“If we had stuck together we could have been as big as Led Zeppelin – or at the very least, Deep Purple. We had the stuff!”: The heavy rock innovators whose hard-hitting drummer was a star before John Bonham

In the late ’60s, American rockers Vanilla Fudge were labelled as psych-rock, but their impact stretches way further than that.

The New York-based band, which featured Tim Bogert on bass and vocals, Mark Stein on keys and vocals, Vince Martell on guitar, and Carmine Appice on drums, had impacted everything from prog rock to heavy metal.

Their signature hit was a cover of a Motown classic, The Supremes’ You Keep Me Hangin’ On.

Vanilla Fudge "Keep Me Hangin' On" on The Ed Sullivan Show - YouTube

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But as Appice tells MusicRadar, that’s not all Vanilla Fudge had to offer.

“All over the internet, they talk about the influence of Vanilla Fudge,” Appice says. “If Vanilla Fudge had stuck together, we could have been as big as Led Zeppelin, or at the very least, Deep Purple. We didn’t, but we had the stuff.”

Certainly, Vanilla Fudge were in the vanguard of heavy rock in the late ’60s. Their self-titled debut album, featuring You Keep Me Hangin’ On, was released in 1967 – along with other landmark albums such as Cream’s Disraeli Gears, self-titled albums by The Doors and The Velvet Underground & Nico, The Jimi Hendrix Experience’s Are You Experienced? and Axis: Bold As Love, Pink Floyd’s The Piper At The Gates Of Dawn and most famous of all, The Beatles’ Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band.

Appice is keen to point out that Vanilla Fudge had an album out before either Led Zeppelin or Deep Purple.

He continues: “We influenced Deep Purple, Led Zeppelin, I mean… the list goes on and on. The sound of that organ with a heavy rhythm section, along with our tremendous arrangements, dynamics, and harmonies, I mean, that’s what it was all about.

“All our arrangements, the way we put stuff together, all the voices and great playing – all of that influenced progressive rock. We were different to anybody else. Even today, nobody can really play Vanilla Fudge right except for the actual band.”

Appice describes the chemistry between the band members as volatile.

“There was always friction between Tim and Mark,” he says. “It was always a little bit out there, and we’d come up with all these crazy things, but it all worked for the creation of what we had, I guess.

“Tim was a crazy bass player who influenced a lot of people. From a technical aspect, I studied drums, so we had that, too.”

He says of his approach: “I wasn’t hard-hitting at first. I was forced to do that because there were hardly any PAs back then, and I needed to be heard.

“Tim Bogert always had two [Fender] Dual Showman amps, Mark had two Leslies powered by 300-watt amplifiers, and I had nothing. I was forced to hit the drums hard to get a sound out!”

This is why he chose large Ludwig drums and heavy cymbals.

He explains: “I went to a pawn shop, got a 26-inch Ludwig bass drum, and said, ‘Wow, maybe if I get this bigger bass drum, it will be heard.’ And I just put my red sparkle design over it to match the rest of my kit, and that was the kit that I played [with Vanilla Fudge] on The Ed Sullivan Show.

“Nobody had that at the time, but I did. It created a fad. Next thing I knew, it was all oversize bass drums. And when John Bonham got his drums, that became the Led Zeppelin drum set, and was very famous.”

Between 1967 and 1970, the band’s best years, Vanilla Fudge made five albums, four of which reached the US Top 20.

Carmine Appice remains hugely proud of their legacy, and especially of that explosive version of You Keep Me Hangin’ On.

“It was emotional and dynamic,” he says. “Because of that, it’ll never die. It’s been in movies and even shows like The Sopranos. It’s even been in commercials for airlines, for Coke…”

It’s a song that Appice still performs today in a live show featuring the hits from his years with Rod Stewart in the ’70s and ’80s.

“I’m doing a show now celebrating the legacy of Rod Stewart,” he says, “and we do You Keep Me Hangin’ On, which we did on the first Rod Stewart album I did, Foot Loose & Fancy Free. It’s always the highlight of the show. Even with all the Rod hits in there, it’s still the highlight.”