The Turtles Present the Battle of the Bands

The Turtles Present the Battle of the Bands
Studio album by The Turtles
Released	November 1, 1968
Recorded	1968
Genre	Pop[1] rock[1]
Length	37:07
Label	White Whale
Producer	Chip Douglas
The Turtles chronology
Happy Together (1967) The Turtles Present the Battle of the Bands (1968) Turtle Soup (1969)
Singles from The Turtles Present the Battle of the Bands
"Elenore" Released: September 1968 "You Showed Me" Released: December 1968

Professional ratings

Review scores
Source	Rating
Allmusic	[1]
Rolling Stone	(negative)[2]
Tom Hull	B−[3]

The Turtles Present the Battle of the Bands is the fourth studio album released by the American rock band the Turtles. Produced by Chip Douglas (who returned to work with the Turtles after a brief stint shepherding The Monkees' transition into a live band), it was released in November 1968 by White Whale Records. It includes John Barbata's final recorded performances with the band; he left shortly after its release to join Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young. Barbata's eventual replacement, former Spanky and Our Gang drummer John Seiter, also contributed to the album.^{[citation needed]} Some issues of the album were retitled Elenore.

It is a concept album, with the band pretending to be a series of different groups, playing in varying styles.

Music

The Battle of the Bands is a pop and rock album^[1] which encompasses multiple styles of music, including country, psychedelic, and R&B.^[1]

As part of the album's concept, The Turtles adopted 12 different band names, and recorded 12 songs, each in a different genre or style, representing different groups competing in a mock Battle of the Bands. The outer cover shows the Turtles in evening dress, playing hosts of the "show", while the inside gatefold shows them in different costumes for each song. The entire album is filled with puns and hidden jokes. (According to liner notes on various Turtles CDs, White Whale Records was in reality, a one-artist label and they were consistently pressuring The Turtles to come up with another "Happy Together," which resulted in "Elenore," a humorous reworking of the classic "happy pop" single.)

"Kamanawanalea" was a made-up Hawaiian idol ("the god of lust and perversion") with a pun name. The lyrics of "Food" included a recipe for brownies, with cannabis as a special ingredient. "Surfer Dan" was billed as being by The Cross Fires, a nod to the Turtles' previous incarnation as a surf-music band known as The Crossfires before it had signed with White Whale Records. "You Showed Me" was written by Roger McGuinn and Gene Clark of The Byrds, and became the last major Turtles hit. The final song, "Earth Anthem," was recorded at 3:00 A.M. by candlelight, to capture the exact mood the Turtles wanted. "Can't You Hear The Cows" was supposed to be on the album but was rejected by the label for the photo of the band wearing cow heads.

"I'm Chief Kamanawanalea" has been sampled in many tracks, such as "Say No Go" by De La Soul and "Jimmy James" by the Beastie Boys. It was also used in an episode of the TV show "Life on Mars" (US version) in a discotheque scene.

Charts and awards

The album peaked at number 128 on the Billboard Pop Albums chart, but its singles were more successful. "Elenore" and "You Showed Me" both reached number 6 on the Billboard Pop Singles chart.

Track listing

Personnel

The Turtles

• Howard Kaylan - lead vocals
• Mark Volman - vocals, special effects
• Al Nichol - guitars, organ, piano, Moog synthesizer, vocals
• Jim Pons - bass, vocals
• Johnny Barbata - drums, percussion, vocals

Additional personnel

• Chip Douglas - producer
• Gold Star Recording Studios - Studio
• Jim Hilton - engineer
• anonymous - strings, woodwinds, banjo on "Chicken Little Was Right"
• Lee Michaels - organ on "Buzzsaw"
• Arrangements by The Turtles and Chip Douglas
• Album layout designed by The Turtles
• Photography by Rod Dyer

References

This page was last edited on 19 January 2024, at 19:39