And Then... Along Comes the Association
And Then... Along Comes the Association is the debut studio album by the American sunshine pop band the Association and was released on Valiant Records, in July 1966 ("see" 1966 in music). It became one of the top-selling LPs in America, peaking at number five, and remains the Association's most successful album release, except for their "Greatest Hits" compilation. The album's success was primarily credited to the inclusion of their two U.S. hits "Along Comes Mary" and "Cherish", which peaked at number seven and number one respectively on the "Billboard" Hot  100; "Cherish" was number one on Billboard's Top 40 list for three weeks starting in September 24, 1966. The album was preceded by a few non-LP singles as the Association struggled to establish themselves a commercial presence. Moving from the Jubilee record label to Valiant Records, the group released a cover version of Bob Dylan's "One Too Many Mornings", which received attention from Curt Boettcher. Boettcher, who had previously worked with the folk-rock group The GoldeBriars, and demoed "Along Comes Mary" with lead guitarist Jules Alexander, was brought in by the group to steer the Association  in a pop-rock musical direction. Aside from "Along Comes Mary", the sessions with Boettcher provided the band with the song's B-side, "Your Own Love", and two other tracks that are featured on the album "Remember" and "I'll Be Your Man". The Association yielded some of the instrumental playing on "And Then... Along Comes the Association" to top L.A. session musicians, including guitarist Mike Deasy (who would continue to play on other Association albums), bassist Jerry Scheff, and percussionists Jim Troxel and Toxey French. "And Then... Along Comes the Association" saw the group experiment with luscious vocal  harmonies that anticipated the musical textures of Boettcher's later groups The Millennium and Sagittarius. In addition, the album incorporated a wide-assortment of influences, including folk-rock, psychedelia, Baroque pop, and remains a cornerstone of sunshine pop. Along with the hit singles "Along Comes Mary" and "Cherish", notable tracks on the album include the reflective "Enter the Young" and the Addrissi brothers' "Don't Blame It on Me". The partnership between the Association and Boettcher—while innovative and commercially successful—was cut short after Boettcher began to overreach his authority in the group's musical direction. For their sophomore  effort, "Renaissance", the Association recruited Jerry Yester to replace Boettcher as a producer. Original Valiant album covers feature the byline "singing...along comes mary" at the bottom of the cover; this was later replaced with "featuring CHERISH & ALONG COMES MARY". In 1967, Warner Bros. bought the Valiant label and reissued the album, altering the cover by replacing all Valiant references with the Warner Bros. logo and new catalog number of 1702. On the back cover, the monaural and stereo catalog numbers of the Valiant issues at the bottom center were replaced by a "MORE BY THE ASSOCIATION" byline with the  Renaissance and "Insight Out" album covers shown underneath. Copies exist with the gold WB label as well as the green Warner Bros. Seven Arts label.