You’re my pride and joy, etc.

Elenore, gee I think you’re swell
And you really do me well
You’re my pride and joy, et cetera

These have to be some of my favorite lyrics, of course from the classic song Elenore by The Turtles, also known for Happy Together. The Turtles have to be one of the strangest pop bands of all time, never taking themselves too seriously. Formed in the late 60’s, their radio hits sounded nearly bubble-gum. They started as a folk-rock type of band, covering songs by Bob Dylan, and of all things, Barry McGuire’s Eve of Destruction. There were signs, of course, that there was something not quite ‘normal’ with the band when “how is the weather?” was tossed in the chorus of Happy Together.

Here’s an amazingly clever video of Happy Together:

They didn’t have the steady string of hits like the Grassroots, for example, and perhaps their rather quirky side had something to do with that. Elenore was perhaps my favorite of theirs, a rather tongue in cheek look at romance:

Your looks intoxicate me
Even though your folks hate me
There’s no one like you, Elenore, really

From 1968, here’s Elenore:

Elenore was from an a 1968 album entitled The Turtles Present the Battle of the Bands in which each of 12 cuts was done in the style of another contemporary band. The songs were bizarre, to say the least. Food just talked about food, and the chorus slipped in a recipe for marijuana brownies. Surfer Dan was about a surfer who “was so ripped he can’t see you go by.”

They recorded a couple of albums after that, but I don’t think they had another hit to speak of, their final album entitled Wooden Head. After that, the 2 founding members, Howard Kaylan and Mark Volman, joined Frank Zappa’s Mothers of Invention, also appearing and recording by themselves as The Phlorescent Leech & Eddie, nicknamed simply “Flo and Eddie,” as they didn’t have the rights to the name “The Turtles.” The later reformed as The Turtles featuring Flo and Eddie, and among other things, have written music for children’s TV programs.

Here, to close this post, is a white-board presentation by none other than Flo and Eddie, explaining the business end of having a successful pop group:

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Possibly related posts: (automatically generated)

• Salisbury: one of the greatest unknown classic rock songs
• Heavy Metal Thunder
• The Canadian Invasion 3 – The Brave Belt connection
• The Turtles

~ by Alden on March 12, 2008.