The Marathons

US rhythm & blues group. Their first single "Peanut Butter" (Arvee) is actually a recording by . Producers/songwriters HB Barnum and Martin Cooper wrote a song called "Peanut Butter" that was intended for the Olympics. Listening to the record, it uses the same melody as the Olympics "Hully Gully." The story goes that the Olympics where on a US tour and were unavailable to cut the record. HB Barnum gave it to The Vibrations to record a demo for him. Somehow, it made its way to the Arvee label, and they released it. They must have conspired to be sure the Vibrations name was not used and they selected the name of the Marathons. When Chess found out their hot new vocal group was on Arvee as the Marathons, they issued it on Argo using small font letters identifying the group with the Vibrations. Arvee Records secured the rights to the “Marathons” name and released other singles with a different group.