“Popcorn” (first version “Pop Corn“) is an instrumental composed by Gershon Kingsley in 1969 for the album Music to Moog By on the Audio Fidelity label. The name is a combination of pop for pop music and corn for kitsch. Kingsley conducted and arranged many Broadway musicals, and composed for film, television shows and commercials. His compositions were eclectic and vary between avant-garde and pop styles. Kingsley also composed classical chamber works.The Moog synthesizer instrumental became a worldwide hit in 1972, when a version by Hot Butter was released. Since then, multiple versions of the piece have been produced and released.
In 1972, a rearranged version of the instrumental was recorded by Kingsley’s First Moog Quartet. This was intended for the namesake album (First Moog Quartet) which had otherwise been a re-release of the 1970 First Moog Quartet album with the same name. The 1972 version of the instrumental had the now current title “Popcorn”. In that same year, Stan Free, a fellow member of the First Moog Quartet, re-recorded another instrumental, based on the 1972 version, with his own band Hot Butter. This was released as a single and became a hit in mainland Europe, spending several weeks at No. 1 in numerous countries on the continent, including France (4 weeks at the top) and Switzerland (10 weeks), ultimately becoming the biggest-selling single of 1972 in both countries. “Popcorn” was also a No. 1 hit in Germany (3 weeks), the Netherlands (7 weeks) and Norway (9 weeks).
French electronic composer and musician Jean-Michel Jarre recorded a 1972 version under the pseudonyms Pop Corn Orchestra and Jammie Jeferson. Later he was inspired by this song to compose his 1976 biggest hit Oxygene (Part IV). In early 2019, when Kingsley died, the experimental composer Blanck Mass chose “Popcorn” as one of the 10 most influential compositions of his career. In 2022, Swedish singer Tove Lo sampled the Hot Butter version in her single “2 Die 4”.
The 1972 cover by the Popcorn Makers reached No. 7 on the German charts and No. 1 on the Dutch charts. The version by French band Anarchic System was released in 1972 and reached at No. 13 on the German charts, No. 10 on the Dutch charts and No. 1 on the Ultratop 50.
In 1987, the French M & H Band (sole member Mark Haliday), released a version of “Popcorn” which peaked at No. 8 in Norway and at No. 20 in Sweden. This single’s release was accompanied by the first purpose-produced music video. Canadian group the Boomtang Boys covered “Popcorn” in 1999, their version peaked at No. 26 on the Billboard chart, where it stayed for 9 weeks. It also reached No. 10 on RPM’s Canadian dance chart. Richárd Moldován known as Richi M released in the 2000 year a cover version which reached at No. 9 in Sweden.
