The Association - WindyBackPLEASE NOTE: I divided my uploads between multiple channels, Bookmark this link in your browser for instant access to an index with links to all of John1948's oldies classics. LINK: http://jeb1948.blogspot.com/ The Association is a pop music band from California in the sunshine pop genre. They are best known for their popularity in the 1960s, when they had numerous hits at or near the top of the Billboard charts. As of 2008[update], they are still playing. They are also notable for being the lead-off band at 1967's Monterey Pop Festival, essentially the first multi-group rock festival. They are known for their tight vocal harmony. Jules Alexander (born September 25th, 1943, Chattanooga, Tennessee) was in Hawaii in 1962 serving a stint in the Navy when he met Terry Kirkman (born December 12th, 1939, Salina, Kansas), a visiting salesman. The two young musicians jammed together and promised to get together once Alexander was discharged. That happened a year later; the two eventually moved to Los Angeles and began exploring LA's early 60s music scene (Kirkman even played in groups with Frank Zappa for a time before Zappa went on to form The Mothers of Invention). Eventually, at a Monday night hootenanny at the popular LA nightclub The Troubadour, in 1964, an ad hoc group called The Inner Tubes was formed by Terry, Jules and Doug Dillard, whose rotating membership contained, at one time or another, Cass Elliot, David Crosby and many others who drifted in and out. This led, in 1965, to the forming of The Men, a 13 piece folk-rock band. This group had a brief spell as the house band at The Troubadour. After a short time, however, The Men disbanded, with six of the members electing to go out on their own(some of the remaining players continued on as Tony Mafia's Men, one of the others, Mike Whalen, joined New Christy Minstrels). At the suggestion of Kirkman's then-fiancée, Judy, they took the name The Association. The original lineup consisted of Alexander (using his middle name, Gary, on the first 2 albums) on vocals and lead guitar; Kirkman on vocals and a variety of wind, brass and percussion instruments; Brian Cole (born September 8th,1942, Tacoma, Washington) on vocals and bass; Russ Giguere (born October 18th, 1943, Portsmouth, New Hampshire) on vocals, percussion and guitar; Ted Bluechel, Jr (born December 2nd, 1942, San Pedro, California) on drums and vocals; and Bob Page (born May 13th, 1943) on guitar and vocals. Page's time in the band was brief; he was soon replaced by Jim Yester (born November 24th, 1939, Birmingham, Alabama) on vocals, guitar, and keyboards. The new band spent about 5 months rehearsing before they began performing around the Los Angeles area, most notably a regular stint at The Ice House in Pasadena and its sister club in Glendale. They also auditioned for record labels but faced resistance due to their unique sound. Eventually, the small Jubilee label issued a single of "Babe I'm Gonna Leave You" (a song originally recorded by Joan Baez, later popularized by Led Zeppelin) but nothing happened. Finally, Valiant Records gave them a contract, with the first result being a version of Bob Dylan's "One Too Many Mornings". It gained some local notoriety, but didn't break outside of LA. That national break would come with the song "Along Comes Mary", written by Tandyn Almer. Alexander first heard the song when he was hired to play on a demo version and persuaded Almer to give The Association first crack at it. The recording went to #7 on the Billboard charts, and led to the group's first album, And Then... Along Comes the Association, produced by Curt Boettcher. A song from the album, "Cherish", written by Kirkman, would become The Association's first #1 in September 1966. The group followed with their second album, Renaissance, released in early 1967. Somewhat surprisingly, the band changed producers, dumping Boettcher in favor of Jerry Yester (brother of Jim and formerly of The Modern Folk Quartet). The album did not spawn any major hits (the highest charting single, "Pandora's Golden Heebie Jeebies" stalled at #35) and the album only reached #34, compared with a #5 showing for its predecessor. For more info see the complete article at Wikipedia Category: Education Uploaded: February 27th, 2009 @ 4:35 pm Author: John1948One Length: 02:37 Rating: Views: Tags: pop rock Related Video Links:» View Video Comments For The Association - Windy » View John1948One's Other Uploaded Videos Video Thumbnails:Video Embedding Code:* Embed this video on your website, social bookmark, myspace, or blog. |
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