You may not know this but "Build Me Up Buttercup" has a connection to The Wonder Years. "Big deal!" you may be saying to yourself — or, indeed, out loud if you're anything like me — "half the songs from the sixties were used in that show". True but this is not the connection I was looking for. As a matter of fact, The Foundations' second major hit doesn't seem to have been included in an episode of the narrated, nostalgia-fueled sitcom. (And, yes, I looked it up) No, the link I am referring to is that one of its co-writers is one Mike D'Abo, father of British actress Olivia D'Abo, who played main character Kevin Arnold's free-spirited older sister Karen.
Even still, it is a little strange that "Build Me Up Buttercup" never appeared in The Wonder Years. It's easy to imagine Kevin and longtime on-again, off-again girlfriend Winnie Cooper having some of their awkward encounters soundtracked by this classic. Or the geeky Paul Pfeiffer being in a relationship with a girl who is way out of his league, knows it and is treating him accordingly. Or just as a way for a key actor on the show to get some more royalties for her dad.
The Foundations had already topped the RPM chart a year earlier with "Baby, Now That I've Found You", a Motown derived pop smash. Not wishing to be as formulaic as the record label they had aped, "Buttercup" is distinctly poppier, edging ever so close to bubblegum. But this is more than a simple departure, they scarcely sound like the same group. No doubt this is aided by The Foundations having replaced original lead singer Clem Curtis with Colin Young but the biggest factor is with their intentional or unintentional influence of the likes of Jay and the Americans, Gary Puckett and the Union Gap, Paul Revere and the Raiders and even — yikes — 1910 Fruitgum Company. If their breakthrough smash represented this multiracial group's black contingent, their second major hit sounds about as white as can be.
Still, this isn't necessarily a bad thing. Bubblegum pop isn't for me but there were clearly many who were fond of it back in the late sixties. It's a little more surprising given that the British weren't nearly as receptive to bubblegum as North Americans (and, in particular, Canadians) were but in a way that makes me a little more open to this. I had always assumed The Foundations to be an American group and, if anything, this was made even clearer with "Buttercup" than it had been on "Now That I've Found You". With so many UK groups of the era trying to out-English each other, it's kind of refreshing to see some good old fashioned Brits trying to sound like Americans in their pop — which, I guess, gives it another loose association with Wonder Years star Olivia D'Abo, the English actress who we all figured to have been as American as the character she played.
A score of 6 is basically 'high mediocre' and I think this describes "Build Me Up Buttercup" perfectly. This is not a song you need in your life and if it had never existed we'd never feel any reason to invent it. And yet, it's far too enjoyable to be dispensed with entirely. Joyous songs with a dark heart are pop's bread and butter and while it's hardly ABBA's "Knowing You, Knowing Me", there are worse ways to spend three minutes of your life — and I can even tolerate the subsequent five hours it takes to get the damn thing out of my head.
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