The Turtles

’66/Golden Hits/ More Golden Hits

DEMON

Three vinyls from before they became Flo & Eddie.

Best known for the soaring vocal harmony hits Happy Together and She’d Rather Be With Me, The Turtles were embroiled in legal wranglings with the White Whale label and were virtually treated as indentured serfs, which only makes their gloriously uplifting sunshine pop more remarkable.

Billed as a great-lost album, ’66 surfaced on Record Store Day in 2017. You can find all the tracks on previous compilations, but this is the first UK release and it’s on heavy green vinyl. Initially Howard Kaylan and Mark Volman were a Brill Building-type band, so their repertoire features a lot of Steve Barri and PF Sloan (Can I Get To Know You Better is superior bubblegum), while David Gates and Warren Zevon picked up pay cheques for the dreamy Tie Me Down and the sly Outside Chance, a song that owes an outstanding amount to The Beatles’ Taxman.

Golden Hits and the companion cleaned up the commercial cupboard before the protagonists upped their game with Frank Zappa, a big fan of their zany irreverence. Devil’s in the remastered details on both. Harry Nilsson’s super-obscure publishing demo The Story Of Rock & Roll suits their more soulful side while You Showed Me (later covered by the Lightning Seeds) still roars out of the garage, albeit more like a toy car than a Ford Mustang.

Quaint all over, dated for sure, this music still brings a smile to the face. Play loud and don’t keep your distance. ■■■■■■■■■■