Usually, you will find lesser known bands featured under the “spotlight” moniker. This is different in that regard. Who hasn’t heard about The Turtles? Even if someone should have the blank look of unfamiliarity, chances are they still know one of their songs. A very likely candidate would be their biggest hit Happy Together, which is still fondly remembered by almost everybody born before 1975 (and even younger folks, thanks to its continual use in movies, TV, and on radio).
But in some regards, the band still deserves a spotlight. How many of you have really explored this band? How many original Turtles albums do you own, or have you streamed? Excluding their biggest hit, how many other songs do you really know by them? Okay – guy at the back, I see you waving your hand. Well done. There are definitely a few devotees around. But that’s not most of us.
There is definitely no finger-pointing intended here. Until recently, this largely applied to me as well. When a local store ran a special deal on the deluxe editions of all of their six original studio albums, I figured it was time and jumped on it. And look at me now: Turtles credentials to burn!
In fairness, back in the early 1990s I picked up their fifth album Turtle Soup (1969) on vinyl, so I haven’t totally ignored them. I might however be guilty of picking it up for the wrong reasons. As a huge fan of The Kinks, I had to pick up the only album outside of The Kinks that Ray Davies ever fully produced in his heyday. I may have bought Turtle Soup looking for Ray moments rather than Turtles moments, but the album is rich on both and I really got a fondness for the band right there. This makes is even less excusable that it took so long for me to explore the band even further, but the “better late than never” moniker always applies when it comes to music. Finally, this blemish has been rectified.
Getting and listening to a band’s entire chunk of back catalogue at once can be a peculiar experience. Their career is finished and summarised right here – a complete presentation, everything done, and this is what the band produced, including bonus discs and every possible extra. There are no more surprises.
When you discover a new band you have a chance to grow with them. You get the waiting in anticipation for their next release. You may get a chance of seeing them live, catching them on TV, or on a live stream. The songs are digested over time, allowing them to become a backdrop to events in your life – becoming part of your personal soundtrack. The “there and then” of following a band, making the journey at a slower pace, and seeing each development in context of what is now and what came later gives you perspective over time.
Still, in my case I never had a choice when it came to The Turtles, as they were done before I was born. There’s still a lot to say for digging into entire back catalogues in this manner, as long as it is well presented – as these Turtles releases are. They all have good booklets, liner notes, mono/stereo mixes intact, and b-sides, outtakes and unreleased recordings from the vaults neatly wrap it up.
These releases really paint a very fascinating picture of their development. They were only active from 1965 to 1970, and like most bands from that era, went through an immense musical growth as they traversed several different musical paths from start to finish. It is precisely this power through diversity that makes the Turtles’ body of work so enjoyable to explore for anyone who has a fondness for the music of the 1960s.
The debut album IT AIN’T ME BABE (October 1965) was released hot on the heels of their second top 40 single Let Me Be. The album is decent, with one leg in the fabled L.A. folk-rock era and the other in the surf rock of the time. This is only natural, as the band originated from a surf music group called The Crossfires, formed in 1963. The main vocalists in that group were Howard Kaylan and Mark Volman, and they would become the main faces and voices for The Turtles as well.
As a time capsule this first Turtle album works just fine, and it stands well alongside other albums from that time. The best was however definitely yet to come from The Turtles.
The second album YOU BABY (April 1966) showed the band shift from serious folk-rockers to a good time pop band with a sense of humour. The album is spearheaded by the title track (which became their third hit single) and a re-recording of their previous hit Let Me Be. They are growing into solid performers, but tellingly, their hits were not yet self-penned. It would take a couple of years for them to develop that side of their craft.
The back end of 1966 was a period of change for the band, as Chuck Portz and Don Murray left the band after several chart failures. The band recruited ex-Leaves bassist Jim Pons and drummer John Barbata. The first single that the new version of the band recorded was Happy Together. It would be their biggest hit and their signature song. You almost have to feel bad for Portz and Murray, who just lost out on pop stardom!
The single signalled a turning point for the band, after it knocked the Beatles’ Penny Lane off the #1 spot on the Billboard Hot 100 in the spring of 1067. The Turtles’ only #1 remained there for three weeks.
The third album HAPPY TOGETHER (April 1967) followed not too long after, and obviously took its name from the hit single. The entire album is a solid leap forward into more accomplished 1960s arrangements (and especially vocal harmonies), and the first great Turtles album.
The fourth album THE TURTLES PRESENT THE BATTLE OF THE BAND (November 1968) would take some time to appear. Part of the reason was the massive touring the band had undertaken after their recent single successes. Their music also got a lot more ambitious and took time to put together. On this album, the band attempt to record each song in a different genre than the next. In other words, they are trying to present themselves as eleven different bands. The title alludes to this, but if the general audience understood this is uncertain.
The album reunited the band with producer Chip Douglas, hot on the heels of his record-breaking production success with The Monkees. Douglas was able to capture the group’s vocal and instrumental strengths, while still allowing them the space to create the dozen or so alter egos. The result is a wonderful musical accomplishment, but there’s no denying that it challenges the listener more than other albums. Especially the casual listener, expecting a follow-up to their big hits of the year before, would be left somewhat confused.
The fifth album TURTLE SOUP (October 1969) was perhaps their most consistent album. In my opinion it is also their magnum opus. It is the last truly classic album released in the 1960s. It is the only Turtles album to exclusively feature original material written by the band. Produced in Hollywood by Ray Davies of The Kinks, it remains the only complete rock album that Davies helmed outside of this own band. The Turtles were highly inspired by the revered 1968 concept album The Kinks are the Village Green Preservation Society (November 1968). Getting Ray to produce it was both natural and a dream come true for them. The band members still name this as their own favourite Turtles album. It was extremely well-received critically, but in spite of this its commercial success was marginal. Unfortunately, that would lead to the beginning of the bands disintegration.
Desperate to keep their biggest band going, the record label encouraged frontmen Kaylan and Volman to fire the rest of the band, tour with hired musicians and make records by adding their vocals to backing tracks recorded by Memphis session players. They rejected this idea, but knew the writing was on the wall.
The Turtles wound down their career in 1970 with a compilation album. This was regarded as the sixth and final release from the band: WOODEN HEAD (1970). The album does however not include the latest recent recorded works of the band – on the contrary, it is a compilation of earlier b-sides and rarities mostly recorded in the band’s early years. In some cases the songs had been left unfinished and had never been intended for public consumption, but there’s no doubt it also contains some solid gems – such as She’ll Come Back. Chronologically, the lion’s share of the material belongs somewhere between their second and third albums, but it would end up being regarded as the band’s swan song.
Kaylan and Volman would make their vocal abilities available as session men and live musicians. They provided the unique high-pitched backing vocals you’ve heard T. Rex’s classic recordings (Get It On, and the albums Electric Warrior and The Slider). For a while they also joined Frank Zappa’s Mothers of Invention for live performances. As they were not allowed to use the Turtles name or even their real names in the billing, they used the names The Phlorescent Leech and Eddie. They would soon simply become known as Flo and Eddie.
Music historian Alan Anbari points out a funny coincidence regarding this: “Zappa and The Mothers did a cover of Happy Together on their live Fillmore album that was the payoff to all the jokes in the show about them (i.e. Zappa & co.) being in a band. As original members of The Turtles were in The Mothers of Invention by this point, this performance of Happy Together is thus cover and tribute and original-artists recreation at the same time!”
Ultimately, they switched to radio and struck it big as a well-known duo, using their newfound aliases of Flo & Eddie. In the 2010s they also infrequently toured with a Turtles show. After Kaylan required heart and back surgery in 2018, he stepped away from touring. He was replaced by Roy Dante from The Archies.
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