From: rogers@rosencrantz.osf.org (Andrew Rogers)
Subject: Re: Turtles
Organization: HICAM/OSD
Date: Mon, 23 Nov 1992 16:22:34 GMT

In article <s7imuB1w165w@edale.amigans.gen.nz> olive@edale.amigans.gen.nz (Wayne Hoyle) writes:
>Can anyone tell me the Turtles line up and who wrote Happy Together ...

The Turtles started as a surf band called the Crossfires, occasionally
cashing in on the early-60's folk scare as the Crosswind Singers.  By the
time the folk-rock craze hit in mid-'65, it was a simple matter to combine
these styles, and the newly-rechristened Turtles hit the US Top 10 with
their cover of Bob Dylan's "It Ain't Me Babe" on the fledgling White Whale
label.

The lineup at that time consisted of consisted of Howard Kaylan (real name:
Kaplan; it was misspelled on their contract and stuck, lead vocals); Mark
Volman (backup vocals); Al Nichol (lead guitar), Jim Tucker (rhythm guitar),
Chuck Portz (bass), and Don Murray (drums).  They had two semi-hit followups
("Let Me Be" and "You Baby") and three (possibly four - can anyone confirm
that "We'll Meet Again" was released as a single?) non-hit followups ("Grim
Reaper Of Love", "Outside Chance" [written by Warren Zevon; still my favorite
Turtles single], and "Can I Get To Know You Better").  Somewhere around that
time Portz and Murray left and were replaced with future Monkees producer
Chip Douglas and future CSNY/Jefferson Starship drummer John Barbata.  Douglas
left shortly thereafter and was replaced with ex-Leaves bassist Jim Pons.

This lineup was responsible for "Happy Together", which was written by
ex-Magicians Gary Bonner and Alan Gordon (who also recorded as Elmo and
Almo).  This same team was responsible for their next three hits, "She'd
Rather Be With Me", "She's My Girl", and "You Know What I Mean", as well as
Petula Clark's "The Cat In The Window" and [much later] Three Dog Night's
"Celebrate").  Somewhere around the end of this string of hits (late '67)
Jim Tucker left and was not replaced.

They recorded a couple of semi-hits - "Sound Asleep" and "The Story of Rock
and Roll" before returning to the Top 10 yet again with the tongue-in-cheek
"Elenore" (probably the first use of a Moog synthesizer on a hit single) and
lovely Byrds outtake, "You Showed Me" (yes, the same one somebody-or-another
remade a few months ago).  They were Tricia Nixon's favorite band, and at
her insistence were hired to play at the White House in early '69.

They continued until 1970 (John Barbata was replaced by John Seiter sometime
in their later days), but "You Showed Me" was their last major hit.  Kaylan,
Volman, and Pons subsequently joined the Mothers; Kaylan and Volman (having
lost the rights to the Turtles name) continued for several more years as the
Phlorescent Leech and Eddie.

Everything you ever wanted to hear by the Turtles (and then some) has been
re-issued on Rhino Records.  Either somebody at Rhino is a huge Turtles fan
or else they could license the material real cheap - in addition to reissues
of the original LPs (with the track lineups juggled somewhat, particularly
on "You Baby"), Rhino put out one unreleased LP and one LP of of rarities/
demos/outtakes ("Chalon Road" and "Wooden Head", not necessarily respectively).

For the casual fan, I recommend the "20 Greatest Hits" CD compilation.  Hell,
that's all *I* own (well, OK, that and the Sire "Happy Together Again" comp
from 1974, which it largely duplicates except for some Crossfires tracks),
and look at all I just babbled about them off the top of my head...

AWR
old fart at play
Newsgroups: rec.music.misc