Manifesto Records, in conjunction with FloEdCo, have reissued THE TURTLES’ original albums from the ’60s and these are some real spiffy releases. All six of the band’s studio albums from 1965’s It Ain’t Me Babe up through Wooden Head (1970) are now available as 2LP sets that not only replicate the original artwork (although in gatefold form), but in the case of the first three albums give you both the mono and stereo mixes. (The final three albums feature the original stereo mix [they weren’t released in mono] on the first record and a second disc of bonus material.)
It Ain’t Me Babe and its 1966 followup, You Baby/Let Me Be, are quite similar to each other in terms of material and sound. From the the first, there’s obviously the single “It Ain’t Me Babe,” the Bob Dylan song that made for The Turtles’ first hit 45, as well as its followup, “Grim Reaper of Love,” an excellent song that at the time barely made the Top 100 (coming in at 81). From the band’s 1966 followup album were the singles that made up its title, “You Baby” (#20) and “Let Me Be” (#29), and the barely noticeable “Can I Get to Know You Better” (a sad #89). Another great pop tune – albeit with a morbid title – “Pall Bearing, Ball Bearing World” features on side two.
Album three is where The Turtles really took off. Happy Together, though still similar to the previous pair of albums, was bolstered by two of their biggest singles. “Happy Together” really needs no introduction, it being a pure pop single that few people are strangers to even today. Penned by the team of Garry Bonner and Alan Gordon, who also wrote followup “She’d Rather Be With Me,” it’s got the quintessential Turtles tone that was somewhere between The Beach Boys, The Byrds and The Monkees. Twangy rhythm guitars? Yep. Tight harmonies? Yep. Bit of a sense of humor? Yep.
Next came The Turtles Present the Battle of the Bands, a 1968 concept album (for real) in which the band took on the personae of a host of different “bands” in conjunction with the various sounds on the vinyl. These bands all had different names, though they are all our beloved Turtles. Big hit “Elenore” is “by” Howie, Mark, Johny, Jim & Al, while “You Showed Me” (penned by Byrds Roger McGuinn and Gene Clark) is “by” Nature’s Children. There’s also Chief Kamanawanalea and his Royal Macadamia Nuts doing their theme song, “I’m Chief Kamanawanalea (We’re the Royal Macadamia Nuts)”, as well as a number of other winners like the instrumental “Buzz Saw” “by” The Fabulous Dawgs and the Harry Nilsson/Chip Douglas title tune as attributed to The U.S. Teens Featuring Raoul.
1969’s Turtle Soup was a real good album with a real odd choice of producer: The Kinks’ Ray Davies. Not really known as a producer (or even as the lead singer/songwriter for his own band here in the States), Davies nonetheless helped The Turtles come out with an album made up of all their own tunes, including the minor hit single “You Don’t Have to Walk in the Rain.” The album was their last all-new studio album, as Wooden Head from 1970 was made up of various Turtles tracks that hadn’t appeared on any of their previous longplayers. That being said, there are some classics here, including the band’s take on “We’ll Meet Again” and some tracks penned by band members Howard Kaylan and Al Nichol.
All of these albums were reissued on CD a couple of years ago (with the same track listings), and in the UK as 1LP vinyl (as part of a Record Store Day box set and later separately). My favorites here are Happy Together and The Turtles Present the Battle of the Bands, but all of them have great songs and sound real nice. As for the mono/stereo pairings, I don’t find much of a difference between the different mixes (though they are, in fact, distinct from each other*). I guess picking up these 2LP sets will be down to how big of a Turtles lover you are and whether you’ve already got any of the recent reissues. At least you can get them separately and fill in the cracks of your Turtles shell as necessary. – Marsh Gooch
* Up through the late Sixties most albums were released in both mono and stereo, and frequently these were distinct mixes. However, some mono albums later in the decade were really “fold down” stereo mixes – that is, the two channels of the stereo mix summed together into one channel.
3/5 (Manifesto MFO 48041, 48042, 48043, 48044, 48045, 48046, 2020)
NuDisc 