The Association: album by album thread

1983: Vintage (CBS Special Products BT-19223). This collection has been reissued over and over again, but Vintage is the original title. The complete front cover masthead reads Vintage | The Association | Est. 1965. The covers are exquisitely performed.

Again, my revised listening order:

Side One:

“Isn’t She Lovely” (Larry) – I don’t mind that they did covers. I think the band did them exceptionally well, certainly much better than your average cover artist. For this number, instead of opening with a baby crying, as in Stevie Wonder’s original, we have an extended drum intro. As the instruments come in it’s quite pleasant and Larry was in good voice. He sings as though this tune really means something to him. And Terry nails it with his sax solo. Yes!, the whole number is tasty.

“Do That to Me One More Time” (Russ) – It’s odd hearing a guy sing a girl’s part, and vice versa. Here Russ sings the old Captain and Tennille warhorse, and he (and the band) nails every note of these covers. I like every little nuance of this performance. I really have trouble hearing any guitars for most of this song. Russ plays his voice like a fine musical instrument.

“Just the Way You Are” (Jules) – I like the Billy Joel original, but I wish Jules had sung this at a lower pitch (as I’ve discussed over and over again). Otherwise the performance is as tight as on the rest of these covers. Ooh, the background vocal just cuts it on this; it almost rescues the rest of this song.

“You’re In My Heart” (Russ) – I don’t know what else to say. They nail these covers. The performances are so tight and professional. Note for note they’re just perfect … and Russ has a much smoother voice than Rod Stewart. He waltzes through every nuance you could possible want him to express.

Side Two:

“Windy” – I miss the opening not being done on a bass. The vocals are very well done. The production on this whole album is especially good. In fact the production of this whole album is slick and professional. While not the original recordings, these songs do scream out “professional”. This is much better than the follow-up, New Memories.

“Cherish” – They skip the first half of the intro, the part that was done on piano on the original, and so tastefully done on guitars on the live album. The vocal sounds like a duet between Terry and Russ. I’m probably in danger of saying I’m repeating myself; but, really, all these cuts are well done.

“Along Comes Mary” – The opening riff? I really like how it’s done on this recording. Jim is in especially good voice on this one. I hope everyone does give these cuts a listen; yes!, they are not the originals, but they are done exceedingly well. I was tempted to clap out loud while listening to this cut.

“Never My Love” – As above, there is nothing missing from this recording. It is slick and professional. They were at the height of their abilities when this set was recorded. I just wish they had been able to do those two-to-three albums of new material I spoke of earlier.

“Goodbye, Columbus” – I’m glad this song was included. I’ve read different things about the success of this song. My own conclusion is that it had respectable sales world-wide, but I really don’t know for sure. I’ve always enjoyed this song; I just think it’s really neat, and it’s always a pleasure to listen to. So how do I rate their re-recordings of their own songs on this album? Pretty damned good. And now …

We saw them again at a dinner club in an industrial park, but by then Jim had left and the Reunion was over. But the 1979-83 Reunion had been a glorious time. If you weren’t there you wouldn’t realize how good they were. They were slick and professional, and it is a cosmic crime unparalleled that their reunion wasn’t successful.

I miss Dave Bulmer’s old Association Admiration Aggregation website. He had every studio recording posted (is that the right word?). This, of course, included all the rare and obscure tracks I’m hoping Now Sounds will issue. He had the original music video (promotional film) for “Six Man Band”. There were a lot of interviews posted too; I especially remember one with Tom Snyder on The Tomorrow Show (which I may have seen when it was broadcast, I’m not sure). Through the label name “Chris Rocks” (yes, really) he had a lot of CDs of rare material for sale. Darn!, I miss that website. I’m not privy to whatever disagreement caused Dave to take the site down, but I wish he would put it back up. It truly is irreplaceable!

For me this ends the 1979-83 Reunion, we are now in the RadioShack Period! *SIGH!*

I’m sorry I don’t remember more of this period. I’ve done my best to reconstruct it. I hope I’ve been able to convey some of the thrill of that period for you. Here are the rest of the videos that Bobby Cole (probably no relation to Brian) put up on YouTube from 1983:

“Along Comes Mary” – link
“Requiem for the Masses” – link
“Never My Love” – link
“Goodbye, Columbus” – link
“Cherish” – link
“Windy” – link

(I wish there were more videos of all the great songs they were doing back then.)

 

Thanks Joe for taking us on this Journey through the bands career. I used to visit the association admiration aggregation site in the late 90:s and there were some 79-83 material that sounded promising (dissapearing, carry on etc) I think the site was shelved when the band Found out that parts of the site contained advertised illegal material. I got hooked on small town lovers and hopefully more material from that period will be released. Keep up the good work.

 

Several members of the band were posting there; they knew about the content. I won't say more, because it would sound too much like gossip ... I'm tempted to just go ahead and cover the remaining period. Should I? Or should I wait and do one time period per week?

We'd have: (1) The RadioShack Period - 1983-1984, (2) The Decline and Oldies Band Years, including The Association '95: A Little Bit More, (3) "Windy" (The Millennium Remix), (4) 2003 – Vocal Music Hall of Fame Induction (plus the 2004 Reunion performance of "Never My Love"), and (5) 2006 – Barry Manilow: The Greatest Songs of the Sixties – "Cherish"/"Windy" & 2011 – Barry Manilow: Duets – "Cherish"/"Windy" (this is the same medley appearing on two different collections) ... did I miss anything?

 

The RadioShack Period!​

Actually, I do think the The RadioShack Period did overlap a little bit with the The 1979-83 Reunion, as the full membership, performing at a university here in Omaha, did play the song, “Walk Away Renee”, mentioning that it was from a project they worked on with Dean Torrence and Mike Love. Someone next to us in the audience, obviously with limited hearing ability, did not understand why The Association was playing “Walk Away Renee”. Well, here is more information about Rock ’n’ Roll City than you could possibly want to know:

1983: “Walk Away Renee” – The Association’s first cover of “Walk Away Renee” was recorded in collaboration with their original producer, Curt Boettcher, for the Mike Love & Dean Torrance 1983 cassette tape, Rock ’n’ Roll City. Here are some details for you:

​

FRONT OF THE ALBUM: The front card says “Featuring Mike Love of The Beach Boys/Dean Torrence of Jan and Dean.” There is a nice photo of Mike and Dean leaning on a 1961 red Corvette with the Brooklyn Bridge (a typical Southern California scene, right?) in the background ... This card was album-sized. The cassette was attached to the front in a plastic bubble. The album was released by Hit Bound Records, Catalog number 51-3009, and, as the back said, “Custom Manufactured in U.S.A. for RadioShack.” The card may have the original price sticker: $4.99. This album was available ONLY as a cassette and NOT on vinyl.

THE SONG LINEUP​

Side One:
“Lightning Strikes” by Mike & Dean
“Walk Away Renee” by The Association
“The Letter” by Mike Love
“The Locomotion” by Mike Love
“Sealed With a Kiss” by The Ripchords
“Sugar Shack” by Mike Love

Side Two:
“96 Tears” by Paul Revere & The Raiders
“California Dreaming” by The Beach Boys
“Baby Talk” by Dean Torrence
“Wild Thing” by Dean Torrence
“Da Doo Ron Ron” by Mike Love
“Her Boyfriend’s Back” by Mike & Dean​

THE BACK OF THE ALBUM: The back of the card features a photo of the Beach Boys — their basic publicity photo of the era, complete with a still-huge Brian and glassy-eyed Dennis. This may have been shortly after Mike decided to shave his beard. There are also pictures of The Association, Paul Revere & the Raiders and The Ripchords which, yes, are Bruce Johnston and Terry Melcher.

AN INTERESTING FOOTNOTE ON BACK: down in the bottom left is the typical producers’ credits for each of the songs. The producers of “California Dreaming” are listed as Bruce Johnston, Al Jardine and Terry Melcher. Mike Love is the Executive Producer of the entire album. Below that, there is a small note which reads: “‘California Dreaming’ with The Beach Boys — Courtesy CBS/Caribou.” As I said, I find this interesting because when a slightly different (and better) version of “California Dreaming” finally came out as a single three years later, it was released by Capitol Records.

AND EVEN THE ROAD BAND GETS CREDIT: Below THAT note is another: “Back-up—The Endless Summer Beach Band/Adrian Baker and Jeff Foskett.​

This is taken from a Message Board post that I forgot to note … sorry.

I didn’t mention that RadioShack was obviously recruiting oldies groups to perform on a string of cassettes, and later vinyl LPs that they were going to issue. The Association, with “Dreamer” probably was the only act in the RadioShack stable to actually have a recent hit. Well, what do you know?

 

1983: New Memories (Hit Bound Records 51-3022). The Association, still with RadioShack, but without Jim Yester (see jacket cover drawing) release this album. The production/engineering on this LP is sad. It is just low quality. No wonder it has never been released on CD. I am doing my best to remember details of it. The Association only performs seven of the ten songs on this album. I haven’t heard this for several years, so I’m burdening my memory to say anything about it.

Side One:

“Memories Are Made of This” (This is an old Dean Martin song. Terry sings it really slow. The background instrumentation is sort of avant garde.)

“Love Me Tender” (Jules … I think.)

“Breaking Up Is Hard to Do” (Larry does a passable job on this.)

“Oh Pretty Woman” (Russ, but they did the guitar riff as a background vocal!)

“Fever” (not an Association track, by Bobby Vee)

Side Two:

“World Without Love” (begins with everyone chanting “please, please, please” real fast. I don’t like how it sounds. I believe Jules sings the rest of it.)

“The Dock of the Bay” (Larry does a nice job on this.)

“It’s All in the Game” (Russ.)

“Sugar Sugar” (not an Association track, by Mary MacGregor)

“Stagger Lee” (not an Association track, by Mike Love)

Despite the opinion I expressed at the beginning of this review, I still hope someone would acquire a copy and digitize it. I am very much an Association completest … I did mention being Obsessive/Compulsive, right?

 

RadioShack created this rather lame Christmas Special. It is basically a collection of songs. The contents speak for themselves.

Scrooge’s Rock ’n’ Roll Christmas
“Carol of the Bells” by The Ensemble
“Rocking around the Christmas Tree” by Three Dog Night
“White Christmas” by Merrilee Rush
“Jingle Bells” by Paul Revere and the Raiders
“Some Children See Him” by Bridget
“The Christmas Song” by Paul Revere and the Raiders
“Do You Hear What I Hear” by Mike Love and Mary MacGregor
“Jingle Bell Rock” by Mike Love and Dean Torrence
“Sleigh Ride” by The Association
“Home for the Holidays” by The Association
“Winter Wonderland” by Bobby Goldsboro
“Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas” by Mike Love
“We Wish you a Merry Christmas” by The Ensemble​

As far as the songs, the production quality was much better than on New Memories. If you want to consider them as music videos, “Sleigh Ride” was uninspired while “Home for the Holidays” was passable.

 

(I maxed out the number of images they'd let me stick in one post!)

You can see, and maybe hear, The Association in the end credits.



And this ends The RadioShack Period!

 

Joe, I've been enjoying your discussion on The Association and thanks for the material on The Association Bites Back. However, I think you failed to mention the RCA single Sleepy Eyes b/w Take Me To The Pilot

 

Do you have the release date and/or catalog number?

 

During the period 1984-1995 The Association had more membership attrition. My first wife and I saw them perform at the Ak-Sar-Ben Racetrack as part of an oldies show. Gary Puckett also performed; and I can’t be sure, but I think Spanky McFarlane and some of The Turtles may have also appeared. They used the same backing band for everyone, and I think only Russ, Larry and Jules were there. I remember that Russ sang “One Too Many Mornings”, that they teased Larry about losing his range (at which point he went into a rendition of “Tiptoe Through the Tulips”), and for “Never My Love” the drummer used brushes (is that what they’re called?) instead of drumsticks.

It amuses me at this point to tell you about Ak-Sar-Ben. It is “Nebraska” spelled backwards and besides being a racetrack it had an average-sized auditorium. The whole thing was run by the mega-rich and they raised and donated money to a lot of good causes; but they also wanted to believe they were ROYALTY. So each year they had the Ak-Sar-Ben Ball and Coronation. They claimed to be the last residents of the Kingdom of Quivira, and would crown some rich old guy King, and some other rich old guy’s daughter would be crowned Queen. Ick! … having a dog track built across the river really cut into the receipts for the Ak-Sar-Ben racetrack; and when Iowa approved Riverboat Gambling it killed both tracks off. (The boats only have to prove they’re river-worthy once a year.) I don’t particularly miss the racetrack, though I did like to go down to the paddock every so often and watch the preparations for the races. I never was a gambler (I had other vices) … end of diversion.

Ten years have gone by, specifically the line-up is: Larry Ramos, Russ Giguere, Del Ramos; plus Bruce Pictor, Donni Gougeon and Paul Holland.



1995: The Association ’95: A Little Bit More (Track Records) This is only slightly better than muzak. Larry hogs most of the action.

“Walk Away Renee” – Larry

“A Little Bit More” – Larry

“Could It Be Love” – Larry

“How Much Love” – Larry (despite myself I kind of like this one)

“Learn How to Land” – Russ & Larry, solos (but mostly Larry – this is kind of energetic)

“Nature Boy” – group (a nice change of pace, but do I only like it ’cause it’s different)

“I Wanna Be Your Radio” – group

“Perfect Gift” – group (a Christmas song)

“Dreamland” – Larry again (I kind of like the message); this reminds me of a story, but I won’t burden you with it.

“Forever” – Larry still – I am really getting bored now! It may be because this is the only song in the collection over four minutes, but this is really getting tedious.

“The One” – Larry …

I see no point in commenting any further on these; too many of them sound alike. Oh, I guess they’re professional enough, but they seem a little keyboard-heavy.

 

As we move into the 2000s (which I call “the noughts”), what’s left of The Association continues to tour as an oldies band. Someone gets ahold of the Vintage tapes and reissues it as Ten Best, which I believe is the first time these tracks have appeared on CD. As you recall I believe these are well produced and are of high quality. To get ten tracks they also include . . .



“Windy (Millennium Remix 2000)” (Russ) – Some lunatic has added a dance beat to the version of “Windy” already on this album. If it had come out 20-25 years before, it would have been labeled “disco”. Yes!, really! I going to try to add a link to my Spotify playlist -- I don't know if it will work:

<iframe src="https://embed.spotify.com/?uri=spotify:track:544UNV8XPzS0oPBDGQggtZ" width="300" height="380" frameborder="0" allowtransparency="true"></iframe>
The Association – Windy (Millennium Remix 2000)
The Association – Windy (Millennium Remix 2000)

I hope one of these works for any readers.

 

As we move into the 2000s (which I call “the noughts”), what’s left of The Association continues to tour as an oldies band. Someone gets ahold of the Vintage tapes and reissues it as Ten Best, which I believe is the first time these tracks have appeared on CD. As you recall I believe these are well produced and are of high quality. To get ten tracks they also include . . .

“Windy (Millennium Remix 2000)” (Russ) – Some lunatic has added a dance beat to the version of “Windy” already on this album. If it had come out 20-25 years before, it would have been labeled “disco”. Yes!, really! I will try to post a link:

<iframe src="https://embed.spotify.com/?uri=spotify:track:544UNV8XPzS0oPBDGQggtZ" width="300" height="380" frameborder="0" allowtransparency="true"></iframe>

 

2003: They get inducted into The Vocal Group Hall of Fame. Other groups inducted that year were The Drifters, The Dixie Hummingbirds, The Pied Pipers, The Lettermen, The Harptones, The Clovers, The Chantels, The Coasters, The Four Lads, The Manhattan Transfer, Danny and the Juniors, The Orioles, The Modernaires, The Impressions, The Fifth Dimension, The Ink Spots, The Teenagers, Jay and the Americans, The Vandellas, The Skyliners and Mary Wilson. If not inducted, they at least appeared at the Induction Concert and appear on the DVD/CDs.

I guess the original lineup did some concerts for awhile:

 

The current group does a medley with Barry Manilow of “Cherish”/“Windy” which he issues twice. Once in in 2006 and again in 2011.



That's all I've got. I don't have anymore . . .

 

I'll try to pull out my copy this weekend for the catalog number.number. Not sure of the release date unless there is a date on the RCA label.

 

You know Sleepy Eyes b/w Take Me To The Pilot does sound kind of familiar, but I've been unable to find record of it anywhere. Good luck, I await your update.

 

Here is the information on the other RCA single. Sleepy Eyes- written by Steve Sperry, Arranged by Bob Alcivar, Produced by Jack Richardson. JB 10297 (PB10297) PB 10297-A. House of Gold Music, Inc. BMI 3:08 Intro: 12, Fade. Release date 1975.
Take Me To The Pilot- written by Elton John and Bernie Taupin, Horn Arrangements by Greg Adams, Produced by Jack Richardson. JB 10297 (PB 10297) PB 10297-B. Dick James Music, Inc. 3:46 Intro.: 11, Fade. Release date 1975. The label number comes after One Sunday Morning which is 10217 so this record came out afterwards.

 

So, are you looking at DJ copies? Do you think maybe it wasn't issued, would that be why it doesn't appear on any discographies that are out there? Can you tell us who sings lead on each song? ... thanks in advance ...

 

Yes. The label says "Not For Sale" on it. I've never seen a stock copy of Sleepy Eyes/ Take Me To The Pilot. Of course, that doesn't mean there isn't any, it just means that I've not seen one. The same is true for me with One Sunday Morning/ Life Is A Carnival. My copy has One Sunday Morning on both sides.

 

Joe, in this quote you say there are no unreleased tracks from the 79-83 reunion. I thought there was an unreleased album recorded for Elektra. At one time I remember seeing and listening to some of those tracks at the Association Admiration Aggregation website.

 

Sleepy Eyes- lead vocals are by Jim Yester. Take Me To The Pilot- lead vocals are by Larry Ramos. There could be a couple of reasons why this record wasn't issued. It may not have received much airplay when given to radio stations and with lack of interest RCA decided to shelve it. You reported earlier that Larry left the band in mid-1975 so, perhaps, his departure played a role in there being no official release. Larry's leaving could also explain why these four songs were not going to be included on Bites Back.

 

My memory is probably betraying me. At one time I did own a live album from AAA's "Cris Rocks" imprint; it did feature several new songs. Your memory is no doubt better than mine. ... as to an Elektra album, it was my belief Elektra did not even okay the creation of an album; I wish they had.

 

Here are the tracks that may have been recorded in 1981. I believe these are from the Association Admiration Aggregation website:
Dreamer, You Turn The Light On, Small Town Lovers, Across The Persian Gulf, Backseat Of Heaven, Bird Outside The Window, Carry On, Could It Be Love, Darling Girl, Disappearing, Rita's Letter, Stringing A Line, You Made A Dreamer Out Of Me, You Made A Dreamer Out of Me (overdub version). The best article and discography I ever saw in Goldmine magazine was written by Marty Natchez. According to his article only Backseat Of Heaven and Stringing A Line were recorded. He listed the following songs as unreleased at the time of his article (10/26/84):
Decorated For Love (written by Don and Dick Addrissi), Autumn Afternoon, Love Breaking Through (mono), The Machine, Where Were You (mono), Better Times (mono), Flashing Memories (Jules Alexander), The Xmas Song, The Nest (alternate unmixed tape), Are You Ready (alternate unmixed tape), The Last Macaroon (master number given but no tape exists), Pegasus ( an Association demo), Baby It's Real (Larry Ramos), Conflict, Silver Morning (alternate unmixed tape), Faith (Alexander and Pete Stefanos- stereo master), Movin' (stereo master), Colorado (Larry Ramos), Caney Creek (Alexander- stereo master), I Have No Idea, Maybe Iowa Ames (Alexander), Gypsy Boy (Larry Ramos), To Be Here With You, Seven Virgins (Spheeris- an unissued recording by Giguere for his solo album and also recorded by The Association), I Still Love You (Giguere- from the Goodbye Columbus sessions). Song writers are in parenthesis. These song titles were given to Marty by Steve Lang who was the tape librarian for Warner Brothers. Other unreleased songs from the same article provided to Marty by Robert S. Hyde include: C.C. Rider (for the Jubilee label), and for Warner Brothers: Hard Way Down, Funny How I see You, One Too Many Mornings, Where Can I Go, Stay Up There, My Friend Jim, A Gentle Foe, Buddy Can You Spare The Time, Cowboy Song, The First Sound, Once Upon A Wheel, and additional versions of Movin' and Silver Mornin'.

 

Thanks! I hope some of these appear in the “surprise” project Now Sounds is planning.

 

I suppose to be complete I should list this, it is from April 26, 2005. I'd much rather burn my own DVD of the 1983 performances.