The Association

And Then...Along Comes The Association



The Association - And Then...Along Comes The Association
Valiant Records VLM-5002 (1966)


Side One
1. Enter The Young
2. Your Own Love
3. Don't Blame It On Me
4. Blistered
5. I'll Be Your Man
6. Along Comes Mary

 Side Two
1. Cherish
2. Standing Still
3. Message Of Our Love
4. Round Again
5. Remember
6. Changes
Personnel Include:
Russ Giguere, Brian Cole, Ted Bluechel - vocals
Jules Gary Alexander, Terry Kirkman, Jim Yester - vocals
Curt Boettcher - producer, tone generator, oscillator
Mike Deasy - guitar
Lee Mallory - guitar
Ben Benay - guitar
Jerry Scheff - bass
Butch Parker - keyboards
Jim Troxel - drums, percussion
Toxey French - vibes, drums
Gary Paxton - engineer
Pete Romano - engineer
Original tracks recorded at Gary Paxton's Homewood Studios and G.S.P. Studios


Notes:

July of 1966 saw the release of the debut album by The Association entitled "And Then... Along Comes The Association" on Valiant Records. It became one of the top selling albums in the states that year, reaching the number five spot on Billboard's album charts, and remains to this day, The Association's most successful regular album release.

Two singles from the record hit the top ten, "Along Comes Mary" which went to #7, and "Cherish" which took the #1 slot on Billboard's Hot 100 singles chart in September. Cherish remains one of the most played songs on radio to this day.

The album was produced by renown "Sunshine Pop" specialist Curt Boettcher (BET-chur) whose imprint would be found all over the music of artists of the 60s including Paul Revere and the Raiders, Tommy Roe, the Beach Boys, Gene Clark, The Ballroom, The Millennium, Sagittarius, etc. Many of the tracks were recorded in engineer Gary S.  Paxton's converted garage studio which had the control room in an old bus out in the driveway, and then taken and sweetened in a "legit" studio downtown. Boettcher would use members of his Our Productions house band as studio musicians for the record.

After the album became a hit with it's two singles, the band replaced Boettcher with band leader Jim Yester's brother Jerry for production of their next album "Renaissance" where they also played their own instruments rather than use studio musicians. The album tanked and for the third record was given Bones Howe for producer by Warner Bros. Records who went back to using the Wrecking Crew for musical accompaniment. That album, Insight Out, would again spawn two monster hits, "Never My Love" and "Windy".

Listen to "And Then... Along Comes The Association" on YouTube:




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Insight Out



The Association - Insight Out
Warner Bros. Records W-1696/WS-1696 (1967)


Side One
1. Wasn't It A Bit Like Now (Parallel '23)
2. On A Quiet Night
3. We Love Us
4. When Love Come To Me
5. Windy
6. Reputation

Side Two
1. Never My Love
2. Happiness Is
3. Sometime
4. Wantin' Ain't Gettin'
5. Requiem For The Masses



Personnel Include:
Bones Howe - arrangements, producer, engineer
Bill Holman - instrumental sweetening
Ray Pohlman - instrumental arrangements
Clark Burroughs - vocal arrangements
Mike Deasy - guitar, sitar, composer (Wantin' Ain't Gettin')
Al Casey - guitar, banjo
Hal Blaine - drums
Joe Osborn - bass
Larry Knechtel - piano, electric piano, harpsichord
Gary Coleman - marimba, percussion
Bones Howe - tambourine
Bud Shank - flute


Notes:
Recorded at Western Recorders, Hollywood, CA, 3/27/67-6/3/67

Clark Burroughs, Marilyn Burroughs, Ruthann Friedman, Bertie Jane Giguere, Jerry Yester, and Jo-Ellen Jester provided additional backing vocals on the tag of "Windy"

On June 8, 1967, the third, and considered by many, the best, album by The Association was released. "Insight Out" followed the group's first two albums, "And Then...Along Comes The Association" and "Renaissance". Curt Boettcher (pronounced BET-chur) produced the first album, using his crew of musicians which included Mike Deasy, Jerry Scheff, Jim Troxel, and Toxey French. Gary S. Paxton recorded the basic instrumental tracks in his home studio which would then be used for the album adding vocals later at a major studio.

For "Renaissance", the band brought in Jim Yester's brother Jerry to produce and they insisted on playing their own instruments. The album tanked and the record company was worried that they were just a two-hit-song flash in the pan. So for the third album, they used rising star Dayton Burr "Bones" Howe to produce and Bones demanded that the top studio musicians he was used to having be used. He also was a driving force behind the sound and arrangements on the album.

"Insight Out" would spawn two top-ten hits, "Never My Love" going to #2 on the Billboard Hot 100, and "Windy" reaching #1 July 1, 1967, spending four weeks in that position and hanging on the charts for an incredible 14 weeks. "Windy" begins with Joe Osborn's bass line intro, combines Hal Blaine's timbales in a Latin feel with Larry Knechtel's baroque harpsichord lines, then adds Bud Shank's piccolo solo, allowing the lush vocal harmonies to soar in some of the best Sunshine Pop of the era.

But music critic Richie Unterberger wrote that while the two hits are both stellar, they tend to over shadow the rest of the album's songs, many of which are strong in their own right. One of those songs is "Wantin' Ain't Gettin'" written by Mike Deasy who plays sitar on the cut. The original album finishes with the solemn Latin Gregorian style anti-war themed tale of a dying matador. The album went to #8 on the Billboard Top 200 album charts and was certified Gold in December of 1967.


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Birthday



The Association - Birthday
Warner Bros. / Seven Arts Records WS 1733 (1968)


Side One
1. Come On In
2. Rose Petals, Incense And A Kitten
3. Like Always
4. Everything That Touches You
5. Toymaker

Side Two
1. Barefoot Gentleman
2. Time For Livin'
3. Hear In Here
4. The Time It Is Today
5. The Bus Song
6. Birthday Morning



Personnel Include:
Bones Howe - producer, engineer
Bill Holman - strings and brass arrangements
Bob Alcivar - vocal arrangements
Ray Pohlman - instrumental arrangements
Joe Osborn - bass
Hal Blaine - drums, percussion
Al Casey - guitar
David Cohen - guitar
Dennis Budimir - guitar
Jim Yester - guitar
Mike Deasy - guitar
Russ Giguere - guitar
Tommy Tedesco - guitar
Larry Knechtel - piano, organ, keyboards
John Johnson - saxophone
Red Callender - double bass, tuba
David Wells - trombone
Lew McCreay - trombone
Anthony Terran - trumpet
Bobby Bryant - trumpet
Buddy Childers - trumpet
Jimmy Zito - trumpet
Manny Klein - trumpet
Art Maebe - French horn
David Duke - French horn
James Decker - French horn, tuba
William Hinshaw - French horn, tuba
Dale Anderson - vibraphone, percussion
Gene Estes - vibraphone, percussion
Larry Bunker - vibraphone, percussion, congas
Milt Holland - vibraphone, percussion

Notes:
Recorded at Western Recorders Hollywood, CA, 9/12/67-2/23/68. Released 3/7/68

On March 7, 1968, Warner Bros. Records released "Birthday", the forth studio album by the group The Association. 

Sessions were done at Western Recorders over a five month period and would spawn another hit album, reaching #23 on the Billboard Album charts and two charted hits, "Everything That Touches You" a top ten smash, and "Time For Livin'" which reached the top 40.

Bones Howe was once again the producer/engineer and the album garnered both critical and fan favor. With all that going for it what could be wrong? But there was trouble in the camp.

Jim Yester once again, representing the boys in the band, complained to Howe about the songs they were singing and the direction Bones had taken them. They wanted to do their own songs in their own style. That apparently involved moving in a more avant-garde psychedelic folk-rock style and away from their highly successful California Sunshine Pop mode. It's reported that Howe told Yester that if they let him keep them the way they were, they could ride the wave of hit song popularity for a long long time. But it was not to be. After the release of this album, Bones was let go and the band began to yield more decision power on their following records. That would end their wave of commercial success even though they would change record companies several times and continue to record. The band still performs to this day with new members as an oldies revival band.

Considered by many as their best album, "Birthday" featured the expert production and engineering of hit maker Bones Howe, creative but not over done instrumental arrangements of Ray Pohlman, intricate vocal arrangements by Bob Alcivar, and the always awesome tight music of A-list studio musicians. It's a shame that such a fine combination became The Association's swan song.

Trivia: Bones had challenged hit song writer Jimmy Webb to write a song that involved classical instrumentation and odd time signatures for this album by The Association. Jimmy wrote a 24 minute cantata and after hearing it, the band turned it down. Webb was not happy and Howe's relationship with the group was never the same afterward. Of course, one of the songs in the cantata was "MacArthur Park" which became one of the biggest hits of 1968 as sung by Richard Harris, using many of the same musicians as this record.

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