The Turtles

• Genre: '60s Oldies

About

The Turtles' founding members Howard Kaylan and Mark Volman were members of Los Angeles High School 's a cappella choir. But these two vocal savants joined forces in an instrumental surf group dubbed the Nightriders. The Nightriders morphed into the Crossfires, then the Tyrtles, in homage to the Byrds, to whom they are often compared. "Happy Together," a song they found in a batch of demos, put them in the No. 1 spot. It was written by Gary Boner and Alan Gordon, and the Turtles (they dropped the "y") had the duo pen more songs for them. "She'd Rather Be with Me," "You Know What I Mean" and "She's My Girl" all landed them in the Top 20. A flirtation with psychedelic music yielded "Sound Asleep," the band's first song not to ease into the Top 40, which caused their record company to demand that they hire a producer that would report to the label. The result was "The Story of Rock and Roll," which flopped, but the follow-up "Elenore," written by the band, redeemed them -- briefly. After their label attempted to add Kaylan's and Volman's vocals to backing tracks, they rebelled and left the label in a huff, recording as Phlorescent Leech & Eddie, later shortened to Flo & Eddie.

- Jaan Uhelszki