THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS
In Canada, the duo did a TV Kaylan encourages the crowd to join
'show, 90 Minutes Live. Interviews of in the singing of Happy Together,
rock n' roll personalities appearing which it does enthusiastically:
on that show were picked up by the
NBC series Midnight Special, and Imagine me and you, I do
Kaylan and Volman spent a season I think about you day and night
as hosts of the program. NBC hired It's only right
them to write for the network, and, To think about the girl you love
on the side, they wrote some comedy And hold her tight
So happy together
material for Korean-American comic
Johnny Yune.
Influenced by the music of Louis
From there, the duo turned to
Prima, Keely Smith, Guy Mitchell,
scriptwriting, and collaborated on a
Vatti Page, Rodgers and Hammers-
screenplay for what Kaylan calls a
tein and George Gershwin, Kaylan
psychological terror murder. They
began his musical career in 1963 as
are currently recording children's re-
cords for the Strawberry Shortcake, ' a member of a Los Angeles band, the
Nightriders. When Volman joined
Care Bears and G.I. Joe characters,
Mark Volman, left, and Howard Kaylan performed last May at Hill Auditorium in. Ann
Arbor.
and working on a score for a chil-
dren's movie due out in December.
During an interview with The
Jewish News after their Ann Arbor
concert, Kaylan served as spokes-
man for the two. The silent Volman
pleaded exhaustion. Kaylan said
that despite all their current activi-
ties, they still find time for the
"Happy Together" tour. Compared
with the earlier Turtle's days,
Kaylan says appearing in concert in
the '80s is a breeze.
"While that goes on I'm out
here. I'm not making my living and
I'm not worried about where the
next single is coming from and I
don't have a record company brea-
thing over my shoulders. I can treat
this (appearing in concert) as it al-
ways shoUld' have been treated
which is (ail *pleasure. It should be
a pleasure -tOget out there
What the/ do "out there" is
something to be experienced. As
Volman and ,4aylan mount the
stage, the group blends their own
and others' Mt songs. Volman
engages in silly 'antics, such as re-
producing the water-splashing scene
from the movie f',4,04nee.
M the,pr uceyts' conclusion,
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the group, they became The
Crossfires.
At the time of the "British inva-
tion" of the rock music scene in
1965, the *group took the name Tur-
tles at the suggestion of its manager
and signed with a new record label,
White Whale. The Turtles' first big
hit was Bob Dylan's It Ain't Me
Babe, and following that was a
string of hits, including Let Me Be,
You Baby, their biggest hit, Happy
Together, She'd Rather Be With Me,
their biggest world-wide hit; She's
My Girl, Elenore and You Showed
Me. ,
They chose the Dylan song as
their first single because, Kaylan
said, Dylan's music was hot at the
time. He recalled that The Byrds,
another top 40s band, had just had a
big hit with a Dylan tune, Mr. Tam-
bourine Man, and seeing that suc-
cess, the band invested in 12-string
guitars and joined the Dylan band-
wagon.
The Turtles enjoyed TV appear-
ances, concert tours and big record
sales. But trouble was brewing at
White Whale Records and internal
disagreements in the group caused it
to fold. A total ' of 37 persons were
Continued on next page
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Friday, July 12, 1985 41