Trivia / The Turtles

• Breakup Breakout: Kaylan and Volman renamed themselves Flo & Eddie and would join Frank Zappa's the Mothers of Invention (they can be heard on the albums Chunga's Revenge (1970), Fillmore East, June 1971 (1971), 200 Motels (1971) and Just Another Band from L.A. (1972) and work with everyone from T. Rex to Alice Cooper to Duran Duran and MANY OTHERS. Mark and Howie also lent their voices to the X-rated animated cartoon Down and Dirty Duck. Drummer John Barbata would also move on to Jefferson Airplane, which would become Jefferson Starship not long after he joined.
• Contractual Obligation Project: The Wooden Head LP, which was assembled from early rarities and unreleased tracks to fulfil their commitment to White Whale Records.
• Creator Cameo: On You, Baby, White Whale Records president Ted Feigin and vice president Lee Lasseff provided special effects and percussion, both credited under the joint pseudonym Dwight Tunji.
• He Also Did:
  • Long before he joined The Turtles, drummer John Seiter was previously drummer for Spanky & Our Gang.
  • The album cover designer for The Turtles' two greatest hits albums, Golden Hits and More Golden Hits, was Dean Torrence of Jan and Dean fame.
  • Flo and Eddie would serve as Pop Star Composers in Down and Dirty Duck (where they also voice the two main characters) and the 80s Strawberry Shortcake cartoons.
• It Will Never Catch On: This was actually the stock reaction that many other artists gave the song "Happy Together" before it was brought to the attention of The Turtles. In fact, so many artists had turned down "Happy Together", that by the time songwriters Garry Bonner and Alan Gordon offered it to The Turtles, the demo acetate was practically worn out.
• Revival by Commercialization: A lot of youngsters in The '90s discovered "Happy Together" through a commercial for the original Super Smash Bros.. Then again in The New '10s when it was used for the first trailer of Pokémon Detective Pikachu. (Hey now!)
• Screwed by the Lawyers: The whole reason why Howard Kaylan and Mark Volman used the names Flo and Eddie when they joined up with Frank Zappa was because White Whale Records, The Turtles' former record company, contractually forbade the two men from using the Turtles' name, as well as their own names, in a musical context. By the time they got those rights back, they had established themselves as Flo and Eddie and decided they didn't want to lose the cool points that they had gained from their work with Frank Zappa under those names to go back to their own, so they continue to use those aliases in conjunction with The Turtles name to the present day.
• Screwed by the Network: They had a difficult relationship with their label, White Whale Records. White Whale was a small independent label and The Turtles were far and away their biggest sellers, so the label would always pressure them to record surefire hits. They also tried to get Kaylan and Volman to fire the others and just use session musicians, but they refused.
• Serendipity Writes the Plot: The band's producer, Chip Douglas suggested a cover of The Byrds' "You Showed Me" for the band to record, playing the originally more uptempo song slowly on a harmonium with broken bellows that only really sounded good at slower tempos. The band liked the more downbeat style and made a ballad out of it at the speed Douglas played it at.
• Throw It In!:
  • Drummer Don Murray saying "Close your eyes when you clap" in the background is looped a couple times during the instrumental break of "Grim Reaper of Love".
  • Howard Kaylan jokingly sang "how is the weather?" toward the end of "Happy Together" on his first lead vocal take, and that's the take they ended up using.
• What Could Have Been: Murakami-Wolf-Swenson wanted Flo and Eddie to compose and record the theme song for a new cartoon based on a licensed property that they were working on (as they'd enjoyed a good working relationship with the duo after they had provided the soundtrack for Down 'n Dirty Duck), but for reasons unknown, they were unavailable. The cartoon? Appropriately, it was Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.

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