The blessing and the curse of the much-loved single stung\u00a0The Turtles\u00a0as much as Marc Almond\u2019s eternal \u2018Tainted Love\u2019 requests or Devo\u2019s baffling one-hit wonder labelling after \u2018Whip It\u2019.<\/p>\n
It was a fantastic song. Dropped early 1967, \u2018Happy Together\u2019 is a sublimely sunny and joyous surge of bubblegum pop rock, soaking up the innocent end of psychedelia with its wistful pang of unrequited love. Written by The Magicians\u2019 Garry Bonner and Alan Gordon, \u2018Happy Together\u2019 would stand as The Turtles\u2019 defining hit, shooting to the top of the Billboard Hot 100.<\/p>\n
But then came the label pressure. Eager for another \u2018Happy Together\u2019, White Whale pestered frontman Howard Kaylan and The Turtles for a carbon copy of their big hit. Finally, he cracked. One night, while staying at Chicago\u2019s Astor Towers during the \u201cdecadent periods\u201d where there was plenty of \u201csweets\u201d at hand, Kaylan locked himself in his room and racked his brains to come up with the \u2018Happy Together\u2019 sequel the label was demanding. Presaging\u00a0Neil Young\u2019s future Geffen shenanigans, Kaylan struck upon the capital idea of giving White Whale exactly what they were asking for.<\/p>\n
Analysing \u2018Happy Together\u2019 within an inch of its life, cracking its chords and arrangements like a science experiment, and reconstructing his pressure piece yielded what was essentially a reassembled version of that coveted number one. Feeling extra cynical, Kaylan slapped a load of clich\u00e9 lyrics to his sappy romance song, naming the titular love interest after an old-fashioned and wholly ungroovy name, slipping in mawkish lines like \u201cGee, I think you\u2019re swell\u201d, and even adding an eye-rolling \u201cet cetera\u201d when praising his \u201cpride and joy\u201d. \u2018Elenore\u2019 was born.<\/p>\n
Hints of Kaylan and backing vocalist Mark Volman\u2019s future comedy rock career as Flo & Eddie were present in the preparations for their follow-up album to\u00a0Happy Together<\/em>. Conceiving of a fictitious musical competition for their fourth record, 1968\u2019s\u00a0The Turtles Present the Battle of the Bands,<\/em>\u00a0accompanied each track with its own bespoke imaginary band, from The Atomic Enchilada, Fats Mallard and the Bluegrass, and Chief Kamanawanalea and his Royal Macadamia Nuts.<\/p>\n \u2018Elenore\u2019, however, was curiously credited to Howie, Mark, Johny, Jim & Al, the informal nicknames of all band members, as if shoving their satirical efforts in White Whale\u2019s face: \u201cLook! We did this!\u201d<\/p>\n The biggest joke? \u2018Elenore\u2019 was another smash, not eclipsing \u2018Happy Together\u2019s success but climbing to a respectable number six on the US charts. Any good? Aside from a nice little\u00a0Moog\u00a0line, \u2018Elenore\u2019 exists exactly as intended, a pastiche pop song that\u2019s funny upon scrutiny but doesn\u2019t hold a candle to their former Billboard smash.<\/p>\n At least it shut the label up. \u201cIt was my feeling that they would listen to how strange and stupid the song was and leave us alone,\u201d Kaylan confessed in the\u00a0Solid Zinc<\/em>\u00a0anthology\u2019s liner notes. \u201cBut they didn\u2019t get the joke. They thought it sounded good. Truthfully, though, the production on \u2018Elenore\u2019 WAS so damn good. Lyrically or not, the sound of the thing was so positive that it worked. It certainly surprised me\u201d.<\/p>\n