The Third Rail was an American pop/rock group, briefly popular in the 1960s, made up of

studio musician Session musicians, studio musicians, or backing musicians are musicians hired to perform in recording sessions or live performances. The term sideman is also used in the case of live performances, such as accompanying a recording artist on a ...

s. The group had three members:

Arthur Resnick Arthur Resnick (born 1937) is an American songwriter, record producer and musician. His most successful songs as a writer include " Under the Boardwalk" (co-written with Kenny Young), "Good Lovin'" (co-written with Rudy Clark), and " Yummy Yumm ...

, Kris Resnick (Arthur's wife), and

Joey Levine Joey Levine (born May 29, 1947) is an American singer, songwriter and record producer of pop music, who has been active since 1966. Career Levine sang lead vocals on several Top 40 singles including "Run Run Run" by The Third Rail (1966), "Y ...

. Arthur had spent years writing

Brill Building The Brill Building is an office building at 1619 Broadway on 49th Street in the New York City borough of Manhattan, just north of Times Square and further uptown from the historic musical Tin Pan Alley neighborhood. It was built in 1931 as t ...

pop songs, including " Under the Boardwalk" by

The Drifters The Drifters are several American doo-wop and R&B/Soul music, soul vocal groups. They were originally formed as a backing group for Clyde McPhatter, formerly the lead tenor of Billy Ward and his Dominoes in 1953. The second group of Drifters, f ...

and "

Good Lovin' "Good Lovin is a song written by Rudy Clark and Arthur Resnick that was a #1 hit single for the Young Rascals in 1966. Original version The song was first recorded by Lemme B. Good (stage name of singer Limmie Snell) in March 1965 and written b ...

" by

The Rascals ''The'' () is a grammatical article in English, denoting persons or things already mentioned, under discussion, implied or otherwise presumed familiar to listeners, readers, or speakers. It is the definite article in English. ''The'' is the m ...

. Levine had played in local bands in

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

and was still in his teens when the group first recorded together. They did only one live show together, in

Cincinnati Cincinnati ( ) is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Hamilton County. Settled in 1788, the city is located at the northern side of the confluence of the Licking and Ohio rivers, the latter of which marks the state line wit ...

, though they recorded several singles and an album. In 1967, their single "Run Run Run" reached No. 53 on the ''Billboard'' Hot 100, and that same year the LP ''Id Music'' was released on

Epic Records Epic Records is an American record label owned by Sony Music Entertainment, a subsidiary of Sony Corporation of America Sony Corporation of America (SONAM, also known as SCA), is the American arm of the Japanese conglomerate Sony Group ...

. The last single released under the name Third Rail was issued in 1968, after which Levine went on to sing the tune "

Yummy Yummy Yummy "Yummy Yummy Yummy" is a song by Arthur Resnick and Joey Levine, first recorded by Ohio Express in 1968. Their version reached No. 4 on the U.S. Pop Singles chart in June and No. 5 on the UK Singles Chart. It has since been covered by many artis ...

" for the

Ohio Express The Ohio Express is an American bubblegum pop band formed in Mansfield, Ohio, in 1967. Though marketed as a band, it would be more accurate to say that the name "Ohio Express" served as a brand name used by Jerry Kasenetz's and Jeffry Katz's Su ...

. All three members later went on to work as songwriters for Kasenetz & Katz.

Discography

Albums

* ''Id Music'' (1967)

Charted singles

* Run, Run, Run (1967) ( US #53) * It's Time to Say Goodbye (1968) ( US/ US Bub. #113)

References

;Footnotes ;General references *

Richie Unterberger Richie Unterberger (born January 19, 1962) is an American author and journalist whose focus is popular music and travel writing. Life and writing Unterberger attended the University of Pennsylvania, where he wrote for the university newspaper '' ...

Third Rail A third rail, also known as a live rail, electric rail or conductor rail, is a method of providing electric power to a railway locomotive or train, through a semi-continuous rigid conductor placed alongside or between the rails of a railway t ...

AllMusic AllMusic (previously known as All Music Guide and AMG) is an American online music database. It catalogs more than three million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on musicians and bands. Initiated in 1991, the databas ...

{{DEFAULTSORT:Third Rail, The American pop music groups