It's a brand new feature running in Forgotten Hits throughout 2022 ...
Look for a new piece on the 15th of every month as authors Marti Smiley Childs and Jeff March share excerpts and interviews from their EXCELLENT series of books "Where Have All The Pop Stars Gone?" (These books offer great insight and profiles of our favorite artists from the '60's and '70's, in their own words, and make for excellent reading.) In fact, we're even calling this new monthly series "INSIGHTS INTO ..." ... and we're convinced that after reading these short excerpts, you'll want to pick up copies for your very own collection so that you can enjoy "the rest of the story." You'll find ordering links at the end of each month's piece.
And so now ... without any further adieu ... here is Chapter One ...
Insights into … the Association
[12 Billboard Hot 100 singles, 1966–81; three certified RIAA gold]
In 1967 the radio Program Directors of America voted
the Association the No. 1 group of the year, becoming the first group to unseat
the Beatles after three consecutive years. During the mid- and late 1960s, the
Association appeared on more than 30 major television shows, including the Smothers
Brothers Comedy Hour, the Ed Sullivan Show, and the Tonight Show Starring
Johnny Carson, and were the only group to have an entire American
Bandstand show in 1969 devoted to their music. This national exposure and
their reputation for polished performances brought them concert dates at the
Greek Theatre in Los Angeles, the Saratoga Performing Arts Center, Tanglewood
(home of the Boston Symphony Orchestra), and Ravinia Park in Chicago —
prestigious venues that had catered to mature audiences and had never before
hosted a self-contained rock group.
The Association’s concert tours broke numerous
attendance records, including exceeding by 3,000 a 1958 record set by the
Kingston Trio at Ravinia Park. On August 2, 1967, an enthusiastic crowd of
17,432 fans jammed into Ravinia to see the Association, who by then held two
No. 1 singles — “Cherish” and “Windy.” The “Insights” title for this recurrent
series of articles was inspired by the title of the Association’s 1967 Warner Bros.
album Insight Out.
Insights about the 1960s
“When people look back at the ’60s they think, ‘Oh,
it was just this wonderful time.’ I don’t think it was. There was more sexism,
racism, and I think it was just a horrid, unsettled time. It was a time of wretched
excess, and people think it was a time of spiritual awakening. Perhaps it was,
who knows? Although I liked being a young adult in those times, I think I would
have preferred being a young adult in the ’50s or the ’40s. Or maybe the ’30s
would have been cool.”
— Gary “Jules”Alexander
guitarist, bass player and singer
Musical influences
“My aunt was an Arthur Murray [dancing] instructor. I
was into rock and roll dancing in junior high, particularly contests at dances.
As soon as I was about 14 or 15, I stopped going to dances, and folk music took
over in my life. [But] I always liked the really stylistic singers, like Nat
‘King’ Cole and people that really had their own style. I could never pass
myself off as a Nat ‘King’ Cole. But he certainly did some wonderful, wonderful
recordings, besides being a great piano player. I really liked Nat a lot.”
guitarist, trombone player and singer
Humanity
“I think the most important commodity that any of us
have to exchange with each other is validation. Validate who you and others
are. It may be that the spirit of my Methodist theologian circuit-riding
grandfather lives in me and in that context I would consider myself an
evangelist. I really want to carry that message, without getting into any fundamentalist
thought, that there’s another way to live. That you can be the person you are
and live alongside everybody else and not be in conflict with how hard it is
just to be living.”
Multi-instrumentalist, singer and composer
Musical repertoire
“Jules came home one night [in 1965] after playing on
a demo session for a friend named Tandyn Almer, who was a jazz pianist — kind
of a beatnik, last of the Kerouac guys. He had written a song. Jules brought it
home and said, ‘Wow, you gotta hear this song. It’s really great.’ It was
‘Along Comes Mary.’”
singer and guitarist
“There were seven of us voting on the 20 or 30 demo
songs we were listening to. When we first listened to “Windy’ [in early 1967]
and voted on it, four guys voted against it and three voted for it. But [our
manager] Pat Colecchio knew it was a hit and he was counting the votes, so he
took somebody’s ‘no’ vote and made it a ‘yes.’”
singer, drummer and guitarist
“The New Christy Minstrels recorded Terry Kirkman’s
song ‘Cherish’ for Columbia Records before the Association recorded it. But
when the Minstrels asked Kirkman for a license to release it, he refused
because he and the Association had agreed to release it. I’m still working
today because of ‘Cherish.’ One way or the other, I was going to be singing
‘Cherish.’ It was destined, whether with the Association or the Minstrels,
because [by the time I joined the Association] I had been singing ‘Cherish’
with the Minstrels for months.”
singer, guitarist and banjo player
The narrative and quotations in this article are excerpted from the book Where Have All the Pop Stars Gone? — Volume 1, by Marti Smiley Childs and Jeff March.
( order your copy here: EditPros LLC - Where Have All the Pop Stars Gone? Volume 1 )
This material is copyrighted © 2011 by EditPros LLC and may not be reproduced or redistributed without written permission.
Photo Credits:
Jules Alexander: Photo Courtesy
of Jules Alexander
Ted Bluechel, Jr.: Photo by Tracy
Coles
Russ Giguiere: Photo by Henry Diltz,
courtesy of Russ Giguere
Terry Kirkman: Photo by Paloma
Sendrey
Larry Ramos: Photo by Ken Ige, Honolulu
Star-Bulletin
Jim Yester: Photo by Alex Anton, Studio 53
THE ASSOCIATION HIT LIST
1966 - Along Comes Mary (#7)
1966 - Cherish (#1)
1966 - Pandora's Golden Heebie Jeebies (#19)
1967 - No Fair At All (#51)
1967 - Windy (#1)
1967 - Never My Love (#1)
HONORABLE MENTION: Requiem For The Masses (B-Side to Never My Love) #100
1968 - Everything That Touches You (#9)
1968 - Time For Livin' (#23)
1968 - Six Man Band (#26)
1969 - Goodbye Columbus (#78)
1973 - Names, Tags, Numbers and Labels (#85)
1981 - Dreamer (#66)
