Your classic song of the day is “Happy Together” by the Turtles. Released in January of 1967, this track went all the way to #1 on both the Billboard Hot 100 and Cash Box Top 100 charts. The single sold more than 1 million copies to be certified as an official RIAA Gold record.
“Happy Together” was written by Alan Gordon and Gary Bonner. The two were successful songwriters together and apart, responsible for such tunes as Three Dog Night’s “Celebrate” and several other songs for the Turtles, including “She’d Rather Be With Me.”
Musically, “Happy Together” is interesting because it starts out in a minor key (F# minor) in the verses but switches to major (F# Major) in the choruses. This, along with the bubbly “baa baa baa” vocals, gives the choruses a real lift. As the title implies, it is a very happy, sunshine poppy song.
The group recorded “Happy Together” at Sunset Sound in Los Angeles. White Whale, the Turtles’ small record label, couldn’t afford to hire studio musicians, so the band recorded all the instrumental tracks themselves. The session went quickly, with the instrumentals taking no more than a single three-hour session to record; Howard Kaylan later recorded his lead vocals in a single take. The group’s bass player Chip Douglas did the orchestra and vocal arrangements.
Howard, on first hearing the final mix, knew the group had a hit:
“I just couldn’t believe how well the orchestra sat with the track, and how well the vocals blended, and just the overall mysterious sound we got. We knew it was gonna be a No.1 record”
The Turtles were mainly Howard Kaylan (lead vocals and keyboards) and Mark Volman (harmony and backing vocals), along with guitarists Al Nichol and Jim Tucker, bassist Chip Douglas, and drummer John Barbata. They had a long string of hits in the mid-60s, including “It Ain’t Me Babe” (#8, 1965), “You Baby” (#20, 1966), “She’d Rather Be With Me” (#3, 1967), “You Know What I Mean” (#12, 1967), “She’s My Girl” (#14, 1967), “Elenore” (#6, 1968), and “You Showed Me” (#6, 1969).
Howard and Mark broke up the band in 1970 and subsequently joined Frank Zappa’s Mothers of Invention, where they were known as the Phlorescent Leech & Eddie, or just Flo & Eddie for short. The two of them later joined the Happy Together oldies tour as The Turtles Featuring Flo & Eddie. After Howard underwent open heart surgery in 2018, he was replaced by the somewhat obliquitous Ron Dante, who you might otherwise know as the lead singer for the Archies, the Cuff-Links, and other early ’70s studio groups.
Both Howard Kaylan and Mark Volman are still alive today, aged 75 and 76, respectively. To celebrate that fact, here’s the boys performing a somewhat truncated version of “Happy Together” on The Ed Sullivan Show on November 12, 1967. Groovy, baby!
