Robert Baird

Singer Howard Kaylan and guitarist/singer Mark Volman were part of Frank Zappa’s Mothers of Invention. They added their distinctive harmonies to T. Rex’s “Get It On (Bang a Gong)” and Springsteen’s “Hungry Heart.” And they sued De La Soul over the use of uncleared samples and won a landmark decision in the history of sampling. And yet Flo and Eddie, as they are more commonly known, gained their greatest fame via the late Sixties pop band, The Turtles, and their anthemic #1 hit, “Happy Together.” Now the pair, through their label FloEdCo/Manifesto, have released 2000 copies of the The Turtles 45 RPM Vinyl Singles Collection, ($47.99) which is a box of eight 45’s, all pressed on heavyweight black vinyl at Erika Records in Orange County, CA. Do the singles in this boxed set which features a quality pressing job and nice if no frills packaging sound better than the CDs that both Rhino and the pair’s own label mentioned above have been releasing over the years? As always that depends on your feelings on the ever smoldering chasm between analogue and digital sonics but to my ears, this is the way these timeless pop music gems were meant to be heard.

Perhaps best of all for those who have grown sick of “Happy Together,” (though that’s gotta be a very small minority right!) are a number of obscure but very noteworthy titles that are a part of this set, including the Ray Davies–produced, “Love in the City,” and “Outside Chance” a very early song (1966) by Warren Zevon, who was a songwriter for the Turtles original label, White Whale, at the time. The contents of the boxes eight singles and their highest chart position follows:

"It Ain’t Me Babe" #8 b/w "You Don’t Have To Walk In The Rain" #51.

"Let Me Be" #29 b/w "Love in the City" #91

"You Baby" #20 b/w "You Know What I Mean" #12

"Happy Together" #1 b/w "Grim Reaper Of Love" #81

"She’d Rather Be With Me" #3 b/w "Story Of Rock And Roll" #48

"She’ s My Girl" #14 b/w "Can’t I Get To Know You Better" #89

"Elenore" #6 b/w "Outside Chance"

"You Showed Me" #6 b/w "Sound Asleep" #57