CNN.com - The good times never end for the Turtles

Traveling, new collection keep band out front

The Turtles on the cover of the group's 1968 concept album, "The Turtles Present the Battle of the Bands." Mark Volman is in the center; Howard Kaylan is top right. Rhino Records recently released an anthology of the group's music.

(CNN) -- The Turtles' story is the classic tale of a 1960s American rock band.

It's 1962. High school buddies form a group. The combo becomes a successful Southern California surf band, changes its name, wins several local contests, and is signed to a label. The group adapts to the prevailing style -- folk-rock -- changes its name again to the Turtles, and has a couple hit singles, "It Ain't Me Babe" (a Bob Dylan cover, natch) and "You Baby" (co-written by "Eve of Destruction" songwriter P.F. Sloan), marked by the rich harmonies of its singers, Howard Kaylan and Mark Volman.

But the good times go quickly and within a year the band's members are scrambling for another hit. They find a song -- "Happy Together" -- and it goes straight to No. 1. Now, they're truly in the big leagues and want to follow the experimental vanguard of the '60s wherever it leads. But the record company fights them, and despite a handful of other hit singles -- "Elenore," "You Showed Me" -- the group, torn by internal strife and battles with the record company, is defunct by 1970.

AUDIO "It Ain't Me Babe" 518K / 25 sec. WAV sound "Outside Chance" 566K / 26 sec. WAV sound "Happy Together" 548K / 25 sec. WAV sound "Elenore" 666K / 30 sec. WAV sound "Love In The City" 628K / 29 sec. WAV sound   The first time For any band, a career highlight is the first time you hear your song on the radio. Mark Volman knows exactly where he was when "It Ain't Me Babe" received that honor for the Turtles. "It was 1965, and we were playing ... at the Revelaire Club in Redondo Beach [California]," he recalled. The group was standing in a parking lot listening to a car radio playing Los Angeles station KFWB's latest chart. The top 10 featured "two or three debuts," he said, "and 'It Ain't Me Babe' was one of those songs." The group was ecstatic, he said, and it's a memory he'll never forget -- not least because it meant the Turtles were truly a going concern. "It stands out as a special time," Volman said. "Until then, it was just a high school hobby."

But what goes around comes around. In the 1980s, the group re-forms and starts hitting the oldies circuit, becoming a popular draw. Meanwhile, its albums and singles are recognized as pop classics and re-released. The most recent release is the most comprehensive: a double-CD set from longtime Turtles label Rhino Records, "Solid Zinc: The Turtles Anthology." (Rhino is a unit of AOL Time Warner, as is CNN.com.)

A nice story, and all true. But if people think of the Turtles only as an oldies band with a few hit singles, they're missing the point, Volman said in an interview from Los Angeles. He hopes the new collection opens some minds.

"The [hit] records overwhelmed the entirety of what we were about," he said. "This [collection] allows us to introduce the totality [of the band]."

Many sides

Indeed, "Solid Zinc" shows the Turtles to be more than just good-time music pop-rockers.

The group followed up "You Baby," its second hit single, with the bizarre "Grim Reaper of Love," a song in 5/4 time with sitars and droning chords. There is also a garage-rock Warren Zevon cover, "Outside Chance"; a movie theme song, "Guide for the Married Man"; cuts from their 1968 concept album, "The Turtles Present the Battle of the Bands"; and the Phil Spector-meets-Ray Davies extravaganza, "Love in the City."

The collection also highlights the expertise of songwriters Gary Bonner and Alan Gordon, who wrote the hits "Happy Together," "She'd Rather Be with Me" and "She's My Girl."

But the many sides of the Turtles may have made it difficult for the group to grow commercially, notes Rolling Stone's David Wild in his liner notes.

"Were these guys folk-rock heroes? Acid-rock weirdos? Southern California popsters? Recovering surf rockers? Clownish cutups? Gifted imitators or gutsy innovators?" he writes.

Volman, though, would rather have tried new things than stick to the tried-and-true. "The Turtles really present a dichotomy of elements in musical history, and that makes it fun to listen to the new release," Volman said.

If there was a primary source of friction during the band's heyday, it was the record label, Volman said. The company, White Whale, a small Los Angeles company, cared more about hits than creativity. "It couldn't keep up with us," he said.

Still in the music business

But the Turtles had its share of internal dissension. Over the years, the only constants were Volman, Kaylan and guitarist Al Nichol. Its first drummer and rhythm guitarist left in 1966, less than a year after "It Ain't Me Babe" became the group's first hit; another original member left after a rocky English tour.

Nevertheless, the singers, Volman and Kaylan, are celebrating 40 years together this year, and the band remains a potent draw on the oldies circuit (as "The Turtles featuring Flo & Eddie," a nod to Volman and Kaylan's alter egos while working with Frank Zappa), doing about 60 shows a year. The band also maintains a Web site, and Kaylan has written a movie, "My Dinner with Jimi," tentatively slated for release in 2002.

The group in the mid-1960s, around the time of its first hits.

Volman doesn't see the Turtles as only an oldies band, but he makes no apologies.

"You have to put together a show people want to see," he said. The Turtles have a terrific reputation in the touring business, he says, and that keeps bookings coming in.

Staying in the music business for 40 years takes willpower, he said. "[After 'It Ain't Me Babe'], we told our parents we'd be in the music business. The end result of that is we're still doing what we told our parents we'd be doing. But you don't just stay there -- you have to work hard at it."

But it's still a heck of a lot of fun.

"When we were in high school, this was a hobby. ... We had music, others had sports," he said. "I don't think any of us took it seriously to be anything more."