy Yummy” you’ll find its intro cited as inspiration for the Beatles’ “Back in the U.S.S.R.” and the Cars’ “Just What I Needed.” And to tell you the truth, when I first read this I scratched my head, but listening I found out it was true, they were identical! Then again, Wikipedia is a compilation of hoi polloi beliefs, there’s no professional arbiter. However, both Paul McCartney and Ric Ocasek had to hear “Yummy Yummy Yummy,” it was ubiquitous, and even if they didn’t consciously lift the intro…remember George Harrision’s “My Sweet Lord” and “He’s So Fine”?

But another interesting point that research will reveal is that “Yummy Yummy Yummy” was co-written by Joey Levine, its singer, and Arthur Resnick, neither household names. But Resnick had roots, he co-wrote “Under the Boardwalk” and “Good Lovin’,” and if that latter track was good enough for the Grateful Dead, never mind the Young Rascals, why do we put down “Yummy Yummy Yummy”?

In truth, it’s the main concept, of having sweet love in your tummy, as if the track was directed to four year olds in nursery school, and Levine’s nasal delivery didn’t help. But Levine’s delivery changes twenty two seconds in, he drops the act, loses his self-consciousness and just vocalizes, consumed by the sweet change in the music.

And then we’re back to the chunky guitar intro, which if it was good enough for the Beatles and the Cars…

Then again, we’ve got the stupidity of the verse once again, the “yummy yummy yummy,” words that didn’t grace the lyrics of the aforementioned album rock acts.

And then at 1:20 we’ve got the “ba-da’s,” hearkening back to what came before, “Yummy Yummy Yummy” sits at the crossroads of what once was and what will be.

But then comes the secret sauce, at 1:28 the whole track modulates up, drawing the listener closer, elating their ears, doubling-down, a musical trick, but one that so often delivers. And this time the words are just a tad more sophisticated, resonating with both children and adults…er, teens…

“Love, you’re such a sweet thing, good enough to eat thing
And sweet thing, that ain’t no lie”

Leave out the “yummys” and you’ve got lyrics not that different from the rest of the hit parade.

Then:

“Ooh love, I won’t let you go”

But then the song does, let you go that is. And you’ve got no other option than to pick up the needle and drop it in the opening groove once again.

Assuming you owned it.

Which I did. And at this point, I never bought singles, I was an albums only guy, but I knew there would never be a credible Ohio Express LP and I needed to hear this record now, ad infinitum.

And I got sh*t for it. My parents laughed, older kids were snide, but I kept on playing ‘Yummy Yummy Yummy.”

And by the turn of the decade, the slate was wiped clean of this kind of stuff. FM dominated and what was left on AM radio was oftentimes lowest common denominator, which “Yummy Yummy Yummy” was not.

So if we pull the lens back, we’ve got a delectable intro, melody, changes, the complete package, the only potential negatives being the title and the nasal attitude expressed in the verses.

Which is counteracted by the exuberance of what comes after.

All in 2:20. Clear and concise. Album rock broke this mold, with extended solos and outros, and the progenitors were breaking new ground, but ever since “Toad,” every self-respecting band featured a drum solo, to this day. Most of these players are not Ginger Baker, and once bitten, twice shy. Radiohead did name your own price with “In Rainbows,” but it could never be done again. Yet today, if you’re a rocker, longer is still better, why is that?

As for so-called hits, oftentimes there’s no melody at all, just one chord.

As far as beat-driven stuff… It’s melody that endures, if for no other reason than you can sing along!

So sixty years later, when I mention “Yummy Yummy Yummy” everybody knows it. Both oldsters and those who grew up on Radio Disney.

And then there are the endless covers and movie and TV syncs… Why has “Yummy Yummy Yummy” lasted if it’s just tripe?

It’s not.

Tune in August 1st to Faction Talk, channel 103, at 4 PM East, 1 PM West.

Phone #: 844-686-5863 

If you miss the episode, you can hear it on demand on the SiriusXM app. Search: Lefsetz

“BTS boycott Grammys over new Asian pop award category”:

https://www.reuters.com/business/media-telecom/bts-boycott-grammys-over-new-asian-pop-award-category-2026-07-29/

There are nearly a hundred Grammy categories.

But only 9-12 are given away on the live telecast.

Because the general public only cares about that many.

Kind of like the Brit Awards, of which there are fewer than twenty.

Now what bugs me most is lazy obituary writers will say that some deceased musician was a Grammy winner, as if that counted. The bottom line is if you can’t be nominated for a Grammy in some category, you don’t make music. As for winning… If the category is narrow enough, you’ve got a good chance.

The reason eighty plus Grammy categories exist is to have those who make music without mass commercial appeal feel good. So they can use it on their bios, on their Wikipedia pages, so it will influence those who are inexperienced and uneducated.

And BTS is taking a stand against this.

Of course it can win an Asian music category, there’s no way it won’t be nominated. How many Asian acts have succeeded in the U.S? And BTS is the biggest. So no big deal.

This is the backwater. No one in music wants to reside in the backwater, they want to be in the mainstream. To an artist whose album debuts at number one on the chart, that has tens of millions of fans around the world, they don’t want the Grammy to increase business, after all, in the streaming era there is no Grammy bounce, but as a cherry-on-top, a victory lap, an acknowledgement of their status and success.

And in these top categories, the Grammys keep blowing it. Giving awards to jazz albums most people have never heard or the usual suspects. You can’t have it both ways. You can’t say you want to play in the mainstream and disregard it at the same time.

But the bottom line is no one has more contempt for another’s work than a musician. Music is a solitary enterprise. It’s you against the world. This is very different from movies, which are a collaborative field.

So do you expect musicians, especially those who could never dream of being nominated in one of the big categories, to pay fealty to some rapper or some K-pop act? No way! They are the enemy!

So they award the acts who they believe deserve their respect. Oftentimes those who’ve had previous success to the degree that they can’t be denied.

So you’ve got acts in these boundary-pushing genres pissed that they’re excluded from the big awards, even though hip-hop has been around for nearly half a century at this point. But it still can’t get respect from the white men who run the Grammys. They put a woman in charge and they had to excise her, pay her a tidy sum to go away. It’s a cabal, and they like it the way it is.

Now if the Grammys wanted to boost their esteem, they’d eliminate nearly all of the categories, boil it down to ten or fifteen. But every time they try to eliminate a category, those who make music in it go hog wild.

Meanwhile, the public doesn’t give a sh*t. If it did, millions of viewers would watch the pre-telecast, but they don’t. Most big acts won’t even show up for these awards, because they’re meaningless to them.

So BTS is saying it needs to be acknowledged as a legitimate competitor or it won’t play. And the funny thing is the Grammys need these commercially successful acts to appear on the telecast, to maintain ratings, after all it’s the check from the network that pays the bills for the entire organization.

The biggest recording act in America won’t even submit his work. Yes, that’s how big Morgan Wallen is. Does he need the Grammys? Absolutely not, he sells out stadiums. The Grammys need him. But rather than acknowledge his success, they want to hold some bad behavior against him and keep him out, even though they award winners with gunfire and physical violence in their backgrounds. But lower class whites who don’t know how to behave, who don’t clean up to Grammy standards, there’s no room for them.

Now the Grammys tried to solve the problem of inaccurate nominations with its secret committees. Making sure the out of touch voters did not have the final say. But this doesn’t align with transparency and accuracy. But it did have these committees passing around the Grammys in smaller categories. Oh, my friend hasn’t been nominated yet, let’s put him in there. Could never happen in a major category. But even some of the biggest acts can’t win in the major categories!

Maybe there needs to be a fan vote. A Grammy for that.

But really, the best way out of this is to eliminate the bogus undercard and only focus on a few categories and make sure the true successes are nominated and sometimes win.

But this is anathema to those involved. It’s like high school. You know, the nerds in school government who are unpopular who want to render irrelevant judgments in a world run by the football team and the cool kids. This is their way to teach the popular a lesson. To try and show them up. It’s laughable, like so much of the Grammys.

Now in truth, it’s only a loser who displays their Grammys. I mean a winner in the irrelevant categories. As for the winners, if the Grammy statuette is not in the bathroom, they oftentimes don’t even know where it is, that’s how meaningful it is to them. Undercutting the gravitas of the whole thing. But if you’re going to have an awards show, you’ve got to keep up to date and acknowledge those who are foremost in today’s culture. So far, this has been a problem. And throwing crumbs at those offended will not solve it.

Music is about dominance, didn’t Freddie Mercury sing that he wanted it all, and he wanted it now? That’s the goal, you want to be the toppermost of the poppermost. A consolation prize won’t do. Give me the best, say I’m great, or forget it. After all, who are you? I’m bigger and I have fans and will outlast the arbiters. So give me my props or I’m OUT!

All I know is, on October 8th, when posters of kidnapped kids were being ripped off telephone poles all around the World, there’s a big problem.  Lost dogs and cats posters are left up, but not Israeli kids.  Those who point to the UN’s, practically, daily Anti-Israel resolutions seem to forget how many countries there are that were once Christian majorities and are now Muslim – can you say “colonizer”?.  The Arab/Israeli conflict is not a real estate problem, it’s a religion problem.  That’s exactly why, “no Jews, no news”.  I’m no Bibi fan, but if and when a secular center-left government is voted back in Israel (yes, I said voted) how much do you want to bet there will still be the same anti-Zionist fever raging.

Rick Neigher
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Bob; what a lot of your readers who keep citing the UN don’t seem to get is that the UN is king of the Anti Israel’s. 

Israel has every right to defend itself which is exactly what it keeps doing. 

Welcome to the “Right” side…..

Joseph Zaro
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Boy George… amazingly talented as he was… is a known violent abuser, and is certainly not a good spokesperson to hang your pro-genocide Zionist hat on, but hey… go right ahead. ?And suffer the inevitable fallout. ??Mike Froedge?Step Up to the Mike Productions, LLC
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Thanks for writing this. It’s great to hear Boy George standing up for Israel and the Jews. Maybe he will inspire more artists to do the same. ??I never thought I’d live in a world where Jews were coming under attack like this. The new hatred is so casual, it’s disturbing. Almost like these people take for granted that Jews should be hated and despised. ??Now I have to drive under an overpass in Downtown LA last Sunday with a banner blatantly lying with text that says “Stop Israel from killing 81,000 children.” And then I need to explain to my young daughter why this is the worst slander propagated by people who sympathize with the murderers and rapists of October 7. ??Keep fighting this fight. We don’t agree on everything, but I’m absolutely right there with you on this. It’s too important. ??James Stockdale
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Hi Bob – well he’s pretty much shat the bed here in the UK – most folk I know here lump Netanyahu in with Trump as warmongering greedy old men who think nothing of killing innocent folk even if they are kids, ostensibly to cover up their own crimes of fraud or child rape – George is desperate for attention but he may and up regretting getting it. Anyone still defending warmongering on any side are the problem – lots of them on here so maybe no hope – the two sides should be those for peace v those for war, always had you down as a peacey.
?Regards?Nic Wastell
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Hi Bob,

I was about to reply to your newletter with that chilling fact

“J7 Report: 2025 Was the Deadliest Year for Antisemitic Attacks in the Diaspora in Over 30 Years”

https://www.adl.org/resources/press-release/j7-report-2025-was-deadliest-year-antisemitic-attacks-diaspora-over-30

Those are cold hard facts – no debate needed. It’s not an opinion. It’s not an op-ed. 

This happened. 

Reading some of the replies, I was wondering : what the f….do they want?

We will NOT go away. We will NOT be scared. 

Much love Bob,

Baptiste-Elias Piégay-Natanson
_____________________________________

Great song! Very brave of Boy George! Unlike most artists who would never say anything that would offend all the right people or risk  losing fans. Loved your comments!!! You might notice that all the pro Palestine comments will never dare mention Hamas! It’s as if they don’t exist!!

What’s that all about??
Elliot Cohen
_____________________________________

F*ck yeah thanx Bob so stoaked to see you on the right side here. Kia ora from nz 

Angus Jowitt
_____________________________________

Thank you Bob, Boy George, Lee Trink etc who are on the right and moral side of history.  Am Yisrael Chai!!

We shall overcome.

Nadine Hemy 
_____________________________________

This. ??“ Cmon Bob, you know better than this. People who are pro Palestinian don’t hate the individual Jew; they hate Bibi and his militaristic murder. The government, not the people. ??You’re smart enough to know the difference. ?–?Paul Bordenkircher”

Drew Arnott
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Bob ~ ??Israel is doing to the Palestinian what Hitler did to the Jews ~ Wipe them off the face of the earth ~ ??Sorry but I don’t see any difference ~ ??R. Singer
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Flowing streams of thanks for sharing all of this and, most importantly, the video of the song(which I was completely unaware of, sadly). It moved me to tears. 

I’ll just share what I posted on Instagram after I followed your lead to go there:  Never been a fan or even appreciator of his music all these years(though, respect his inner strength always being true to himself) BUT HERE…my deepest, most profound respect for standing so strong, courageously and effectively(through music!) for….(hear this clearly)…all the Jews of the world.  This song, this stand, this strength…MATTERS.

Rawk, no Roll,
Bruce Brodeen
_____________________________________

Thanks, Bob. I am astonished at the tin eared, uniformed reactions of the younger generations, as well as the short memories of my own friends. G-d bless you for pointing this stuff out. 

Joe Taylor 
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I’ve never heard anyone say Jews are responsible for genocide because they are not.  But, the country of Israel is. 

Let’s just stop calling it a genocide if all the non-Israel jews are so concerned.  Let’s just call it, A SH*T-TON OF DEAD PALASTINIAN WOMEN AND CHILDREN.  

Waaaaay too many children dead or starving which I beleive is purposeful given the hatred that they suffer.

Yep, 

Stephanie Gurevitz-Gonzalez

63% Ashkenazi Jew from Belarus (not a biblical Jew, just like Netanyahu)

Grandfather was the Rabbi

Hates war against women and children of any race / religion
_____________________________________

Thank you and Boy George for saying what is plain as day.?I had a friend in law school who told me (when I mentioned I might convert to Judaism) that even if I convert, I could never be a Jew. He likened it to becoming French. That stuck with me—and despite having been married to a Jewish man for almost 40 years, I’m no more Jewish than my cat is. But I have a sensibility that runs with ‘right.’ No other majority Muslim country welcomes Palestinians—in fact, the Egyptians have a wall. Now, all Palestinians are not bad people; of course they aren’t. Their innocents do not deserve to die. And a country whose innocents are attacked has every right to protect those who remain. Are the people who steal Palestinian farms and land wrong to do so? I’d say ‘yes.’ There is nothing noble in this situation on either side. But the people crowing the loudest across the world in support of Palestine very clearly do not understand how daily life works under a Hamas regime. My heart breaks for the innocents, Bob.
?Thanks for sharing this song. I’d not heard it.?
Medea Isphording Bern
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Amen!

Stacey Portnoy
_____________________________________

I very much suspect that this is also contributing to anti-semitism – doesn’t make it right:

“We’ve been displaced from place to place, and now we have nowhere left to go,” says Umm Mohammed al-Shawish. She is desperately searching for somewhere to live after Israel moved yellow concrete blocks that mark out where it controls in the Gaza Strip. Families living in al-Tuffah in northern Gaza woke on Monday to find the blocks had been moved westwards into the centre of Salah al-Din road, a key north-south route through Gaza.Nearby, an Israeli flag was flying on top of an earth barrier around 3m (10ft) tall. The al-Shawish family home was destroyed during the war. On Sunday, they had to flee again after the Israeli military called to warn of an attack on a nearby building. Their only shelter was a tent, which was torn apart by the strike. “We are going to die here,” Mohammed al-Shawish said. “Death is better than humiliation. No-one is standing with us.” Under the terms of the US-brokered ceasefire deal between Israel and Hamas last October, Israel agreed to withdraw its forces from across Gaza to a designated demarcation – the Yellow Line.

Ann Munday
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There are a lot of knee-jerk responses here, Bob.  People gobbling up the propaganda.  

Over the years, despite being an “open air prison,” Palestinian Territories were still able to donate $12 Million to American universities.  A paltry sum, of course, compared to the 7.6 BILLION DOLLARS donated by Qatar.  Why are Arab countries donating so much money?  For times like these, when they can call on their brainwashed minions to help them show the world how bad Israel is.  

https://jewishvirtuallibrary.org/arab-funding-of-american-universities-donors-recipients-and-impact-update#_Toc206771334

I find this passage quite disturbing:

“Until 2020, the DoE did not report how universities used foreign gifts. Even today, most of that money remains shrouded in secrecy. More than 70% of all contributions, worth almost $11 billion (73% of all Arab funding), have no description.

“Nowhere is the opacity more troubling than in the case of Qatar, the single largest Arab donor. Out of 1,260 separate Qatari contributions, only 144 (11%) worth $1.7 billion list a purpose. That means the American public—and the U.S. government—remain in the dark about how nearly $6 billion from a regime that funds Al Jazeera, hosts Hamas leadership, and bankrolls Islamist organizations globally is being used on U.S. campuses.”

At this point, Israel has no choice but to defend itself, and it’s always harder to justify pre-emptive measures.  But are they really “pre-emptive?” Because when you consider the amount of projectiles launched from Iran and proxies into Israel since October 7th you would better understand that Israel is in a constant state of defense.  

Iran Projectile Tracker

That link will confirm that Lebanon has fired 17,938 projectiles into Israel between October 7th, 2023 and November, 2024.  EIGHTEEN THOUSAND PROJECTILES. 

That’s fifty per day.  
Two per hour.  
Non-stop, for a year.

The only reason nobody talks about this being Genocide is becasue of how awful the Arabs are at it.

danny segelin
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I’ve always wondered why, among the waves of attacks, almost a third of the total casualties were the 385 people killed at the Nova concert. Why was it so important to attack a concert? 

In mixed cities like Haifa and Tel Aviv, as well as international music hubs, younger Arabs and Jews frequently share dance clubs and nightlife venues peacefully. It’s considered normal. Dozens of Arab citizens of Israel, primarily residents of the Negev, were killed at the concert. Palestinian workers and foreign Arab nationals were also among the casualties and hostages.

Hamas might have wanted to do more than just kill Jews. Maybe part of the motivation was a warning shot to a mixed culture. Having “enemies” get along is a threat to those who need villains so they can hold on to power.  

Years ago, I used to joke that I had a solution to the Arab/Israeli crisis: Remove all politicians from both sides, and replace them with people under 35 recruited from dance clubs. Maybe it wasn’t as much of a joke as I thought.

As long as people simply dig deeper into their previously-held positions, which is primarily what I saw in those emails, I doubt that there will be a solution.  

Craig Anderton
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Using some statistics from The Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics (A Brief On The Status Of The Palestinian People At The End Of 2025):

https://www.pcbs.gov.ps/en/post-details/?postId=23319

I’ll do a back-of-the-envelope calculation (I hope you saved the envelope this email came in).
 
As of December 2025, the number of Gazans killed was 70,942, including 18,592 (26.2%) children and approximately 12,400 (17.5%) women. That leaves 39,950 (56.3%) men.
 
Since the Palestinians don’t delineate combatants vs non-combatants, I will make the following assumptions:

All of the women killed were non-combatants

An equal number of non-combatant men were killed as non-combatant women
 
So we have 12,400 (17.5%) non-combatant men and 27,550 (38.8%) combatant men.
 
And in total, we have 43,392 (61.2%) non-combatants and 27,550 (38.8%) combatants.
 
Of the non-combatants, 42.8% were children, 28.6% women, and 28.6% men. The overall population is 47% children; the 42.8% number is slightly lower than might be expected.
 
And assuming an average Gaza population of 2.17 million (my estimate) from 2023-2026, the 43,392 non-combatants represent 2.00% of the population, and it represents 0.28% of the worldwide Palestinian population of 15.5 million.
 
This is roughly a 60/40 split, but more non-combatants are killed than combatants.  This is largely due to the combat conditions in Gaza, and the decision by Israel to use bombs rather than to subject its troops to the high losses that might be incurred fighting a guerilla war in the streets of Gaza.
 
But is it genocide?  
 
The problem with treating a word like “genocide” as a technical term is that the technical definition often contains technicalities (surprise!) that can be interpreted (abused) in ways that make the technical term deviate significantly from the commonly understood meaning of the word.  In the case of the UN definition for genocide, the problem is the phrase “in whole or in part”, and the interpretation of “substantial”.
 
Using the technical definition, you can call Hamas a group, or the Hamas militant wing, or the October 7 planners, and get the result you want.  
 
But clearly, Israel doesn’t want to annihilate the Palestinians (If they do, they’ve chosen an incredibly inefficient methodology).
 
What Israel wants is to displace them, but alas, there are no takers.  
 
I wonder why?
 
Steve Roberts