Sunday Morning Vault: The Turtles---It Ain't Me Babe (1965)

     The Turtles have long been under appreciated as sort of light weight. Of course, just listening to oldies radio would give you the impression that they only had one hit, maybe two (Happy Together and I Know She'd Rather Be With Me"). However, from 1965 to 1970, they had a string of top flight singles that showed strong songwriting ability and a wonderfully quirky sense of humor.

      The success of the group revolved around the talents of Howard Kaylan and Mark Volman, but the songwriting also included other members of the band and the arraigning skills of Chip Douglas. The song, It Ain't Me Babe, was written by Bob Dylan in 1964 and was first included on his album, "Another Side of Bob Dylan" and was covered that same year by Johnny Cash. The Turtles released it on their debut album in 1965 and it went to #15

     1967 was to be the big year for The Turtles and did well on the charts through 1969 where pressures on Kaylan and Volman from their record company (which was basically relying on them for all revenues) to change their image AND dump the rest of the band resulted in them just breaking up the group in 1970.

     Kaylan and Volman spent the early 70's working with Frank Zappa and the Mothers of Invention (which is where they got the stage name, 'Flo & Eddie') for a couple of years, then could be found working on many albums as diverse as T. Rex, Alice Cooper and Bruce Springsteen. They have worked on soundtrack albums and are now touring as "The Turtles featuring Flo and Eddie".