Not Ohio Express, Not Reunion: Joey Levine's '60s Band That Time Forgot

Whenever singer, songwriter, and producer Joey Levine's name is mentioned, the image of the studio group Ohio Express and their 1968 hit "Yummy Yummy Yummy" may come to mind. Or possibly folks think of the 1974 cut "Life is a Rock (But the Radio Rolled Me)" by Reunion, a group made of studio musicians put together by songwriters Norman Dolph and Paul DiFranco. But Levine was in another group before that, the Third Rail, which might be relegated to the back of people's minds these days.

The Third Rail scored a moderate hit with "Run Run Run," a track that reached no. 53 on Billboard's Hot 100 in 1967. Years before that single was released, Levine began his music career as a youngster playing in teen bands. He then got the opportunity to pen songs for the New York publishing outfit, T. M. Music, Inc., where he'd meet songwriter Artie Resnick, who co-wrote the Drifters' 1964 hit "Under the Boardwalk," the Young Rascals' "Good Lovin,'" and Ohio Express' "Yummy Yummy Yummy (which R.E.M.'s Michael Stipe compared favorably to the Beatles, albeit tongue-in-cheek). It was around this time, when Levine was still a minor, that Third Rail briefly existed.

After the Third Rail members stopped recording as a group, Levine began crafting songs as a producer for Jerry Kasenetz and Jeffrey Katz's production team, Super K Production, the duo often credited with popularizing bubblegum pop. But let's go back to Levine's years in the Third Rail and look into the band's start.

Consisting of Joey Levine and a married couple, Kris and Artie Resnick, the Third Rail appears to have been formed largely to showcase its members' songwriting and producing skills. Levine isn't on record saying that was the case, and Artie already had some success by then, but it was an excellent vehicle to highlight the songs they first created as a trio.

"The Third Rail I did before I was in the Ohio Express. I was 16 or 17," said Levine in an interview with New Jersey station WFMU. "Some of the earliest songs we wrote that we recorded together just as songwriters. Very political, more all over the map musically. Teddy Cooper over at Epic heard the stuff we were recording and said, 'Let's do an album.'" Considering that the Third Rail only played one show ever, a gig in Cincinnati, and only released one album, "Id Music," Levine and the other members of the Third Rail clearly didn't intend to be a band for the long haul — a game plan that seemed to work since both Artie Resnick and Levine went on to further success.