The Turtles Artistfacts

The Turtles song list

The Turtles Artistfacts

1965-1970
Mark VolmanVocals
Howard KaylanVocals
Jim TuckerGuitar
Al NicholsGuitar
Chuck PortzBass
Don MurrayDrums
The Turtles are best known for their 1967 hit "Happy Together," which went to #1 in America, knocking "Penny Lane" out of the top spot. Other hits include "You Showed Me" and "Elenore."
The killer app for The Turtles is the harmony vocals by group leaders Howard Kaylan and Mark Volman. They also sang for T. Rex, backing the band on their albums The Slider, T. Rex, and Electric.
Originally a surf band, they started out as the Nightriders and became the Crossfires in 1963. Kaylan was the leader and Volman was originally a roadie, but quickly became full-fledged member and Kaylan's primary collaborator. They became The Turtles in 1965.
The group name was suggested by Reb Foster, an executive at White Whale Records, the label that signed them. Foster wanted to call them The Tyrtles, a play on The Byrds. The band didn't go for the spelling but agreed to The Turtles.
The band split up in 1970 after a dispute with their record label. It became a legal morass, with the group members prohibited not only from using the name The Turtles, but also from using their own names professionally for music. Volman and Kaylan thus became Phlorescent Leech and Eddie, later shortened to Flo and Eddie. They joined Frank Zappa's Mothers of Invention for two years; you can hear them on Zappa's albums Chunga's Revenge, 200 Motels, Live At The Fillmore, and Just Another Band From L.A.
Their 1968 album The Turtles Present The Battle Of The Bands is a parody of their history, with every song presented as if it was by a different group, including The Atomic Enchilada and Chief Kamanawanalea and his Royal Macadamia Nuts. The gatefold sleeve showed them in costume as each of the 11 different bands.
In 1984, they launched the Happy Together Tour, joined by the other '60s acts Gary Puckett, The Association, and Spanky & Our Gang. It proved very popular and they repeated the tour for many years to come, well into the 2020s, with acts like Three Dog Night and The Box Tops tagging along.
Don Murray, the groups original drummer, left in 1966 and was replaced by Johnny Barbata who later replaced Dallas Taylor in Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young. Don Murray died on March 23, 1996 during surgery in a hospital. At the time he was playing with the Surfaris of "Wipe Out" fame. >>
Suggestion credit:
Rick - Lafayette, NJ
In the early '80s, Mark Volman and Howard Kaylan began recording for children's shows such as The Care Bears, Strawberry Shortcake and Gumby. >>
Suggestion credit:
Strange Dave - Melville, NY
In 1980, Kaylan and Volman did a "two-and-a-half-man show" with keyboard player Andy Cahan where they parodied Pink Floyd's The Wall by setting up a small bamboo fence and throwing toy animals over it into the audience.
In 1999, Volman earned a master's degree in screenwriting from Loyola Marymount University and later became a teacher at Belmont University in Nashville, where he taught music business. In 2020, he was diagnosed with Lewy Body Dementia, a devastating form of degenerative dementia.

Comments: 6

Hal from Joshua Tree, Cathe crossfire's guitar player, jim tucker's little brother dave and me had a band named 'the turtles' in early to mid '65...got my yearbook from center intermediate school to prove it...we were approached at jim and dave's house one day on the phone by either dick xclark or a rep of his...or reb foster's people...to 'sell' our name to the crossfires./..we did..and we were paid with box seats at a herman's hermits show at the rose bowl with the turtles and others...we had a blast!!
Strange Dave from Melville, NyThe Turtles were legally stopped from touring as The Turtles in the 70's so after they released their first post Turtles album, The Phlorescent Leech & Eddie, they shortened it to just "Flo" & "Eddie", so that Mark Volman and Howard Kaylan could continue touring. Legend has it that Flo and Eddie was actually the names that Frank Zappa called his roadies.

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- By Strange Dave Rosenberg
Chris from Ada, Okthe turtles are a really cool band. the drummer lives in my town of ada oklahoma and i take lessons from him.
Gregmon from Intelbuquerque, NmMark Volman and Howard Kaylan were DJs for a bit on K-Rok. They went under the names "Flo and Eddie".
Deana from Indianapolis, InSo who was Flo and Eddie?
Rick from Lafayette, NjThey were a converted guitar based surf band. (See the Rhino video "History of The Turtles" it is very good.)

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