The Turtles-Golden Hits (1967)

The Turtles were a Californian folk rock and psychedelic pop band founded in 1965 in Los Angeles under the original name The Crossfires From the Planet Mars. Their founders, surf music enthusiasts, were vocalist Howard Kaylan and songwriter and keyboardist Mark Volman, who soon changed their name to The Turtles and evolved towards a folk rock sound, achieving their first Top Ten hit with their cover of Bob Dylan's "It Ain't Me Babe" (1965). A year later, their second LP, "You Baby", failed to chart, so they decided to embrace bubblegum pop and composed the smash hit "Happy Together", which reached number one in much of the world in 1967. That same year, they returned to the top of the charts with "She'd Rather Be with Me" and "You Know What I Mean", but the group began to experience departures, starting with bassist Chip Douglas leaving to become a producer for The Monkees. Already in the midst of the psychedelic pop craze, they produced the concept album, "The Turtles Present The Battle Of The Bands", in which they aimed to be a band of diverse styles, achieving two hits with "Elenore" and "You Showed Me", which reached the Top 6 on the charts. However, in 1969, their album "Turtle Soup" was a commercial failure, leading three of its members Howard Kaylan, Mark Volman, and Jim Pons to join Frank Zappa's group, The Mothers of Invention, a year later. The remaining members recorded "Wooden Head" (1970), which suffered the same fate as its predecessor. Shortly afterward, they formed the duo Flo & Eddie, appearing in several concerts but without releasing any material, and ultimately disbanded at the end of that same year.