- Included among the Record Descriptions of Favorite Albums (Part 1).
- The Turtles are best known for their #1 song “Happy Together”. Greatest Hits summarizes their history, and all 14 songs on are charting singles.
The Greatest Music
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The Turtles – Greatest Hits (1982): The Turtles are best known for their #1 song “Happy Together”, one of the biggest hit singles of 1967. The song has appeared numerous times in movies and television shows and commercials over the years; in the early 2010’s, I remember “Happy Together” as the background music for one of those adorable Travelers Insurance ads with the dog who is so worried about his bone (the one with all of the puppies). Greatest Hits effectively summarizes the history of the Turtles, with all 14 of the songs having been charting singles. The Turtles’ sound is grounded in the vocal harmonies of founding members Howard Kaylan and Mark Volman (lead vocalists), who sang together in the a cappella choir at their L.A. high school. Kaylan was in an instrumental surf group called the Nightriders that included three other members of the choir: Al Nichol (lead guitar), Chuck Portz (bass guitar), and Don Murray (drums).
After Volman joined the band, they changed their name to the Crossfires. Jim Tucker (rhythm guitar) was added a short time later, and the bandmembers kept the group alive while they attended area colleges. In 1965, local disc jockey and club owner Reb Foster heard the band and became their manager, landing the group a recording contract with White Whale Records. At this point, they changed their name to the Turtles (originally spelled the Tyrtles as an homage to the Byrds). Along with several other 1960’s recording artists, the Turtles launched their recording career with a Bob Dylan song as their first single; other examples are Olivia Newton-John, Cher, and the Byrds, who recorded a total of 20 (!) Bob Dylan songs, all collected on the reissue of their 1979 album The Byrds Play Dylan (2002). The Turtles’ confident folk-rock performance of “It Ain’t Me Babe” took the song to the Top Ten in August 1965, just three months after Bob Dylan’s “Mr. Tambourine Man” by the Byrds hit #1. Their debut album, also called It Ain’t Me Babe (1965) has two other Bob Dylan songs on it, “Love Minus Zero (No Limit)” and “Like a Rolling Stone”. Two follow-up singles from their second album You Baby (1966) made the Top 40, “Let Me Be” and “You Baby”. “Can I Get to Know You Better” was evidently released only as a single, in 1966; the song is included on some of the CD reissues of You Baby. After some turnover in personnel – Joel Larson and then John Barbata joined up on drums, and Chip Douglas was briefly the bassist and producer – the Turtles came across a demo of a song by Gary Bonner (also known as Garry Bonner) and Alan Gordon of the Magicians, called “Happy Together”. The Magicians’ song “An Invitation to Cry” – about a man receiving an invitation to the wedding of a former girlfriend – is included on the landmark compilation album Nuggets: Original Artyfacts from the First Psychedelic Era, 1965–1968 (1972). They are the last band on Nuggets to get a Wikipedia article; so, the Magicians is one of the Under Appreciated Rock Bands that I wrote up for my Facebook page. “Happy Together” was the #1 song for three weeks in 1967. The Turtles’ next three singles are also Bonner/Gordon songs; the first, “She’d Rather Be with Me” is a #3 hit that performed even better outside the U.S. than “Happy Together”. The other two, “You Know What I Mean” and “She’s My Girl” made the Top 20. More turnover followed this string of hits, with Jim Pons of the Leaves replacing Chip Douglas on bass, and original member Jim Tucker leaving the band. Two more singles by the Turtles missed the Top 40, “Sound Asleep” and “The Story of Rock & Roll”; they were followed by the September 1968 release of “Elenore”, a #6 song that was the highest charting single written by the bandmembers. This led to their concept album The Turtles Present the Battle of the Bands that was released in November 1968; besides “Elenore”, another #6 single is taken from this album, “You Showed Me” (originally recorded by the Byrds). Next, having been inspired by their 1967 psychedelic rock album The Kinks are the Village Green Preservation Society, the Turtles had Kinks front man Ray Davies produce their 1969 album Turtle Soup. The two singles from this album also fell outside the Top 40, “You Don’t Have to Walk in the Rain” and “Love in the City”. The Turtles broke up in 1970; and three of the bandmembers, Howard Kaylan, Mark Volman, and Jim Pons all joined Frank Zappa’s band the Mothers of Invention by the end of the year. Since an earlier recording contract forbade Kaylan and Volman from using the Turtles name or even their own real names in musical endeavors, the two were billed as “the Phlorescent Leech & Eddie” in the Mothers. The three former Turtles stayed with the Mothers of Invention for several years, appearing on four albums from 1970 to 1972, as well as performing in the touring band. After Frank Zappa was badly injured in a performing incident, Howard Kaylan and Mark Volman started performing as a comedy rock group called Flo & Eddie with several other musicians in the Mothers of Invention, releasing five albums between 1975 and 1981. In 1984, after the Turtles name reverted to the bandmembers, the band reformed and began touring again under the name The Turtles . . . Featuring Flo & Eddie. Kaylan and Volman also regained the rights to the Turtles’ master recordings and publishing rights; and Rhino Records oversaw reissues of the Turtles’ albums in the 1980’s, including this new collection called Greatest Hits. In 1984, Rhino Records reissued the album on CD with additional songs, under the name 20 Greatest Hits.