It was about 2002. A little town near us were having a summer concert series. It was only a twenty mile drive and you could go see some of the greats from the past. We saw the Drifters and some other acts from the Fifties, but one of the concerts I remember the most was when the Turtles came to town. Now, they were forty years older than when they had their hits, but they sounded just the same. It was great. We heard all the Turtles hits, “It Ain’t Me Babe,” “Elenore,” and, among others, “She’d Rather Be With Me.” But the highlight of the night was definitely “Happy Together.” They claimed that it was the original guys that we saw, but I have my doubts. The personnel of the Turtles changed frequently during the Sixties and I’m not sure that original group survived until the 2000s.

“Happy Together” was written by two musicians, Gary Bonner and Alan Gordon. They had been members of a group called the Magicians, but that band had disbanded and the guys had this really cool song that they peddled around. But, nobody wanted it until the Turtles heard it and liked it. The incorporated the song into their live act and the public liked it, too. So, they decided to record it.

The two main members of the Turtles were Howard Kaylan and Mark Volman. Kaylan and Volman and four others formed a band called the Crossfires, a folk rock group in California in the mid-Sixties. Other members of the Crossfires were Al Nichols, Chuck Portz, Don Murray and Jim Tucker. When the Crossfires were signed to record label White Whale, they suggested they come up with a different name. At first, they wanted to be the Tyrtles, using the stylized spelling similar to the Byrds and the Beatles, but eventually just decided to go with the normal spelling and became the Turtles.

Their first hit was the Bob Dylan song, “It Ain’t Me, Babe” which hit number eight on the pop charts and established the Turtles on the music scene. In 1967, they recorded “Happy Together.” It was their sixth chart single. It entered the pop charts at number 79 on February 11, 1967 and six weeks later it kicked “Penny Lane” out of number one and stayed at the top for three weeks.

The Turtles had several more hits, including “Elenore” in 1968 and “You Showed Me” in 1969, but that was the end of their run. By 1970, the Turtles had broken up completely and the various members went different ways, joining other bands and doing their own thing. Kaylan and Volman, the original members of the Turtles became Flo and Eddie and worked with the Mothers of Invention and later Frank Zappa. In 1984, the joined the Happy Together Tour as “The Turtles featuring Flo and Eddie” and toured the country doing oldies shows. They were still doing oldies shows in the early 2000s, when I saw them.