Ohio Express. Beg, Borrow and Steal / Maybe

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Beg, Borrow and Steal by Ohio Express reached number 29 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart in 1967.

Ohio Express is know as a bubblegum pop band that actually formed in Mansfield, Ohio in the mid 1960's.

They were marketed as a band, but to be more precised the name "Ohio Express" served as a brand name used by Jerry Kasenetz's and Jeffrey Katz's Super K Productions to release the music of a number of different musicians and acts. The best know songs of Ohio Express included their biggest selling single, "Yummy Yummy Yummy". That song and the others were actually the work of many studio musicians working out of New York including singer and songwriter Joey Levine. 

Several other "Ohio Express" hits were the work of other, unrelated musical groups, including the Rare Breed, and an early incarnation of the group 10cc. 

With no group available to promote the single by playing live dates, Super K Productions hired a Mansfield, Ohio band known as Sir Timothy & the Royals and renamed them the Ohio Express. That lineup consisted of Doug Grassel on rhythm guitar, Dale Powers doing vocals and playing lead guitar, Dean Kastran on bass, Jim Pfahler on Keyboards and Tim Corwin with the drums. This group toured as the Ohio Express, and their touring commitments (and Ohio home base) made it difficult for them to head into the New York-based Super K offices to record a follow-up single to "Beg, Borrow and Steal". Of the "official" group members, only Dale Powers (lead vocals) appeared on the second single credited to Ohio Express, a cover of the Standells' "Try It". The single stalled well outside the Top 40 reaching 83. 

It wasn't to long and the group recorded an album called,  "Beg, Borrow and Steal". This recording mixed the original Rare Breed title track with the tracks recorded by the Ohio Express touring group as well as tracks recorded by Super K staff musicians with vocals by Dale Powers. The LP was released on Cameo-Parkway Records in late 1967. The label went into bankruptch shortly after ans was purchased by Allen Klein who still owns the masters.

This 45 is in excellent condition.