Turtles bring rock ‘n roll fun to Wildwood

The Turtles are still “Happy Together” after 44 years.
They will bring their string of hits and a healthy dose of comedy to 60’s Weekend April 25 at the Wildwoods Convention Center.
The founding members of the Turtles, Mark Volman and Howard Kaylan continue to tour with some younger back up musicians.
The Turtles have sold over 60 million records and still dominate oldies radio with such songs as “She Rather Be With Me,” Elenore,” “You Showed Me,” and “She’s My Girl.”
On Deck talked with Volman from his home in Franklin, Tenn. in 2006, Volman and Kaylan have known each other since singing together in their high school choir, a place where the close vocal harmonies of the Turtles were born.
Four members of the a capella choir started an instrumental surf music band “The Nightriders” which later became The Crossfires with Volman and Kaylan on saxophones. They were talented enough to act as backup band on occasion for such artists as Sonny and Cher, The Coasters, and The Righteous Brothers.
When the Beatles invaded America, the Crossfires became a more vocally oriented band and grew long hair, renaming themselves The Turtles.
The Turtles’ first hit single was a cover version of Bob Dylan’s “It Ain’t Me Babe.”
One of the Turtles’ hits, “Elenore” was written not as a love song but as a spoof of the band itself. It features the lyric, “Gee, I think your swell.”
“Elenore sort of comes into view as a retaliation to the record company’s kind of harping on us constantly for another hit record, another “Happy Together,” said Volman.
He said the record company the Turtle’s were signed with, White Whale, was dependent on the Turtles bringing in revenue and the band did not try to make hit music. Volman said the upside of recording for a small company was the Turtles has more control of their music and could choose their producers.
Later on the record company forbid Volman and Kaplan not only from using the name The Turtles, but their own names, so they coined Flo and Eddie, based on two roadies that worked for the band. Volman as Flo and Kaylan as Eddie recorded and toured with rock legend Frank Zappa.
They also hosted a nationally syndicated radio show and sang background on records ranging from John Lennon to Bruce Springsteen.
In 1992, Volman began college at age 42 and graduated with a Masters Degree in Fine Arts with an emphasis in screen writing. He earned a Bachelor of Arts from Loyola Marymount University where he was the class Valedictorian speaker.
Volman joined the faculty teaching courses in the music business as well as being a member of the music department of Los Angeles Valley Teaching College. He currently is an adjunct professor at Belmont University in Nashville, teaching aspiring musicians and music business students what he has learned from his long and varied career.
The band is known for lively shows that date back to its beginning when they won a battle of the bands in high school. They later titled one of their albums “Battle of the Bands.”
“We were always funny, doing things to entice the crowd to get involved,” said Volman.
He said the live concerts are not secondary to his career as a professor.
“They both aid each other really well,” said Volman. “It gives me the research to talk to my students from the aspect of someone surviving in the music business for 44 years.”