Sloan, the Turtles hit the Top 40 twice more during 1965-1966 with 'Let Me Be' and 'You Baby,' after which Murray and Portz left (to be replaced by John Barbata and, for a short time, bassist/producer Chip Douglas). Moving from the songwriting talents of Dylan to the new 'king of protest,' producer P.F. The song's fusion of folk with glittering rock & roll was also lifted from the Byrds, and 'It Ain't Me Babe' reached the Top Ten in August 1965, just three months after 'Mr.

The sextet changed their name to the Tyrtles (an unveiled homage to the Byrds, soon amended to the correct spelling) and recorded a Bob Dylan cover as their first single. Foster liked the Crossfires so much, he became their manager and found the group a contract with White Whale Records. The group finally got its big break in 1965 after local disc jockey and club owner Reb Foster heard them. After high school graduation, the Crossfires continued on while its members attended area colleges (picking up rhythm guitarist Jim Tucker along the way). Volman joined the group just before they became the Crossfires in 1963. The two sang in the school's a cappella choir, where Volman soon heard about Kaylan's instrumental surf group, the Nightriders (which also included choir members Al Nichol on lead guitar, Don Murray on drums and Chuck Portz on bass). Howard Kaplan) and Mark Volman attended the same school, Westchester High in Los Angeles (Kaylan had moved from New York as a child). Kaylan and Volman later joined Frank Zappa's Mothers of Invention during the early '70s and also recorded themselves as Flo & Eddie, but were on the oldies circuit with a revamped Turtles by the mid-'80s.īorn within two months of each other in 1947 (though on opposite coasts), Howard Kaylan (b.

Though they hit number one in 1967 with the infectious 'Happy Together,' the Turtles scored only three more Top Ten hits and broke up by the end of the '60s. Though many remember only their 1967 hit, 'Happy Together,' the Turtles were one of the more enjoyable American pop groups of the '60s, moving from folk-rock inspired by the Byrds to a sparkling fusion of Zombies-inspired chamber pop and straight-ahead, good-time pop reminiscent of the Lovin' Spoonful, the whole infused with beautiful vocal harmonies courtesy of dual frontmen Howard Kaylan and Mark Volman.

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