The Turtles – Present The Battle of The Bands (1968)

A secret pleasure of mine has always been the perfect ‘pop song’ and few have been able to match the brilliance of this band who were far bigger in America than here; in fact in ’68 they outsold The Beatles over there.  They ran into legal problems in 1970 and were forbidden to release music under their own or the band’s name.  Lead singers Mark Kaylan and Howard Volman became Flo and Eddie and joined Zappa’s Mothers for a couple of years before releasing a handful of great albums as the duo.  This album by the group, not their first – but hey, is I think their best.  It is a pastiche of talent contests and the band play all the songs in different styles and by different groups.  Not really a concept album but a great idea.  As well as the big hit ‘Elenore’ my favourites are ‘Food’, ‘You Showed Me’ and ‘Oh, Daddy’.  Playing this record always makes me happy – which is always worth doing.