Association

The Association were an American pop band from California in the folk rock or soft rock genre, described by AllMusic as "one of the most pleasing, popular, sunshine pop harmony groups of the mid-'60s." They had numerous hits at or near the top of the Billboard charts (including "Windy", "Cherish", and "Along Comes Mary") and were the lead-off band at 1967's Monterey Pop Festival. Their national break would come with the song "Along Comes Mary", written by Tandyn Almer. The song, which brought the group some controversy at first due to "Mary" allegedly being a shortened version of Mary Jane (slang for marijuana), went to No. 7 on the Billboard charts and led to the group's first album, And Then... Along Comes the Association, produced by Curt Boettcher, which had originally been started at Gary S. Paxton's converted garage studio with the vocals being done at Columbia Studios. Another song from the album, "Cherish",.... would become the Association's first No. 1 in September 1966 (covered six years later with great international success by David Cassidy.)
In late 1966, Warner Bros. Records, which had been distributing Valiant, bought the smaller label (and with it, the Association's contract). In May 1967, (Gary) Alexander left the band to study meditation in India, and he was replaced by Larry Ramos (born Hilario Ramos on April 19, 1942, Waimea, Hawaii; died April 30, 2014) on vocals and guitar. Ramos joined the band while Alexander was still performing with them after bassist (Brian) Cole's hand was injured by a firecracker; Alexander subbed on bass while Ramos played lead guitar. Ramos had previously performed with The New Christy Minstrels and recorded solo singles for Columbia Records. He went on to sing co-lead (along with Russ Giguere and Terry Kirkman) on two of the Association's biggest hit singles, "Windy" and "Never My Love". (Read more at Wikipedia.)
== Links to Peel ==
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The Association were one of the bands to emerge on the Los Angeles scene in 1966, while Peel was working at radio station KMEN in San Bernardino, California. Their early singles all featured in the station's playlist during his time there, both "Along Comes Mary" and "Cherish" reaching #1 on the station's "K/Men-dous Ten", in June and September, and the follow-ups "Pandora's Golden Heebie Jeebies" and "No Fair At All" both making the Top 30. The Association's singles also picked up airplay on Radio London and other British offshore pirate radio stations, although the band only had one minor hit ("Time For Livin'") in the national UK charts in 1968. Peel also played tracks by the band on Radio London, including "Windy", which had a run in the station's Fab Forty charts (peaking at #4 in the chart of 9 July 1967) and appeared on Peel's daytime show playlist of 01 July 1967. Interestingly, Windy was later used as the theme to Thames Television's magazine programme Today: on 01 December 1976, the Sex Pistols appeared on it as last-minute substitutes for Queen and caused furore with their use of bad language. In the introduction, Peel talks about a recent personnel change in the group, showing that he was keeping up to date with their career.
In the British music press, the Association were at first bracketed with the new wave of psychedelic groups emerging from the West Coast, as some of their early material had an experimental feel. "Along Comes Mary" was chosen by Melody Maker as one of the "singles to remember" of 1966, and Eric Clapton raved about "Pandors's Golden Heebie Jeebies" in the paper's Blind Date feature, calling it "the greatest record I've heard this year" (It may well have inspired Cream's "Tales of Brave Ulysses", which had a similar psychedelic influence and myth-based lyric). In a review of their first LP in January 1967, Melody Maker called them "Six very hip West Coast guys". The Alan Bown Set (then known as the Alan Bown!) did a cover version of "Pandora's Golden Heebie Jeebies" on their session for the Top Gear of 31 December 1967, while Fairport Convention included "Along Comes Mary" in their live set of 1967-68, although they never recorded it for Peel. 
But the Association were equally proficient at pop ballads and this seemed to determine the direction of their later career, one which Peel wasn't happy with. He wrote in International Times that their 1968 album Birthday was "somewhat disappointing. Group has not been the same since Gary Alexander left" . On their only visit to Britain, in spring 1968, they played pop package shows rather than "hip" venues and (as far as is known) weren't invited to do a session for Top Gear. Their vocal harmony style became unfashionable with rock critics and they had little commercial success after 1970, but in later years became popular with collectors of 1960s music, as practitioners of the harmony-based genre that came to be called "sunshine pop". However Peel is not known to have revisited any of their material in his later shows.
== Festive Fifty Entries ==
*None
== Sessions ==
*None
== Other Shows Played ==
(Only one play of an Association track could be found in available show listings. However, there are likely to be further plays of the group in John Ravencroft Shows on KMEN, San Bernardino, from 1966, or Radio London John Peel shows and Perfumed Garden programmes from March to August 1967. Anyone with playlists or recordings of the aforementioned programmes is welcome to contact the John Peel Wiki, where the information will be gratefully received.)
*01 July 1967: Windy (single) London
== See Also ==
*Cover Versions‎
*Lovin' Spoonful
*Progressive Rock
*International Times: Perfumed Garden Column
== External Links ==
*Wikipedia
*AllMusic
* Other
;Footnotes
Category:Artists