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What are some of y'all's favorite Turtles songs? Here are mine, in order:

1. You Showed Me
2. Happy Together
3. Too Young to Be One
4. Think I'll Run Away
5. Like the Seasons

no 3 ---first !!!

no 4.  second

House on the Hill, She Always Leaves Me Laughing, You Don't Have to Walk in the Rain, Happy Together, The Walking Song. I also like Howard Kaylan's and Mark Volman's stuff as Flo & Eddie and especially with Frank Zappa & The Mothers.

Yup.  Almost all of the Turtles rsoter of songs.  The Flo and Eddy 'Reggae album is also 'high-grade'.  Irie Bredren.  VERY good guys ... Mark and Howard.  Spent a LOT of time with them one week back in the later-mid 80s.  Fine fellas.  Really. :hat

I saw them live at Massey Hall in Toronto as they toured to promote their A-1/EXCELLENT album 'The Turtles Present The Battle of the Bands'...so when was that?... early 1968?  THEY were the opening act for Iron Butterfly.  'InnaGoddaDaviDa Honey'.  [Ya...OK...and then what?]  The Turtles drummer was Johnny Barbata.  They blew Iron Butterfly OFF the stage...out the door...across Lake Ontario...and when last seen the 'headliners' were wondering why they hadn't gone with a different heavy/light combination name like Vanilla Fudge or Led Zeppelin???  I was one of the few people in the 2750 seat venue there to see the Turtles.  The rest?  Posers.  Posers who went home with a whole new appreciation of The TURTLES!!!!!!!!  Wholly sh*t!!!  They're GOOD!!!

A magic moment in my lengthy concert going history.  The only other moment that actually beats it?  BWPS at the same venue in 2004.  Of course by then I was sitting front row centre instead of 4th or 5th row just off centre.  [and it was, after all...Brian Wilson.]

Sometimes I'm just one lucky sob.

Sometimes?

Almost always. :hat

"Do You Know What I Mean?" and "She's My Girl" I find to be pop perfection -- lush, transporting.  "Elenore's" a goodun too with those already mentioned.  What great voices.

"Up in the sky...That's where *I* was last night."  Those 'rascals'.  Whatever could they mean?  ;)

The record company INSISTED on another Happy Together.  No option.  Hence the totally tongue in cheek Elenore...Gee...I think you're 'swell'.... ... ...You're my priide and joy etcetera".  AND IT SOLD!!! :lol  Funny guys.  It's crazy...They would answer questions simultaneously and would also finish each other's answers and sentences.  It was uncanny.  Cool and down to earth while at the exact same time...like an old married couple.  :smokin/ :hat  They were a HOOT to be around. :3d

She'd Rather Be with Me
Just a Room
Elenore


The constellations Ed and Flo there.

LOVE the Turtles. And LOVE the Flo & Eddie stuff just as much!!! Fantastic singers...

Has anyone here read Howard Kaylan's autobiography 'Shell Shocked' from a few years back?
http://www.amazon.com/Shell-Shocked-Turtles-Eddie-Frank/dp/1617808466

I picked it up with great anticipation but was a bit dissapointed. I guess I'd expected it to be funnier and quirkier than what I found was the case. Oddly enough, he doesn't really write that in-depth about Mark Volman. For someone that Howard's hung out with & sung professionally with since his teens you'd think this 'companion for life' would feature more prominently in his book! 

Hey there
Here are a few of my favorite Turtles songs-You Baby, Outside Chance which was Barbata's first session and Chuck Portz's last session with them. Other favorites are Can I Get To Know You Better, Guide For The Married Man, Buzzsaw and Bachelor Mother. I was pleased with Howard Kaylan's book but disappointed that he covered the Turtles whole career in only 60 pages. The movie he did My Dinner With Jimi is a fantastic movie. I hope someday that someone will write a proper book on them. Seems like if one guy can write over a 1000 page on the Byrds, then someone can write the Turtles definitive history. I wish Chuck Portz, Jim Tucker and Al Nichol would write their own book. Al completely disappeared after the broke up but I have seen a couple of recent pictures of him on the net. A great band.
Joe

It's a real shame The Turtles (other than Happy Together) aren't more popular. The Turtles Present The Battle Of The Bands and Turtle Soup are both criminally underrated pop masterpieces.

Yup. :hat

They (that is Howie and Mark) even cut a Christmas 45 feat. Linda Ronstadt
The Christmas Spirit: Christmas Is My Time of Year/Will You Still Believe In Me White Whale WW 290 (1968)

 This topic has given me a fever and the only cure is to go to Amazon and order up a Turtles greatest hits.

I can't believe there hadn't been a Turtles thread before.. HUGE FAN!

(http://i.imgur.com/GQmsguc.jpg)

My picks:

1. Love in the City
2. Outside Chance
3. Guide for the Married Man
4. Do You Know What I Mean
5. You Baby

....Then of course, all the obvious hits, Happy Together, etc.

I'm no expert on the Turtles, but from what I have read, they were a much more serious rock band than most people are aware.  Almost psychedelic at times!  From my understanding, they wrote the syrupy hits Happy Together, Elenore, etc in somewhat of a tongue in cheek fashion as a bit of a jab at 60s pop music....and people loved it.

I discovered Love in the City on the 20 Greatest Hits cd from Rhino several years ago, and it's been my all time favorite Turtles tune ever since.  That song rocks!

I only have their GH comp on Rhino, but I would pick She's My Girl, It Ain't Me Babe, Elenore, Sound Asleep, and Outside Chance.

They didn't write Happy Together...but their record company pressed and pushed and pressed and pushed and begged and demanded that they come up with 'another Happy Together' so they DID write Elenore as a WAY TOO OBVIOUS attempt to mock the whole idea ... and low and behold ... for their troubles ??? another monster hit.  They laughed all the way to the bank.

I like Sound Asleep. The Story of Rock and Roll, Surfer Dan, You Don't Have to Walk In the Rain.

Even Buzzsaw and Chief Come On I Wanna Lay Ya are cool.  I like most of their body of work as the Turtles and a slightly lesser percentage of the Flo and Eddy output.

They also sang back-up for loads of folks...from [obviously] the Mothers of Invention with Frank Zappa...['cause they were all there when the place burned down and Deep Purple later immortalized it/them in song] to singing on Bang a Gong-Get It On with T-Rex, Hungry Heart with Bruce Springsteen...and many more.

And they started out lying...and telling people that they were from England/part of the British Invasion in order to land paying gigs.  Talent apparently had something to do with their success as well.

The thing that made them great...commitment.  they WANTED 'it' every step of the way.  That's a major difference from a couple of others I've made mention of elsewhere in this 'general music discussion' section.  Howard and Mark were eager to make it happen and glad to get behind the 'concept' and PUSH.  They were professionals...and a pleasure to work with.

http://www.rollingstone.com/music/news/howard-kaylan-storms-the-white-house-in-shell-shocked-my-life-with-the-turtles-exclusive-book-excerpt-20130225

Excerpt from Kaylan's memoirs, concerning the evening they performed at the White House - at the invitation of Richard Nixon's daughter Tricia - in early 1969. Apart from snorting coke off Abe Lincoln's desk and toking up with some CIA guys on the building's roof, it sounds like a pretty regular Turtles gig.  As was often the case throughout his career, Volman fell off the stage a couple times during the set.

Thanks! I'll be getting that book for sure. :-D

Don't forget Grim Reaper of Love  :3d

Battle of The Bands is (IMO) a classic "concept" album.

And as has been stated, they were a good musical band - curious if they utilized the session people on their albums or not? 
Off hand I don't know, but I tend to think of them as one of the few of that era who did not, but I could be mistaken.

One of my favourites is "You Don't Have To Walk In The Rain" from their 1969 album "Turtle Soup". An excellent song! :D

Produced by Ray Davies, no?

It's a shame all the albums are OOP bar cheapo 'Best Of' cds.