AlBUm GuIDE FOR TURTLES FANS
Howard Kaylan and Mark Volman, founders, co-leaders and co-vocalists of The Turtles, are equally revered for their music as they are for their significant work advocating that artists get their due. They took on unauthorized samplers, sparred with SiriusXM over broadcast royalties, sued to regain use of their own names (and The Turtles band name), and took control of their own back catalogs.
Under their FloEdCo banner, they’ve overseen Manifesto Records’ vinyl reissue in 2020 of the six original Turtles LPs, each with bonus material. The new double-LP versions of the first three Turtles records – It Ain’t Me Babe, You Baby and Happy Together – are presented in both monaural and stereo formats. The band’s later three LPs – The Turtles Present the Battle of the Bands, Turtle Soup and Wooden Head – are appended with non-album tracks and other rarities.
Volman says that the journey toward making these expanded reissues available on vinyl really began 20 years ago, when he and Kaylan worked with Rhino Records. “That part of our history had a lot to do with the ownership of the recordings,” he says. Rarities releases like Chalon Road and Shell Shock (both 1987 Rhino projects) – along with annual Happy Together package tours – helped keep The Turtles in the minds of fans.
On the occasion of the reissue project – and with this year’s Happy Together Tour canceled – Volman took the opportunity to chart The Turtles’ history using the band’s six main albums as mileposts. In addition to being filled with some of the finest pop-rock of that era, those records mark The Turtles’ creative path through folk protest music, sunshine pop, psychedelia, hard rock, comedy music and even concept albums.
IT AIN’T ME BABE (originally released October 1965)
Though they
