The Turtles is an American rock band that out of California. The group had some success, notably “It Ain’t Me Babe”, a Bob Dylan cover, in the Billboard Top Ten in the summer of 1965, and “You Baby”, that went Top 20 early in 1966.
Of course the big hit was Happy Together [LISTEN], #1 for three weeks in 1967 in the US, plus a couple solid followup hits,”You Know What I Mean”, “She’s My Girl” and especially “She’d Rather Be With Me”. The band wanted to expand the sonic palette. Their label, White Whale Records, however, had other ideas.
Howard Kaylan, band member and co-writer of Elenore said:
Elenore was a parody of “Happy Together.” It was never intended to be a straight-forward song. It was meant as an anti-love letter to White Whale, who were constantly on our backs to bring them another “Happy Together.” So I gave them a very skewed version. Not only with the chords changed, but with all these bizarre words. It was my feeling that they would listen to how strange and stupid the song was and leave us alone. But they didn’t get the joke. They thought it sounded good. Truthfully, though, the production on “Elenore” WAS so damn good. Lyrically or not, the sound of the thing was so positive that it worked. It certainly surprised me.
I surely thought, and think, that the lyrics to Elenore are a hoot, especially “You’re my pride and joy, et cetera.” It is probably my favorite song by the Turtles.
The fans liked it too, as it got to #6 in the US, # 7 on the UK singles chart, # 4 in Canada, # 8 in Australia, and # 1 in New Zealand – those crazy Kiwis! – in 1968.
The band broke up in 1970. The core members Flo & Eddie (Mark Volman, Flo aka Phlorescent Leech, and Howard Kaylan, Eddie), had, for a time, been unable to use the Turtles name (and even their own names) in billings, per their contract with White Whale, until they bought the label’s master recordings at auction in 1974. The Turtles, featuring Flo & Eddie, have been touring at various times, regularly since 2010.
They are now also involved in some significant and complicated copyright lawsuits.
LISTEN to Elenore HERE or HERE.
“Elenore” was one of four or five highlights of The Turtles Present the Battle of the Bands, in which the band (singular) assumed a dizzying variety of identities for an unusually eclectic bunch of songs. (I dearly love the Side 1 end track, “Buzzsaw,” a fuzz guitar-driven instrumental with slightly more words than, say, “Tequila,” and one of the last great organ solos.) It is a measure of their success that they got a hit out of a Byrds cover (“You Showed Me”) on Side 2.
I have always argued that “Happy Together” (which they didn’t write) is a lot more subversive than anyone thinks.
Flo and Eddie were part of T. Rex on some of their biggest hits, and also part of Zappa and the Mothers for several years (which they described as “serving time.”)