Turtles - Save The Turtles : The Turtles' Greatest Hits

  by Malcolm Carter

published: 25 / 6 / 2009

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Review

The Turtles were a strange band in many ways. With two lead vocalists, Howard Kaylan and Mark Volman they had a distinctive sound that even today, in fact more so today, has become a benchmark for the sounds of a carefree mid-sixties summer day, but they never seemed to fit in somehow with their contemporaries. They always appeared to be outside of the circle in spite of having considerable chart success, especially in the States. It’s surprising that despite turning up regularly on golden-oldie radio stations and being one of only two bands that have two of their songs featured on the soundtrack to the film, ‘The Boat That Rocked’ ( the other band being the Kinks which is a nice tie-in as Ray Davies of that band actually produced a Turtles album, ‘Turtle Soup’) that The Turtles only troubled the singles charts in the UK a total of three times, ‘Happy Together’ which reached number 12 in March 1967, ‘She’d Rather Be With Me’ which hit number 4 in the summer of that year and ‘Elenore’ which peaked at number 7 in October 1968. The sole Turtles album that made the LP charts was ‘Happy Together’ which actually made the top twenty in July 1967. But there was so much more to the Turtles than a handful of hit singles. The Turtles were one of the first bands who made albums that were more than your average pop album of the time. They chose producers who are now highly regarded in Chip Douglas, Bones Howe and the aforementioned Ray Davies who rarely produced other bands. The band was made up of well accomplished musicians and in Kaylan and Volman they forged their own distinctive vocal sound. But maybe most importantly, although they didn’t record any original material to begin with, they only chose songs from the cream of sixties songwriters like Sloan / Barri, David Gates (Bread), Dylan, Bonner/Gordon and the Byrds' Roger McGuinn and Gene Clark to name just a handful. They were a major force in the folk / rock genre for a while and embraced West Coast pop / surf and garage and even dipped their toes into psychedelia. Their harmonies on songs like ‘Outside Chance’ which was written by Warren Zevon, match those of the Mamas and Papas. In more recent times the Turtles' influence can still be heard in the Lightning Seeds version of the Byrds ‘You Showed Me’ which owes more to the Turtles version than the composers original. The Turtles back catalogue has been reissued many times now, especially since the advent of the CD. Music Club released an excellent compilation of their best songs way back in 1991 which also comprised of twenty songs just like this new collection although the track listing isn’t identical. A more recent collection is the one issued by Shout Factory but even that is five years old now and at just fourteen tracks doesn’t really match up to the other compilations despite being produced by the band themselves. As for the original albums the reissues have been handled by various labels from Repertoire in Germany to Sundazed in the States. While some of the European reissues included the albums both in original mono and stereo mixes the re-mastering by Bob Irwin on the Sundazed reissues was up to his usual high standard. Both Volman and Kaylan had licensed the songs to these various labels through the years so at least the band had more control over how their work was put out than a lot of other sixties bands. Now with their own label (FloEdCo, a reference to Flo and Eddie, the names Volman and Kaylan used after the Turtles' management unbelievably held on to the rights of their real names!) here we have nineteen songs which really are some of the best the Turtles ever recorded plus a previously un-issued commercial for Chevrolet Camaro which actually features the voice of Warren Zevon. Although this collection has been produced by Volman and Kaylan the songs were re-mastered this time by the wonderful Bill Inglot so good sound quality is guaranteed. While any Turtles fan could criticise the selection of songs to an extent, there will always be a favourite left off or the inclusion of a song not deemed to be worthy of a showing on a ‘best of’; ‘The Grim Reaper Of Love’ is one song that is known to divide Turtles fans but it shows their more experimental side and deserves a place on any Turtles compilation so is a welcome addition here as it hasn’t been placed on all the previous collections. It’s unfair to say that if you liked ‘Elenore’ and ‘Happy Together’ that you’ll enjoy all the songs here. There was so much more to the Turtles than the happy-go- lucky summer sounds of their hit singles although that obviously was a major part of their appeal. The band covered a lot more bases than many of their contemporaries. It feels that it is long forgotten that the Turtles were actually a band; although Volman and Kaylan went on to further success with the Mothers Of Invention and then added their unique vocal style to the run of singles that T. Rex enjoyed ( what would 'Telegram Sam' and 'Get It On' be without those vocals from Flo and Eddie ?) one thing that this latest collection brings home is just how good the rest of the band were, particularly with Al Nichol handling the guitar and sitar very nicely thank you throughout all these selections. Although both bass and drums were taken by various musicians, the rhythm guitar was handled by Jim Tucker for the most part on these recordings and both John Barbata on drums and Jim Pons on bass played on the majority of these songs. With summer hopefully creeping up on us and the exposure given to two of their most well-known songs in that recently released film maybe the time is right for a reappraisal of The Turtles work. Their work hasn’t always been given the respect it deserved on previous re-issues but now that the Flo and Eddie label has been established maybe one day soon Volman and Kaylan will re-issue those original albums once more in the definitive versions, bonus tracks and all. Or is a box set too much to ask for...

Track Listing:-

1 Happy Together
2 It Ain't Me Babe
3 She'd Rather Be With Me
4 You Baby
5 Elenore
6 Let Me Be
7 She's My Girl
8 Outside Chance
9 You Showed Me
10 Can I Get to Know You Better
11 Story of Rock and Roll
12 Love In the City
13 Me About You
14 You Know What I Mean
15 Sound Asleep
16 Makin' My Mind Up
17 Grim Reaper of Love
18 Guide for the Married Man
19 Chevrolet Camaro Commercial