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Monkees Authors New Book On The Turtles.
January 22, 2024 by fred.velez
Filed under blogs, Fred Velez, music, news, news feed
“NOT JUST HAPPY TOGETHER: THE TURTLES FROM A – Z (AM RADIO TO ZAPPA)”
NEW BOOK BY MONKEES AUTHORS COMPREHENSIVELY CHRONICLES THE HISTORY & MUSIC OF ANOTHER 60s BAND
Monkees Author Mark Arnold and Monkee Mania Radio air personality Charles F Rosenay!!! have combined forces to co-author a new book on another sixties band, The Turtles. Rock & roll, genre, pop-culture, and music fans worldwide will be able to obtain this comprehensive and chronicled history of the band in “Not Just Happy Together: The Turtles A-Z (AM Radio To Zappa),” as published by Genius Book Publishing (2024).
The Turtles incorporated strong doses of humor and personality, as did The Monkees, with a similar hybrid mix of pop, country, and rock. Unlike Colgems, The Turtles’ inept record company, White Whale, promoted the band’s singles, but dropped the ball when it came to album sales and continued recording successes. Turtles’ album sales figures are sketchy, as were their record label’s accounting practices, but their best-selling album, “Golden Hits,” sold over 500,000 copies. It was unquestionably a gold record supported by 5 Turtles’ studio and 20 compilation albums.
“Not Just Happy Together…” is co-written by veteran author Mark Arnold (“Long Title: Looking for the Good Times” and “Headquartered: A Timeline of The Monkees Solo Years”) and Charles F. Rosenay!!!, who Monkee fans will know from his many years of promoting and co-producing Monkees Conventions. Their 466-page deluxe book chronicles everything you wanted to know about The Turtles and more – yesterday, today, and tomorrow – with plenty of Monkees references.
The Turtles were a colorful hit/fun band and an in-demand sensation from 1963 – 1969, an era when AM Radio and 45 rpm singles ruled. Live footage is readily available on YouTube: network performances on: “The Ed Sullivan Show”, “Shindig,” “Hullabaloo,” “Where the Action Is,” “The Clay Cole Show,” “The Smothers Brothers Show,” are stand-outs.
According to authors Mark Arnold and Charles F. Rosenay!!!, “The Beatles gave us ‘Yeah Yeah Yeah’ and The Turtles gave us ‘No No No’.” The authors also note that “comedy and rock and roll” is risky and often does not mix well. It worked with The Beatles, The Monkees, and also The Turtles. Founding Turtles member Mark Volman, who is still touring, jokes that, “The Turtles missed being The Beatles by only 4 letters and some 7 billion dollars.”
“Not Just Happy Together…” covers the ongoing adventures and mis-adventures of The Turtles including every band member 1963-1969, their recordings in a comprehensive A – Z(appa) catalog, discography, session details, songwriters such as musician Harry Nilsson, record label lawsuits and counter lawsuits, live events, promotions on AM Radio, comparisons to The Beatles and The Monkees, the 1960s touring life, being confused with Liverpool’s British Invasion hit-makers, Gerry And The Pacemakers, their ill-fated Ray Davies (of The Kinks)-produced album, and the infamous Tricia Nixon White House party incident in May of 1970.
There is a frequent misconception that The Turtles were “one hit wonders” because “Happy Together” went #1 (1967) and was a huge hit, and is still part of the musical landscape. However, there are at least six other Turtles’ well-known chart-topping hits like: “She’d Rather Be with Me” (which many people mistakenly call “Some Girls”),” “Elenore” (which they wrote as a response to “Happy Together”), “You Showed Me,” “It Ain’t Me Babe” (written by Bob Dylan) and “You Baby.” The Turtles’ chart success is complemented by such lesser-known achievements as them singing “It’s Garry Shandling’s Show Theme” or performing the title song to the Robert Morse starring “Guide For A Married Man” (which occasionally airs on TMC), and then becoming Flo & Eddie (aka Howard Kaylan and Mark Volman) on their own, and later lending their amazing vocals on such classics as T. Rex’s “Bang-A-Gong,” Bruce Springsteen’s “Hungry Heart,” and actually becoming members of Frank Zappa’s The Mothers.
Authors Mark Arnold and Charles F. Rosenay!!! have joined efforts to cover the entire careers of The Turtles from their early days as The Crossfires, through their hit-filled years, into their break-up that led to most of The Turtles’ members joining forces with Frank Zappa’s Mothers of Invention, to Mark Volman and Howard Kaylan’s years as solo artists under the guise of Flo & Eddie, and even their forays into children’s records.
Arnold and Rosenay!!! have reviewed every song and album, and interviewed many of The Turtles’ friends and associates along with most of The Turtles themselves, who have given startling new revelations that will surprise even the most hardcore fan. This hard cover edition includes 466 pages with images, interviews, and insights into the world of The Turtles, The Crossfires, The Mothers (of Invention), Frank Zappa, Flo & Eddie, and more. There is even an interview with original Beatlemania member Mitch Weissman, who played in The Turtles’ band for a while.
“Not Just Happy Together…” is sincerely dedicated to past and present members of The Turtles. There are Turtles “in-stories,” guest interviews, actual accounts, Howard Kaylan and Mark Volman’s antics, cover photos by rock photographer and Monkees friend Henry Diltz, and a Foreword from their buddy and musical contemporary, Gary Puckett (of Gary Puckett & The Union Gap).
Additionally, the authors contend that The Turtles are one of two bands that are neglectfully missing from the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, along with The Monkees.
“Not Just Happy Together: The Turtles A-Z (AM Radio To Zappa),” is the definitive Turtles compendium is as unique as The Turtles themselves. Open the doors to the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame and to every music library.
Genius Books Link: https://geniusbookpublishing.com/products/not-just-happy-together
Long Title: Looking for the Good Times; Examining the Monkees’ Songs, One by One
February 21, 2018 by M.A. Cassata
Filed under M.A. Cassata, news feed
Hey, hey die-hard Monkees fans, you will certainly want to check out the new book, Long Title: Looking For the Good Times: Examining The Monkees’ Songs, One by One by Michael A. Ventrella and Mark Arnold (BearManor Media).
This informative book as the title suggests explores in depth every song recorded by the Monkees in the past years, a detailed history which includes a list of all live performances, TV appearances and a complete list of all singles and albums that made the Billboard charts.
There’s more. As described by authors, secret information of their recordings, which of The Monkees played what instruments on each song, when it was recorded, how well that song did on the charts, whether there were any interesting cover versions of the song done, and finally when it first appeared on a record.
But wait, there’s still more! Long Title: Looking for the Good Times: Examining The Monkees’ Songs, One by One is profusely illustrated with album covers, single covers, live performance photos, candid photos and a complete Song and Album index.
Now that’s a wealth of material to cover all in one book! What more can a serious longtime fan ask for? We just had to ask co-author Mark Arnold a few of your most need to know questions about the making of this amazing Monkees book with the long title.
Why did you write this book about The Monkees?
Mark: I had already written a book about The Beatles called “Mark Arnold Picks On The Beatles”. I already knew Michael Ventrella from his magazine “Animato” and he had interviewed me for one of my other books. One day out of the blue, Michael emailed me and asked me if I wanted to collaborate on a book about The Monkees. I was initially hesitant, but after thinking about it, I realized it could be fun, and it was.
What was your approach to the book?
We realized that there had been quite a few Monkees books already, so we didn’t want to be exactly like them. There are dry histories of the group, there are books that have opinions about the songs, there are books about the TV show, there are books about the nitty-gritty recording details, there are books about fan memories of the group. We decided to take the route of using my pop culture historian background and Michael’s musical background and review each and every song recorded by The Monkees during their entire career.
How do your opinions differ from other similar books that offer opinions and reviews of their songs?
We feel that we are qualified due to our backgrounds as stated, plus we wanted to get an element of humor into the proceedings. I tend to be very, very thorough, which sometimes Michael doesn’t understand, but I feel that that is one of its selling points: how thorough it is. We also reviewed the songs in roughly chronological order by recording date. This was important as it shows how the group progressed from being sidemen overlaying vocals onto prerecorded tracks to writing and performing their own material and then watching it slowly deteriorate as Peter Tork and then Michael Nesmith left the group.
What else is in the book?
A lot of people who haven’t read the book think that it’s just a fluff piece spouting our own opinions, but there’s much more than that. We feature short mini-interviews and comments by many Monkees peers and fans such as Peter Noone, Gene Cornish, Howard Kaylan, Stu Phillips, David Peel, Butch Patrick, Ron Dante and a few others. We also list every Monkees TV appearances and concert dates from 1966 to the present, plus their chart positions over the years. Most books cover 1966-1971. We cover all the reunions and then some.
Author Mark Arnold hanging with Peter.
So what’s next?
I am currently finishing up a biography on Harvey Comics artist Warren Kremer and a book about Alvin and the Chipmunks, plus a book about TTV, the company that made Underdog and Tennessee Tuxedo. This Monkees book has done so well so far that the publisher, BearManor Media, has asked us to do a sequel book. This one is about The Monkees’ solo careers, which has never been done. We’re covering as many of the activities the four Monkees have done separately over the years from TV cartoon voice-overs to solo albums to acting roles to directorial efforts to horseriding and more. Michael and I plan to be a little bit more serious and less opinionated in this book that covers the lesser known activities of these four men.
You can purchase this book on Amazon or directly from BearManor Media.
M.A. Cassata
Author of 20+ books
macassata.com
Entertainment news site: themacwire.com
