The Lemon Pipers were a short-lived 1960s American rock band from Oxford, Ohio, United States,[3] known chiefly for their song "Green Tambourine", which reached No.

[4][5] The band was formed in 1966 by student musicians from Oxford, Ohio, who had played the college bars with their previous groups that included The Wombats (Nave), Ivan and the Sabres (Browne),[3] and Tony and the Bandits (Bartlett, Albaugh and Dudek).

They gigged regularly in an Oxford bar called The Boar's Head, and Cincinnati underground rock venues, The Mug Club and later The Ludlow Garage,[6] before releasing a single on the Carol Records label, "Quiet Please".

The band then recruited Miami University student Browne as frontman, and also engaged Ohio music industry impresario Mark Barger, who steered the Lemon Pipers to Buddah Records, then run by Neil Bogart.

The Lemon Pipers, relying in part on advice from Barger, agreed to enter into a recording contract and music publishing deal with Buddah.

[7] Buddah's plans for the group focused on bubblegum pop rather than rock music, and the Lemon Pipers joined a stable already containing Ohio Express and the aptly named 1910 Fruitgum Company.

[4] The success of "Green Tambourine" caused the label to put pressure on the group to stay in the same genre, and in March 1968 the band released another Leka/Pinz song, "Rice Is Nice", which peaked at No.

[3] Writing in Bubblegum is the Naked Truth, Gary Pig Gold commented: "It was the Pipers’ way with a tough-pop gem in the under-four-minute category which was most impressive by far: "Rainbow Tree", "Shoeshine Boy" and especially "Blueberry Blue" each sported a taut, musical sophistication worthy of The Move and, dare I say it, even the Magical Mystery Beatles.

30 on Cashbox in the US),[citation needed] a version of the Carole King/Gerry Goffin penned song "I Was Not Born to Follow," and an 11-minute, 43 second epic, "Dead End Street"/"Half Light".